VUT History

Auditions for Margaret Edson’s WIT will occur Tuesday, January 8th, 7-9 pm and Wednesday, January 9th, 4-6pm in Neely Auditorium. You need only come to one of these sessions, although you are of course welcome to attend both. Callbacks, if necessary, are scheduled for Thursday, January 10th, 7-9pm.
If other activities, such as sorority rush, prevent you from coming to one of the audition times, please contact Jon (jon.w.hallquist@vanderbilt.edu) and hopefully other arrangements can be made.

Copies of the script are available to be checked out from Laura, the department’s administrative assistant, in Neely 107 from 8-2 pm. Be sure to read the text before auditions.

If you have completed Acting One, I expect you to prepare a monologue or a scene with a partner for your initial audition. Choose one of the monologues or scenes listed below and prepare a monologue or a short scene with your partner(s). After viewing your prepared monologue or scene, I will probably ask you to read another scene from the list below.

If you have not completed Acting One, you need not memorize and prepare a monologue or a scene in advance. If you don’t have a particular scene or partner in mind, you will be assigned one at the audition. I will expect, however, you to have read the play and be making specific choices when you present your initial scene.

Here are monologues and scenes from which you can choose:

Vivian monologues:
pp. 5-6; pp. 31-33; pp. 48-50; pp. 52-53; pp. 69-70

pp. 9-12 - Vivian and Kelekian
pp. 12-15 - Vivian and E.M. Ashford
pp. 38-40 - Kelekian, Jason, and Fellow (cut Vivian and one person do all of the fellows’ lines)
pp. 41-43 – Vivian and Mr. Bearing
pp. 54-58 – Vivian and Jason
pp. 59-61 – Vivian and Student (one person do both student 1 and 2)
pp. 64-69 – Vivian and Susie
pp. 70-72 – Vivian, Susie, and Kelekian
pp. 74-78 – Susie and Jason
pp. 78-80 – Vivian and E.M. Ashford

Performances are April 5,6,7,11,12, and 13. Make sure that you are available for these dates. Please bring a list of any conflicts that you might have to auditions so that you can enter them on your audition card. Please come ten or fifteen minutes earlier than 4 or 7 pm to give yourself time to fill out your audition card and sign up for crews.

There will be no nudity at the end of the play. I hope that the actress cast as Vivian will be willing to shave her head for the role.

Please feel free to contact Jon if you have any questions about the play or audition process.

Auditions for Bertolt Brecht’s GOOD PERSON OF SETZUAN will be held Tuesday, January 8th, 4-6 pm and Wednesday, January 9th, 7-9pm in Neely Auditorium. You need only come to one of these sessions, although you are of course welcome to attend both. Callbacks are scheduled for Thurs. Jan. 10, 4-6 pm.
If other activities, such as sorority rush, prevent you from coming to one of the audition times, please contact Stage Manager Allie O’Neil at allison.h.oneil@vanderbilt.edu and hopefully other arrangements can be made.

Copies of the script are available to be checked out from Laura, the department’s administrative assistant, in Neely 107 from 10-3 pm.
Be sure to read the text before auditions.

If you have completed Acting One, please prepare a monologue or a scene with a partner for your initial audition. You can choose any monologue that you think best showcases your abilities, but also please prepare something from either the script or some other Brecht play. (There are a number of songs in the play; if you’d like to take the lyrics of the song and perform it as a monologue, feel free to do so.)

If you’d like to choose something from the script, some options (both scenes and monologues) are listed below. After seeing your prepared monologue or scene, I may ask you to read another scene from the list below. Also, if you sing, please prepare a short piece that you can perform a capella. Several of the roles WILL require singing, but many of them do not—don’t be scared off by having to sing!

