Saturday Auditions! Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You

Christopher Durang’s hilarious and dark comedy auditions on Saturday from 10am at the Saint Bride’s Institute. There are a further six roles on offer including the amazing Sister Mary Ignatius herself, an amazing opportunity and showcase for a female actor mid 40s+! If you’ve ever wanted to play a tyrant Nun, this is the hour!!!

Other roles detailed below.

Also, don’t worry if you missed out on this week’s auditions for A Number, F**kArt and Conference Call. The directors of those shows will be around from 12 pm if you would like to audition for them as well and did not have the chance this week! They are more than willing to see you!

Those Sister Mary roles in full then:
Sister Mary Ignatius – (mid 40s to mid 60s ish) intense and powerful presence, very sincere in her faith. Has no doubt.
Thomas – (7 years old) a current star student of the Sister. Parrots catechism with eerie innocence.
Gary Sullavan – ex student of the sister. Gay and practising Catholic, emotionally mature.
Diane Symonds – ex student of the sister. Serious, plain-spoken, distant and disaffected, disguising deep hurt. Has given up her faith.
Philomena Rostovich – ex student of the sister. Sweet, nervous, and shy. Vulnerable. Still Catholic.
Aloysius Busiccio – ex student of the sister. Blunt. Depressed alcoholic. Still Catholic.

Summer Season Auditions – Final Call!

Tonight is the final opportunity to audition for three of our four one-act plays which will be forming our Summer Season. Do come along from 6.30pm if you want the chance to get involved in this exciting project.

A Number, F**kArt and Conference Call:

6.30pm Wednesday 16 May, St Brides Institute, Bride Lane, Fleet Street, EC4Y 8EQ

Auditions for Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You are this Saturday at 10am, again at St Brides.

Pitches Needed for KDC’s Winter Warmer Season!

We may well be about to launch our Summer Sizzler Season, but we are also looking ahead to warming our cockles in Winter 2012. We will be at the Lion and Unicorn in Kentish Town for the last 2 weeks in November and are looking for lighthearted and comedic plays to end the year on.

The only things that we would ask are that the plays have plenty of roles for our actors to throw themselves at (say, around 8 or more, but we are open) and that our strongest demographic, young female actors, are not relegated to the odd word in the background. The more equally divided the roles, the better!

If you have a show to pitch or would like to get your mind moving on it all, please could you get in contact with Emma Knott, Artistic Director at [email protected] BEFORE the 25th May so that we can get the ball rolling!

We look forward to hearing from you

Summer Season – Get Involved

We are looking for Assistant Directors and Producers to help out on our shows this season.  If you want to direct in the future, this is an excellent way to get started with KDC.  Contact Emma Knott, Artistic Director at [email protected].

Auditions for the One-Act Summer Season 2012 are at the St Brides Institute, Bride Lane, Fleet Street EC4Y 8EQ.  For their website and a map visit our venues page.  See the Summer Season page for details of all the shows.

A Number, F**kArt and Conference Call:

6.30pm Monday 14th May: surnames A-K
6.30pm Tuesday 15th May: surnames L-R
6.30pm Wednesday 16th May: surnames S-Z

Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You:

10am Saturday 19th May: everyone

Recalls for all 4 plays: midday–4pm Saturday 19th May. These are by invitation only and are also at the St Brides Institute.

It’s free to audition and you can audition for as many plays as you want though you can only be in one.

Rehearsals start the week commencing 21 May.

Dracula auditions will be in early June. If you are cast in one of the summer plays you’ll still be able to audition. Keep your eyes on the website for all the details.

A Number Characters

There are no stage directions and the script is very stylized. The younger actor will need to be able to play multiple roles. It is written as a play for two male actors but I would be interested to see female actors read for the younger role. For me this is a play about identity and what it means to be defined and the definite article.

