Announcing the autumn lockdown season - & auditions!

We are delighted to announce the lineup, and launch the open auditions for our lockdown season. 
Working with four teams and three external writers. 

The lineup will be: 
 
Snow, by Ashley Griffin (PARTIAL CASTING OPEN)
Exploring the power and importance of storytelling, Snow (a new play by Ashley Griffin, creator of the pop culture phenomenon Forever Deadward, and the first person ever nominated for a major award for both playing and directing Hamlet,) follows three disparate storylines that all revolve around the fairy tale Snow White. Utilizing a structure similar to Cloud Atlas and The Hours, six actors playing multiple roles tell the stories of the Grimm Brothers (who originally collected and published the classic fairy tale), the Campbells (a Victorian theatrical family whose lives begin to mirror Snow White), and modern day Astrid (a young woman who, after her abusive mother puts her in a coma, must decide whether or not to wake up). Incorporating aspects of American Gods, and classic storytelling techniques a la Peter and the Starcatcher, Snow is a dark and moving play that mines our storytelling traditions both in style and subject matter. 

The Lost Girl by Germaine Shames
Based on the eponymous novel by D.H. Lawrence.  
Alvina Houghton, the headstrong daughter of a widowed Midlands draper, comes of age just as her father’s business is failing. In a desperate attempt to regain his fortune and secure his daughter’s proper place in society, James Houghton buys a theatre. Among the travelling performers he employs is Ciccio, a sensual Italian who immediately captures Alvina’s attention. A celebration of freedom, however fleeting, and a testament to the power of the imagination to transform even the most mundane life.  The script has been vetted by international D.H. Lawrence scholar, Catherine Brown. Jessica Levinson Young, Artistic Director of Untold Theatre, writes, “I absolutely loved this script for The Lost Girl. It has incredible pace and the dialogue simply leaps off the page!" Another of her D.H. Lawrence adaptations, THE VIRGIN and the GYPSY, received a reading at the 2018 Festival of New American Theatre.

Sir Walters Women, by Rachel O'Neill
This is a one-act drama about the life of Sir Walter Raleigh as he manoeuvres his status as a favourite of Elizabeth I to satisfy his political ambitions. Into the Court arrives Bess Throckmorton. They fall in love and marry in secret, to the great and lasting displeasure of the Queen. The Queen dies and the envious James I comes to power and the play ends with Sir Walter's incarceration, trial and execution

The Taming of the Shew, by William Shakespeare  (CLOSED FOR CASTING)
Three actors, performing the uncut show, combining digital media with performance, to create an all-new "artform". This drama is one of the great comedy plays by William Shakespeare. The play starts with the Induction where a trick is played by a nobleman on the drunkard Christopher Sly who arranges for an acting troupe to perform a play called The Taming of the Shrew.
The beautiful and gentle Bianca has no shortage of admirers (Lucentio, Gremio and Hortensio) but her father insists that she will not marry until her shrewish sister, Katharina, is betrothed. Bianca's suitors persuade fortune-seeker Petruchio to court her. The suitors pay for any costs involved and there is also the goal of Katharina's dowry. Petruchio marries Katharina and he carries Katharina off to his country house with his servant Grumio. Petruchio intends to browbeat Katharina into submission and he denies her food, sleep and her new clothes, whilst continuously singing her praises. Katharina is tamed. They return to Padua where Lucentio has won Bianca. At a banquet they wager on who has the most obedient wife. Each wife is issued with commands but only Katharina obeys. 



Snow, The Lost Girl, and Sir Walter's Women, are all open for audition, with a wonderful range of roles available. Please visit our "auditions" page and scroll to the Virtual Season section, for the audition pack which gives full breakdowns for each play. 

Our “virtual autumn season” is a response to the Covid19 restrictions on performing venue-based theatre. While we hope very much to return to normal theatre performance by early 2021, in line with the current government guidance, we feel it very important to keep working and creating in the interim.
For the time being therefore, we have moved into cyberspace, with our actors and crew joining us on screen from their home studios; rehearsing and performing over Zoom, and then streaming the performances to a paywalled online space, where audiences all over the world can access the performance, and the cast & crew can earn equal shares of whatever is made from the online performances ticket sales.
These are performed plays, not just a “scriptreading”, therefore we will be expecting all cast and crew to treat it as a full performance, with well-developed characterisation and line-learning. Working to sound and lighting cues, eyelines and “cross zoom” choreography/ interaction will also be necessary.
Cast requirements - We have a full range of roles for male and female actors aged from 18 up to 70+ . Cast and crew should be familiar with how to use Zoom, inclusive of how to use supplied digital backdrops, mute and unmuting microphones/ video, and have a quiet space at home with a plain wall (or sheet hung up etc) to work with the digital backdrops, and able to follow tech cues and direction promptly and confidently.
Because these are digital performances, actors can be based anywhere in the world to work with us, with the understanding that the shows and rehearsals will be working to UK timezones.  With short turnarounds, these projects are unlikley to be suitable for beginner actors. 

How to watch - Broadcasts of the plays will be ticketed events, via a link to a hidden area of our .com website, provided to ticket buyers at the time of ticket purchase. Tickets will be sold via our website box office, linked to our ticketsource account.
Payment  - Profitshare.  All cast, crew and writers, will each receive an equal share of profits from the ticket sales for their project, and box office sales reports from ticketsource will be made available after the event, in the Facebook cast and crew group, for perusal. We usually provide clips to cast for showreels and demo reels when our scripts are inhouse or Shakespeare; in this case it will also be down to permission by the authors, as the script and dialogue is their intellectual property. 

How to apply- Visit our auditions page, and scroll down to the castings for "Virtual Season", and download the audition pack.  Read the play breakdowns, and contact us on [email protected] for the audition sides and audition form, stating the play and the character for whom you require the sides. Please ensure that you submit your selftape by the audition deadline for that project. Castings will be decided within a week of that deadline. In the selftape, we will be looking for strong characterisation and focus, with confident and positive acting. 

ALL INFORMATION ON HOW WE CAST, HOW PAYMENT IS MADE, ETC, IS AT OUR AUDITIONS PAGE