Arizona Theatre Company Announces Local Auditions for 2020-21 Season

Due to the current Coronavirus and the need to take safety precautions, Arizona Theatre Company (ATC) is holding this year’s auditions through video submissions only.

Arizona Theatre Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to non-traditional and multi-cultural casting. Artists of all ethnicities, genders, and abilities are encouraged to audition. 

ATC will accept submissions per-city as follows:

TUCSON area auditions

If you are a performer that would have requested an in-person audition in Tucson, you will have from Saturday, August 1 – Friday, August 7 to submit your audition, fill out and upload your video using this form. No submissions will be accepted outside of these dates.

PHOENIX area auditions

If you are a performer that would have requested an in-person audition in Phoenix, you will have from Saturday, August 8– Friday, August 14 to submit your audition, fill out and upload your video using this form. No submissions will be accepted outside of these dates.

Additional Audition Submission Requirements:

-  Upload audition video into online forms that are linked above

-  Prepare one monologue and one song, or two contrasting monologues totaling no more than three minutes combined. 

o   The three minutes begins with the first word of your first piece

- Formatting

o   Please record/export in an mp4 or mov format

o   Please record both selections in a single tape, as though you are in the room with us.

-  Please attach a current headshot and resume to your email submission

Auditions are limited to actors above the age of 18. 

If necessary, callbacks for specific productions will be held at later dates throughout the season.

Artists of all ethnicities, genders, and abilities are encouraged to audition. 

ATC will consider actors for the following productions and roles:

Pru Payne by Steven Drukman *World Premiere

Spring 2021 (5 Principles)

PRU PAYNE, late 60s   Public Intellectual, good breeding. Exacting, charming, charismatic, intimidating. A WASP and, at times, waspish. 

THOMAS PAYNE, early 30s  Budding novelist, smart, reticent, sensitive. Shares his mother’s measured (if not patrician) manner of speaking. Casting note: he is ½ African-American. 

GUS CUDAHY, late 60s   Custodial Engineer, thick Massachusetts accent. Prideful, jocular, handy, unschooled, intuitive. Laconic New Englander but jovial.

ART CUDAHY, early 30s   Chip off the ol’ block, same accent.  Tough jock-type but lovable with a latent poetic side. 

THE DOCTOR, 40. Aims for scientific detachment but has an emotional intelligence that makes them well-rounded. Casting Note: Any race/gender.

Nina Simone: Four Women; a Play with Music by Christina Hamm

Spring 2021 (5 Principles)

NINA SIMONE (30)

A.K.A. “Peaches”. Timeless. A woman of dark skin and temperament that cloaks wounds both present and historical. Bach and the Blues infuse her life. She is a tornado…of vulnerability. Complexity is her complexion and resistance and rebellion her anthem. She should boast the agility of improvisation on the keys and the polyvocality of a herald. She should be able to hear a song only once and be able to not only perform it, but to lift the song to another level of being. She lives hard and loves the same. She has a high school education, but possesses well-rounded music training both self-taught and by private music teachers. Whatever her mood swings they should never be so pronounced to upstage her accomplishments. She should possess the attributes of a modern-day prophet.

SARAH (40s)

A.K.A. “Auntie”. Also of dark skin. Her hands are rough. Molded from years of working in the white folks home since she was yea high. Groomed to put others before herself. This type of welding has created the invisible woman that she has become. Her smile is inviting never letting on that trouble lives on her horizon. Her dark skin has determined how she will be treated by the outside world. Her life has been defined by black and its volatile relationship to white. She has a remedial education at best as she comes from a large family where everyone had to work and carry their weight. She possesses the tender shoulder you can cry on and a honeysuckled voice of pain. She doesn’t sing the blues, but has lived it.

SEPHRONIA (30s-40s)

Her skin is yellow. She is of a softer disposition because that is what her hair type and skin color warrant. She’s never been dark enough to cause offense, but she’s just light enough to offend herself at times. She’s the painful reminder that she is a child of violence. She’s not light enough to be white nor dark enough to be black leading to an inescapable purgatory. She’s joined the Civil Rights Movement hoping this will make her black enough and create an acceptance. Her mother doesn’t understand her and her father’s disowned her. Her mother holds her accountable for why she wasn’t able to find a man of her own. She’s opened her heart to many men who’ve made her empty promises. She is a D minor key, the saddest of them all.

