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Season auditions

Department of Theater and Dance

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Have you ever dreamed of being on stage? Now is your chance! The Department of Theatre and Dance will be presenting three theatre productions this fall — Silent Sky by Lauren Gunderson, Steel Magnolias by Robert Harling, and Shoeless Joe: A Musical Cabaret — and you're invited to be a part of them.

Silent Sky & Steel Magnolias

General Auditions for Silent Sky and Steel Magnolias will be held on Wednesday, August 24, 6 pm - 9 pm in Poorman Black Box Theater, located in Climenhaga Building. Callbacks will be held on Thursday, August 25, 5pm - 9pm. An audition sign-up sheet and character descriptions will be posted starting August 19 on the callboard in the Theatre Hallway of lower-level Climenhaga.
 
AUDITION Requirements
Those planning to audition should prepare the following.
       1 minute monologue (comedic or dramatic) in a southern dialect.
       1 minute contemporary dramatic monologue.
 

Shoeless Joe: A Musical Cabaret

General Auditions for Shoeless Joe: A Musical Cabaret will be held on Wednesday, August 24, 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm in Miller Theater, located in Climenhaga Building. Callbacks will be held on Thursday, August 25, 5 pm - 9 pm. An audition sign-up sheet will be posted starting August 19 on the callboard in the Theatre Hallway of lower-level Climenhaga.
 
AUDITION Requirements
Those planning to audition should prepare the following.

Two 32 bar cuts of contrasting styles. At least one audition cut must be musical theatre. Students must supply printed sheet music in a 3-ring binder format for accompanist. Be prepared to perform any portion of your songs memorized as a call back. 32 bar cuts from any of the following shows are appreciated but not required: Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder, Cabin in the Sky, She Loves Me, Ragtime, Parade, Hadestown, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Saturday Night.  

Silent Sky

Written by: Lauren Gunderson
Directed by:  Daniel Inouye
Poorman Blackbox Theater
Oct. 6-8 at 8 p.m.; Oct. 9 at 3 p.m.

The true story of 19th-century astronomer Henrietta Leavitt explores a woman’s place in society during a time of immense scientific discoveries, when women’s ideas were dismissed until men claimed credit for them. Social progress, like scientific progress, can be hard to see when one is trapped among earthly complications; Henrietta Leavitt and her female peers believe in both, and their dedication changed the way we understand both the heavens and Earth.

Steel Magnolias

Written by: Robert Harling
Directed by: Elizabeth Angelozzi
Miller Theater
Nov. 10-12, 18-19 at 8 p.m.; Nov. 13 & 20 at 3 p.m.
Nov. 17, 10:00 a.m. special school performance

The action is set in Truvy’s beauty salon in Chinquapin, Louisiana, where all the ladies who are “anybody” come to have their hair done. Filled with hilarious repartee and not a few acerbic but humorously revealing verbal collisions, the play moves toward tragedy when, in the second act, the spunky Shelby (who is a diabetic) risks pregnancy and places her life in jeopardy. The sudden realization of their mortality affects the others, but also draws on the underlying strength—and love—which give the play, and its characters, the special quality to make them truly touching, funny and marvelously amiable company in good times and bad.

Shoeless Joe: A Musical Cabaret

Directed by Susan Hurley
Oct. 29 at 8:00 p.m. Oct. 30 at 3:00 p.m.
Poorman Blackbox Theatre

A new cabaret every time! Uniquely built for each new cast.

Theatre Dance

Casting is open to all members of the academic community. Occasionally, guest actors will be employed. Any Messiah University student enrolled and in good academic standing as defined by the statement on satisfactory academic process in the student handbook is encourage to audition.
The Department of Theatre & Dance follows an Inclusive Casting Policy which means that casting is open to all actors regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, disability, or age. Exceptions to the Inclusive Casting Policy may be taken when specified by the director's production concept. An exception to the Inclusive Casting Policy must be made when the dramatist's stage directions regarding race, ethnicity, gender, disability, or age are both explicit and protected by the license to produce the play.
Theatre majors who have declared the acting emphasis are required to audition for all department productions. Specific details about semester auditions are posted in the Climenhaga Building Theatre Hallway on the call board.

 

For any questions, please email the Department Chair at dinouye@messiah.edu.