If you have not completed Acting One, you need not prepare a monologue or a scene in advance, but you will be asked to read something from the list below at the audition. If you don’t have a particular scene partner in mind, we will find you one at the audition. I will expect, however, you to have read the play and be making specific choices when you present your initial scene. Here are possible monologues and scenes from which you can choose, however, if you see something else in the play that you would like to use, you are welcome to do so:

ONE WOMAN, THREE MEN:
Shen Te and Gods, p. 13-15

ONE MAN, THREE MEN OR WOMEN:
Wang and Gods, p. 33-34

TWO WOMEN, ONE MAN:
Shui Ta, Landlady, Policeman, p. 47-50
Shen Te, Old Man, Old Woman p. 72-75

ONE MAN, ONE WOMAN:
Shen Te, Sun, p. 55-59
Shui Ta, Sun, p. 85-88
Shen Te, Sun, p. 102-103
Sun, Shen Te, p. 113-15

ONE MAN, ONE MAN OR WOMAN:
Wang, First God, p. 67-69

MONOLOGUES (WOMEN):
Shen Te, p. 71-72, 77-78, 93, 105-106, 181-182

MONLOGUES (MEN):
Shu Fu p. 126-127
Wang, p. 1-2
Wang, p. 122
Sun p. 158-159

Performances are Feb. 15, 16, 17 and Feb. 20, 21, and 22.
Make sure that you are available for these dates. Please bring a list of any conflicts that you might have to auditions so that you can enter them on your audition card. Please come ten or fifteen minutes earlier than 4 or 7 pm to give yourself time to fill out your audition card and sign up for crews.

Please feel free to contact Allie (allison.h.oneil@vanderbilt.edu) if you have any questions about the play or audition process. I look forward to your audition!

Class of 2016 Showcase: Thats Absurd!
A collection of one act plays about love and the absurdity of life. Plays include An Ongoing Examination of the True Meaning of Life by S. W. Senek, The Red Coat by John Patrick Shanley, and Finger Food by Nina Shengold

A playwright tries to tell a story about true love when things start to go wrong and the characters she is writing about take over the story and her life! A teenager hurriedly tries to tell his crush that he loves her and understands the meaning behind her red coat before they go into a party together. And a photographer has to work with a new model in a less than usual photo shoot while trying to keep professional and personal worlds separate.

Nov. 28 at 12:15 and 8 pm
Nov. 29 at 12:25 pm

September 27-29 @ 8 pm
September 29-30 @ 2 pm

When Jean answers a stranger's cell phone, she beings a series of adventures that immerse her in his life, his family, his loves, and his work. Written by MacArthur Award winner Sarah Ruhl, Dead Man's Cell Phone explores that which connects us in this digital age and offers a whimsical meditation on what it means to disconnect.

Production dates: November 2, 3, 4 & 8, 9, 10 Rehearsals will begin September 23rd (we will not rehearse during fall break)

TYPE OF AUDITION: Group auditions, with cold readings of selected scenes & speeches from the text (copies available at the audition) in addition to improvisational movement. See “additional notes” regarding music and dance below. Reading the play (or a synopsis of the play and characters) prior to auditions is highly recommended

WHEN: Arrive at least 15 minutes early to fill out an audition card and to warm up. You need attend only one of the audition times.
Wednesday August 22: 7 – 9 pm
Thursday August 23: 4 – 6 pm
Callbacks as needed, TBA

WHERE: Neely Auditorium (on Alumni Lawn)

AUDITION ATTIRE: Please wear form-fitting clothing (skirts or dresses for women). In all cases your clothing should facilitate (not hamper) movement; AVOID flip flops!

APPROACH TO THE PLAY
What does it take to forge a life of compatibility? Is anything needed besides animal attraction and money? Join the party of creativity by auditioning for VUT’s The Taming of the Shrew. We seek an ensemble of 17 (11 males and 6 females) to explore the action of “taming” in this famous Shakespearian comedy. “Get to the feast, revel and domineer. . . Be mad and merry!” Ultimately, your enthusiasm, physicality, and input will inspire the costume design of whimsically altered, embellished, and repurposed past fashions.

