OPEN CALL AUDITIONS

for the upcoming World Premiere Musical
GULLS
Book and lyrics by Nick Salamone

Music by Maury McIntyre
Produced by The Theatre @ Boston Court
Directed by Jessica Kubzansky
Musical Director: Greg Chun
Choreographer: Kitty MacNamee

This musical dares to update Chekhov's The Seagull to the cusp of the roiling, boiling '60s. Moving fluidly between Greenwich Village, San Francisco, and Hollywood, this free adaptation is rich with Chekhovian yearning, misadventure, illicit passion and heartbreak.

The score is composed to suggest the period interpreted in a contemporary style. The music is influenced by sounds of the late 1950s -- from bebop and cool jazz to big band, from doo wop to classic torch songs, Broadway and movie musicals, etc.

OPEN CALL AUDITIONS
Monday, April 14, 2pm-5pm, 6pm-8pm.
Boston Court Performing Arts Center
70 N Mentor Ave, Pasadena, CA 91106
No phone calls please.

Rehearsals begin June 10, 2008
Performances July 17 – August 24, 2008
Thursdays – Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 2 pm
at Boston Court Performing Arts Center

Produced under AEA Los Angeles 99-Seat Plan:
$25 per performance and a one-time $300 rehearsal stipend.

OPEN CALL REQUIREMENTS:
Please prepare 16 bars each of an up-tempo and a ballad;
You may not be asked to sing both.  An accompanist will be provided.

Please also have a contemporary ONE-MINUTE monologue prepared;

You may or may not be asked to perform it.

Seeking:

NINA: (young 20s) African-American. Young, delightful, lovely, full of innocent passion and desire for Life, including acting, love, and adventures. A well-brought up, sheltered young woman, eager for experience, completely unprepared for how dark and broken she will become as a result of having lived, loved, and been exposed to the challenges of life and race from which she was previously sheltered. ALTO/MEZZO, strong singer.

CONRAD: (young 20s) Caucasian. Passionate, hotheaded, gonna-change-the-world radical who loves to get in people's faces--but might also get high or drunk if his mother hates the work he's doing. A beat poet, madly in love with Nina, a wide-eyed radical who is kicked by the events of the play. Yet still, somewhere, compassionate and refusing to lose his sense of optimism. TENOR, strong singer. CAST/UNDERSTUDY ONLY.

IRENIE BENNETT: (40s-50s) Caucasian. Charming, brilliant, clever except in love, a famous Broadway grand dame actress of a certain age now gone Hollywood, with a great deal of skill, ego, passion, and a wry sense of humor. Out for herself, but not incapable of sensitivity. Private pain. ALTO, strong singer.

GORE FITZWARREN: (mid-30s) Caucasian. Sexy, a man's man, world-weary writer of some talent, now been around the block a few times trying desperately not to be a second-rate hack, thirsty for innocent and uncomplicated admiration, capable of great brilliance and great folly. BARITONE, strong singer. CAST/UNDERSTUDY ONLY

NICKY: (45-65) Caucasian. A Navy man, thoughtful, private, tortured by secrets he is unable to disclose, such as the fact that he secretly loves men and has carried on affairs with them for years, and yet has felt compelled to stay with his wife through the years, restless, tormented by wanderlust yet tied by convention and love. BARITONE/BASS, strong singer.

ZELDA: (young 20s) Caucasian. Young, sassy, brash, tough, yet secretly vulnerable, she hides her heart under a huge amount of "screw you" to the establishment, a generous sense of humor, irony, and huge passion for bettering the world; she is madly, secretly in love with Nina, should be unconventional looking. ALTO, strong singer.

PAULETTE: (50s) Caucasian, with a Polish accent. A worrier, wise to the ways of the world, except when it's too painful, a sweet optimist who is very traditional and loves escapist fare, and yet a realist about everything except her own life. Her marriage is in trouble, but she just keeps on keeping on. She is innocently optimistic for her children's futures. ALTO, strong performer. CAST/UNDERSTUDY ONLY

MORRIS: (mid-20s) Caucasian. Conservative, convinced that his way is the right way, standing up for the moral values of the end of the '50s, completely unprepared for the 60s. Self-righteous, but somehow, buried underneath all that, sweetly vulnerable. TENOR, strong singer CAST/UNDERSTUDY ONLY

JACKSON: (40-60) African-American. A ghost. A gay ex-Navy man, for whom the difficulties of being Black, gay and in the Navy became too much to bear, fell into drug abuse when his lover refused to acknowledge him, and eventually threw himself off a roof. Seeking explanation, companionship on this journey he's been on, or redemption. BARITONE, strong performer.

Further inquiries should be addressed to Audition@BostonCourt.com