Grads EdFringe Auditions
Two shows for #EdFringe 2016
The Grads have announced open auditions for their fringe 2016 productions of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Neil LaBute’s In A Forest, Dark and Deep.
Both productions will run for six nights, Monday 8 to Saturday 13 August 2016. Auditions will be at the Grads’ offices on Buccleuch Place on Wednesday April 20, from 7.30pm, and on Saturday April 24, from 2pm.
The Dream will be directed by Claire Wood and will be the company’s early show, starting at 6.30pm and running an hour and 45 minutes. David Grimes will direct LaBute’s dark two-hander as the late show, starting at 9pm.
Wood will be using a full casting of 21 for her Dream, with opportunities across all ages. The fairies Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth and Mustardseed could be children, the four lovers should have playing ages of under 30, the Royal Athenians and Fairies need to be older and the Mechanicals could be of any age.
According to the audition notes the concept for this production is to set it in Titania’s exclusive jazz club, where the in-house band are one of the best. The era will be the 1930s, caught between the tail-end of the Great Depression and an incoming time of austerity.
Fascism was rising in Europe, jazz was creeping in, and night clubs were an eclectic melting pot of musicians, singers, people with too much money (and too much to lose) and people with nothing to lose who hoped they might make it.
Dark and Deep
Neil LaBute’s In A Forest, Dark and Deep opened in London in 2011 to mixed reviews. Set on a dark and stormy night, it features Betty, a married, successful dean of the local college, who has called upon her resentful, blue-collar brother, Bobby, to help her close up her isolated cabin in the woods.
As they pack up piles of books left behind by a student tenant, Betty and Bobby bicker and quarrel, picking over the scabs of old wounds and decades of sibling rivalry. But when Bobby accidentally discovers an incriminating picture of Betty with the student, revelations begin tumbling out.
As the forest setting for Betty’s cabin is on the outskirts of a small town in the US, a neutral US accent will be required for both of the characters. The playing ages of the two characters is “over 35” at the very least – with Betty a couple of years Bobby’s senior.
Audition schedule
Regarding the audition schedule Claire Wood told Æ: “You just need to turn up. There will be some waiting around, I’m afraid, as it’s useful to be able to match different groups of people together. We can schedule separate meetings if the audition dates are tricky.”
Rehearsals for both shows will be held three times a week. They are anticipated to be on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday afternoons for A Midsummer Night’s Dream; and Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday evenings for In a Forest, Dark and Deep. Although with the small cast of the LaBute, the rehearsal schedule is more open to negotiation.
Further details of the auditions and the key concepts behind the productions are available on the auditions event facebook page and Grads website: details below.
Listings and details
Open auditions for A Midsummer Night’s Dream and In a Forest, Dark and Deep
Offices of The Grads, 18 Buccleuch Place, EH8 9LN
Wednesday April 20 2016, from 7.30pm; Saturday April 24 2016, from 2pm.
Further details on the auditions Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1539557536346373/
For more information and to request audition sides, email the directors: Claire Wood at cmfwood@hotmail.com or David Grimes at davidegrimes@virginmedia.com.
The Grads website: http://egtg.co.uk/
The Grads Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/edingrads/
ENDS