Characters:

  • Bernard 1/Bernard 2 – Two different reflections of the same person, one scared and uncertain, the other threatening and angry (Male/Female, 20s-mid 30s)
  • Salter – Father of Bernard. Devoted to his son, but with a lot of shadows in his past and a selfish side in his nature. (Male, late 30s plus)

F**kArt Characters

Characters:

  • Simon/Frank:  two confident yet opposing characters played by one actor. Simon is the disapproving but clever agent, Frank is the wild, provocative, sex-obsessed artist (male, 20-30s).
  • Eric: Frank’s brother who poses as his agent; a shy, nervous man who is easily led by Simon and Frank (male, 20s).
  • Nadia: the Saatchi gallery buyer, a frustrated business woman who is desperate to be part of the artist’s world in any way (female, 20-30s)
  • Electra/prostitute: tasked with occupying the artist during the Saatchi visit and assisting with his artistic output, confident and unashamed (female, 20-30s)

Conference Call

Conference Call

In Conference Call all three doctors and Martin Mills remain on stage throughout the entire performance. The play is based around an abstract phone call in the protagonists’ thoughts, and looks profoundly at the psychological responses of our minds when we suffer a tragedy. It looks into the different ways our minds may handle the grief post trauma.

Martin Mills is a risk-taking, city banker, who has developed severe mental blockages, brought on by an extremely painful life event. Through this he has lost all memory of his life and identity. Martin’s last memory was chasing a female ghost around a cemetery reciting the Lord’s Prayer backwards, whilst performing a disturbing religious ceremony. He is aware that his mind has closed down completely.

Conference Call, is just that, a long metaphorical conference call within Martin Mills’ mind, between the thinker (Martin) and three doctors, (the committee in his mind) who represent fetchers and carriers of memories in his consciousness, all fighting against the thinker in his internal dialogue. The doctors fail to agree at times, causing a division and psychological problems; all three and the thinker conspire together finding undesirable things in the memory. Certain unleashed memories cause uproar, and Martin’s mind goes on strike so he is unable to remember what happened to his missing wife.

 

Conference Call Characters

Characters

  • Martin Mills (male, 35-45) – Suave and stylish. Initially we slightly dislike his arrogant demeanour, but as his ego is broken down, he is brought to his knees, which softens his edges.
  • Doctor Rye (female 30-40) – A caring, gentle person, like a key-worker in society.
  • Doctor Walmer (female, 30-40) – A formal, factual and strict character, rather like a lawyer or headmistress.
  • Doctor Deal (female, 25-35) – Slightly irresponsible, antagonising and less empathetic. Rather like a well-educated University graduate intern, fumbling and clumsy in her first appointment.
  • Martin Mills’ wife (female, 25-late 30’s) – A woman with a kind face and an alluring presence

Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You

Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You

Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You is a savage dark comedy, exploring the absurdity of religious fanaticism unmitigated by compassion. Sister Mary, assisted by her current star pupil, 7-year-old Thomas, impatiently explains the ‘rules’ of life as dictated by Catholic dogma and catechism to the audience, and the dire consequences should these rules be flouted. She is interrupted by 4 of her former students, who present a silly version of the nativity play written by one of the sister’s best students. After their play, we soon discover each has been deeply wounded by the sister’s fanatically strict teaching. This confrontation builds in emotion and tension before exploding in an absurd, nihilistic, and unsettling dénouement. The play is viciously satirical, but also troubling, the audience should be laughing out loud but also slightly appalled that they are.

Sister Mary Ignatius… Characters

Ideally, Sister Mary would appear believably older than her ex-students, and I would prefer to cast a child actor as Thomas (female or male), but I am not tied to a particular age for the actors, please don’t let an age discrepancy stop you for auditioning for any particular role.

Characters

  • Sister Mary Ignatius – (mid 40s to mid 60s ish) intense and powerful presence, very sincere in her faith. Has no doubt.
  • Thomas – (7) a current star student of the Sister. Parrots catechism with eerie innocence.
  • Gary Sullavan – (late 20s – early 30s) – ex student of the sister. Gay and practising Catholic, emotionally mature.
  • Diane Symonds – (late 20s – early 30s) – ex student of the sister. Serious, plain-spoken, distant and disaffected, disguising deep hurt. Has given up her faith.
  • Philomena Rostovich – (late 20s – early 30s) – ex student of the sister. Sweet, nervous, and shy. Vulnerable. Still Catholic.
  • Aloysius Busiccio – (late 20s – early 30s) – ex student of the sister. Blunt. Depressed alcoholic. Still Catholic.