Theater 29 has set open auditions for the second in their “Original Play” series featuring plays written by local playwrights. “Actress”, by Twentynine Palms Resident Josh Lazar, will run for a limited two weekend run August 3, 4, 5, and 10, 11, 12, 2012.
The Sparks fly when a small town judge and his wife’s youngest “prodigal” daughter runs away to become an actress in Hollywood and returns 10 years later to star in the town theatre’s production of the same play her talented older sister- now a farmer’s wife- starred in her senior year in high school. Old wounds resurface, rivalries ignite, and each character must come to terms with the truth of their own past before the curtain descends.
“Actress” was developed at the Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York, won the Connecticut Playwrights Festival, and was produced at the Church Street Theatre at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. “Actress” explores the costs of pursuing our dreams- and the regrets that come with not having done so- and the magical but difficult road to becoming…. an “Actress”. The setting of the play is a small town in Minnesota.
Auditions will be held Saturday, June 9th from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 pm at the Theatre 29 facility at 73637 Sullivan Road, (around the corner from Barr Lumber) in the City of Twentynine Palms. Actors should bring a resume limited to acting experience and a photograph or headshot. Actors should be prepared to read any of the available slides for the character they wish to audition for; actors may (but are not required to) bring additional material from another play, or a monologue, to read. Callbacks, if any, will be held Sunday, June 10th, or Monday, June 11th, at another location. The cast will be announced no later than Monday, June 11th
Anyone wishing to audition who cannot make the June 9th audition date may contact Josh Lazar at YASHKAJL@YAHOO.COM or call him at 714 661 3794.
ACTRESS will run for six performances on Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday Matinees on August 3, 4 and 5, and 10, 11 and 12. Rehearsals will generally be held Monday through Thursday evenings from 6:00 pm until 9:00 pm (although times and dates may vary after rehearsal begins) from Tuesday, June 12, 2012 until opening. Anyone interested in working backstage, stage construction, painting, lighting, sound, costumes, or props are requested to come to the June 9th audition.
CAST
REGINA (YOUNGER SISTER) (age 25-35) Character traits: Vulnerable, sensitive, grows up in the shadow of Bell, but ultimately tough and passionate enough to succeed as an actress.
BELL (OLDER SISTER) (age 25-35) Character traits: A “country girl” married to a farmer, unsophisticated, comfortable with her family life…but a domineering and jealous older sister who must always hold “center stage”. Regina’s return forces her to confront herself and ask: why did she give up her dream?
JIM (BELL’S HUSBAND) (age 30-40) Character traits: A “country boy”. Easy going, sociable, effusive, he sees life through a simple, clear lens, and his wife’s sudden transformation into a bitter woman obsessed with regret baffles him.
HEDDA (age 50-60) Character traits: A stay at home wife married to a domineering
husband, she is the rock of the family which she lost when Regina ran away
ten years ago. Constantly “chatty” to hide her nervousness, always trying to
put out the brushfires that start when Regina returns, she remains focused
throughout the play on one thing: to get her family back.
GENE (HEDDA’S HUSBAND) (age 50-60) Character traits: The local town judge, gruff, domineering at home, no feminine side to speak of. He has a great relationship with Bell and Jim, but he was humiliated when Regina ran away ten years ago, and he’s not
throwing down the welcome mat when she returns. His saving grace is that he
is very much in love with his wife- and she knows it.
Theatre 29 is an all-volunteer community theater overseen by an elected
Volunteer Board of Directors.