SWEET THING (Late 20s)

Her skin is tan. She’s enticing whether she wants to be or whether she’s paid to be. She’s been tossed to and fro by life and the blows that its delivered by the men that have come and gone from her life. She’s lived on the streets for quite some time and been in and out of trouble most of her life. She’s a pistol, but has still never gotten what she really wants—love. She is the kind of woman that will steal your man when you’re not looking. Her looks have been the bane of her existence since she was a little girl.

SAM WAYMON (20s)

Nina’s younger brother. Plays piano, Hammond B-3 Organ, and tambourine. Stays out of her way.

WOMEN IN JEOPARDY by Wendy MacLeod 

Summer 2021 (6 principals - considering understudies only)

MARY- 40’s, divorced, a librarian, “still” pretty, motherly

JO- 40’s, divorced, her best friend, a publicist, sardonic

LIZ- 40’s divorced, Mary’s other best friend, boy-crazy, a bit of a drama queen

AMANDA- 19, Liz’s daughter, an exceptionally pretty college student who’s SAT’s were in the single digits (the exceptional breasts can be accomplished by costume)

TRENNER- 19, a snowboarder, sweet but not too bright

JACKSON- 40’s, a dentist, Liz’s new boyfriend, creepy, given to strange pronouncements about death and disease, he may or may not look like Christopher Walken or another appropriately creepy celebrity)

SGT. KIRK SPONSÜLLAR (SAME ACTOR AS JACKSON)- 40’s, a police sergeant, a John Wayne type, courtly, a man of few or entirely obfuscated words 

how to make an American Son by christopher oscar peña

Summer 2021 (6 Principles)

mando: Honduran immigrant in his late forties / early fifties “the father”

orlando: American born Honduran – reeks of privilege “the son”

mercedes: American born Mexican woman in her thirties “the help”

rafael: a newly arrived Mexican immigrant “the refugee”

sean: American born white boy who thinks he’s hot shit “the dream”

dick: straight white guy in his early forties “the enemy”

THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA McBRIDE  

Fall 2021(5 principals – considering understudies only)

CASEY– 20’s, white, becomes a drag queen

JO– 20’s, Black, Casey’s girlfriend

MISS TRACY MILLS– 40’s/50’s, any ethnicity, drag queen

REXY/JASON– 20’s/30’s, any ethnicity, drag queen

EDDIE– 50’s/60’s, any ethnicity, bar manager

Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley by Lauren Gunderson

Fall 2021 (8 Principles)

MARY BENNET—20; any ethnicity. Finally coming in to her own, she is no longer the plain, boring girl she once was. She has a fire in her now. She is intelligent, curious, and lively, but her family only sees her as a future spinster. She does not suffer fools. She wants to live.

ARTHUR de BOURGH—25; any ethnicity. A studious, unsociable only child who has never been around women or large families. He is a loner who prefers books to people. He has recently inherited a large estate and has no idea what to do next.

ELIZABETH DARCY—22; any ethnicity, married to Mr. Darcy. Confident, charming, and witty. She makes a fun and surprising lady of the house. She is best friends with her sister Jane.

FITZWILLIAM DARCY—30; any ethnicity. A loving, generous, and smart (if slightly stiff) husband. He is quiet and vigilant and thus sees what others often miss. He knows what being lovelorn is like.

JANE BINGLEY—24, any ethnicity. Married to Mr. Bingley. She is seven months pregnant with her first child and is sweet and optimistic as ever. The kindest heart in the house.

CHARLES BINGLEY—25; any ethnicity. Gracious, happy, and ever focused on the love of his life, Jane. A good friend and always ready with a smile.

LYDIA WICKHAM—17; any ethnicity. Flirtatious, youthful, self-centered. Her marriage to Mr. Wickham is a sham but she will not admit this. She is the person you want to have at your party: energetic, engaging, unstoppable.

ANNE de BOURGH—20s; any ethnicity. Only daughter of the late Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Lived in her mother’s very large shadow, never having to ask for anything or speak for herself her entire life. Judgmental and impatient, just like her mother.

For more information about Arizona Theatre Company, visit www.arizonatheatre.org.