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2: What We Are Looking For

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FORMAT

  • The audition will be held virtually.
  • Booked time slots are at 10-minute intervals.
  • See the next section for audition dates.

ACCENTS, ACCENTS, ACCENTS

We are looking for all the accents! Since it's a classic novel that takes place in England, we need every actor to come with a solid British accent (educated and upper class). Some actors will be playing multiple roles, so let us know what other accents you can do, and what you can do with your voice to distinguish between different characters. We are also looking for strong accents in lower-class cockney, American Southern, any other UK accent (Irish, Scottish, etc), German, Russian, Dutch, or anything sounding Eastern European where English is a second language. Keep in mind that we need these accents to be realistic, clear, and also evocative.

PREPARATION

  • Select sides from the downloadable list of PDFs below.
  • Please look over the pre-arranged sides ahead of time and be comfortable with the language.
  • There is no expectation of memorizing anything for the auditions, rehearsals, or performances. 
  • We want to hear how well you:
    • Do accents
    • Emote with accents
    • Work with some difficult sentences and sentence structure.

CHARACTER BREAKDOWN

  • M1 - Middle class, educated, insular, a little nerdy, in over his head.
  • M2 - Resolute, scientific and methodical.
  • M3 - Multiple roles including a highborn gentleman, an American soldier, and others.
  • M4 - Multiple roles for mature characters, including an foreign nobleman an eccentric professor and a crusty sea captain.
  • F1 - Middle class, educated, intelligent, forthright - a born leader.
  • F2 - Young lady, ingenue, comes across as silly but very sweet. Playing other female characters, as necessary, and needs to do well with different voices and accents.

AVAILABILITY

This is the summer; you want to have some time off! So do we! If you are cast, you can expect:

  • A virtual meeting to go over your character(s);
  • 1 or 2 virtual rehearsals a week to prepare for one episode of the Serialized Radio Play (depending on the role you get) starting in mid-August.
  • There will be some in-person rehearsals happening in Oakville at Queen Elizabeth Park Community Centre (QEP), but they will likely be bi-monthly and will start at the end of August.

Please let us know your schedule (i.e. unavailability such as vacation, etc. especially in August, or September) when you book your audition slot so that we can get a jump on scheduling.

ANYTHING ELSE

Why yes! Because the text is over 125 years old, there are some weird turns of phrase, archaic views of men and women, and very long speeches. If you are fine with laughing about any of those things - and we won't blame you if you are not - then please audition! Otherwise, we've made minor edits to the more egregious issues but will be keeping to the spirit of the original novel.

AFTER THE AUDITION

  • Once you are offered a part, you will be provided with more details of the radio play before you wish to accept.
  • Callbacks (if any) will also be conducted virtually.