ADDITIONAL NOTES regarding MUSIC and DANCE:
Our approach to the play looks to incorporate elements of Latin-influenced music, improvisatory movement, and choreographed dance. We seek multi-talented actors who play instruments (possibly generating a portion of the music live) and/or the ability to dance and or move with finesse, although experience in dance is not required. A short dance piece will be taught at each audition session. A callback for musicians will be arranged after the initial auditions. Be sure to indicate your level of musical expertise on the audition card.

SCENES TO REVIEW BEFORE AUDITIONS
These scenes and/or monologues will be used in auditions:
II 1 – Kate and Bianca
II 1 – Gremio, Tranio (as Lucentio), Baptista – pp. 99 – 103
III 1 – Bianca, Lucentio, (as Cambio), Hortensio – pp. 109 – 111
IV 5 – Petruchio, Kate, and Vincentio
Petruchio’s speech IV 2 and Kate’s speech V 2

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Crew sign-ups will also be held during these times.

Auditions for Dead Man’s Cell Phone by Sarah Ruhl will be held in Neely Auditorium on Wed. Aug. 22 from 4-6 and Thurs. Aug. 23 from 7-9. Actors auditioning should come to one or the other of the auditions periods, but not both. Callbacks, should they be necessary, will be held on Fri. Aug. 24.

Dead Man’s Cell Phone is a contemporary dark comedy that explores what it means to be connected to (and disconnected from) others in this digital age. When Jean answers a stranger’s cell phone, she becomes immersed in his family, his marriage, his love affairs, and his work. Stylistically, the play is funny, poetic, and highly theatrical. For this production, I am looking for an ensemble of smart, collaborative actors who are interested in immersing themselves in Ruhl’s playful language, dark humor, and absorbing meditation on the possibility of real communication in our busy, buzzing, ringing, clanging, banging, noisy world.

For the auditions:
Read the play if humanly possible. While familiarity with the play is not absolutely required for the auditions, it will certainly help. You may check out a copy of it at the theatre department office in the lobby of Neely Auditorium. The play is also available as an ebook from the Vanderbilt University Library—it can be accessed through Acorn.

Actors will read from the script during the auditions. I will be asking you to read from some combination of the following scenes:
Act 1, scene 4 (Jean/Mrs. Gottlieb) beginning with Mrs. G’s, “Gordon—and I—had a falling out, you know—after that, he never returned my calls.”
Act 1, scene 6 (Jean) beginning with “You know what’s funny? I never had a cell phone.”
Act 1, scene 5 (Jean/Dwight) beginning with Dwight’s “Can I cut you some meat?”
Act 2, scene 5 (Gordon/Jean) beginning at the top of the scene.
Act 2, scene 1 (Gordon) beginning with “But that day—the day I died—I didn’t want to eat something that reminded me of body parts.”

Please wear clothing and shoes that you can move in. No flip-flops, please!

Bring a detailed list of conflicts that you have during the rehearsal period. Rehearsals for Dead Man’s Cell Phone will begin on the evening of Sun. Aug 26 and run Sunday-Friday nights, 7-10, until the show opens on Thurs. Sept. 27. If you are cast, I will work around the conflicts you list until tech week begins. Technical rehearsals will begin with an all day rehearsal on Sun. Sept. 23 and continue with dress rehearsals Monday-Wednesday of that week.

Please note that Rosh Hashanah (Sept. 17 and 18) falls during the rehearsal period of the play and that Yom Kippur (Sept. 26) falls on the final dress rehearsal of the play. Make sure that you note any conflicts that these religious holidays present for you on your audition cards

Performances of the play run Thursday-Sunday, Sept. 27-30 with evening performances Thurs., Fri., and Sat. and matinees on Sat. and Sun.

Please feel free to send me an email (leah.lowe@Vanderbilt.edu) or drop by my office (Neely Auditorium 201) if you have any questions about the auditions. I hope to see you there!

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Crew sign-ups are also during these times.

VUT kicks off the new school year with its annual Orientation and Ice Cream Social. Come by Neely for a chance to see the space, hear what we're all about, meet the students and faculty of VUT, and enjoy some ice cream!