All K-State students are welcome to audition.
Date: Monday, November 18
Time: 7:30 – 10:00 PM
Location: Chapman Theatre
Productions:
- OUR TOWN by Thornton Wilder
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- Director: Dr. Joelle Arp-Dunham
- THE GROWN-UPS by Simon Henriques and Skylar Fox
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- Director: McKenna Moten
Note: The Grown-Ups conflicts with the opera, and Our Town conflicts with Spring Dance.
Preparation Requirements:
- Sophomore and Higher Theatre Majors: Prepare a monologue (2 minutes max).
- Freshmen and Non-Majors: Selected readings will be provided at the audition.
- AUDITION SIGN UP HERE
Callback Information:
- OUR TOWN Callbacks:
Date: Tuesday, November 19
Time: 7:00 – 10:00 PM
Location: Chapman Theatre - For these callbacks, please prepare a 30-second silent pantomime of preparing and drinking a hot beverage.
- THE GROWN-UPS Callbacks:
Date: Wednesday, November 20
Time: 7:00 – 9:00 PM
Location: Purple Masque Theatre - Sides will be provided.
Monologue Coaching:
You may sign up for optional monologue coaching with Joelle on the afternoon of Friday, November 15 or Monday, November 19 if you wish. Sign up here: Monologue coaching (If all slots are filled, additional ones will open.) If you sign up, come!
OUR TOWN INFORMATION
One of the most enduring, popular American plays of all time, Thornton Wilder’s Our Town is a theatrical allegory that strips away the extraneous to focus on the essential of what it means to live. “The simplicity of the story, while regularly reminding us that it is a play, helps us examine and treasure our own lives,” says director, Teaching Assistant Professor Dr. Joelle Ré Arp-Dunham. “Experiencing Our Town’s profound power to affect an audience is what ushered me into a life of theatre and has been with me throughout my life. My hope is for our student theatre makers and our audiences to embrace their own stories.”
General Content Disclosure: alcoholism, self-harm, death, and grieving. All actors must become proficient at pantomime. Actors who play Emily, George and Rebecca may have to climb a ladder or other object of some height.
Performance Dates: April 24-27; May 1-4. Rehearsals will begin approximately Feb. 23 and generally be Sunday – Thursday evenings from 7-10 PM.
Our Town Character Breakdown
19 characters: 5F (female presenting), 4M (male presenting), 3A (any gender presentation). 12 actors will likely play all 19 roles as indicated below.
1: Stage Manager: (A) The host of the play and the dramatic equivalent of an omniscient narrator, moving the story along its action. Although referred to only as Stage Manager and not by a name, they occasionally assume other roles, such as an old woman, a druggist, and a minister. Interacting with both the world of the audience and the world of the play’s characters, they occupy a godlike position of authority.
2: Dr. Gibbs: (M) The town doctor. Dr. Gibbs is also a Civil War expert. His delivery of twins just before the play opens establishes the themes of birth, life, and daily activity. He and his family are neighbors to the Webbs, and he gently but firmly corrects George when needed. (Content Disclosure: he shares a chaste kiss with Mrs. Gibbs).
3: Mrs. Gibbs: (F) Dr. Gibbs’s wife. Mrs. Gibbs’s desire to visit Paris—a wish that is never fulfilled—suggests the importance of seizing the opportunities life presents, rather than waiting for things to happen. (Content Disclosure: she shares a chaste kiss with Dr. Gibbs; she is dead in Act. 3).
4: George Gibbs: (M) Dr. And Mrs. Gibbs’s son, 16 at the start of the play. An earnest, upstanding young man, George is a high school baseball star who plans to attend the State Agricultural School after high school. His courtship of Emily Webb and eventual marriage to her is central to the play’s limited narrative action. (Content Disclosure: simulated kiss with Emily on wedding day; must weep in front of Emily’s grave in Act 3.)
5: Rebecca Gibbs: (F) Dr. And Mrs. Gibbs’s daughter and George’s younger sister, 12 at the start of the play. Filled with wonder, her remarks about the location of Grover’s Corners in the universe articulate an important theme in the play.
6: Mrs. Webb: (F) Mr. Webb’s wife. At first a no-nonsense woman who does not cry on the morning of her daughter’s marriage, Mrs. Webb later shows her innocent and caring nature, worrying during the wedding that she has not taught her daughter enough about marriage.
7: Mr. Webb: (M) Mrs. Webb’s husband and the publisher and editor of the Grover’s Corners Sentinel. Mr. Webb’s report to the audience in Act I is both informative and interactive, as his question-and-answer session draws the audience physically into the action of the play. He dotes on his daughter, Emily. (Content Disclosure: Emily kisses him on the cheek in affection.)
8: Emily Webb: (F) Mr. and Mrs. Webb’s daughter and Wally’s older sister. Emily, 16 at the start of the play, is George’s schoolmate and next-door neighbor, then his fiancée, and later his wife. She is an excellent student and a conscientious daughter. After dying in childbirth, Emily joins the group of dead souls in the local cemetery and attempts to return to the world of the living. Her realization that human life is precious because it is fleeting is perhaps the central message of the play. (Content Disclosure: kisses dad on cheek; simulated kiss with George on wedding day; she is dead in Act. 3)
9: Wally Webb (M) Emily’s younger brother. (Content Disclosure: he is dead in Act. 3) & Sam Craig (A) Emily Webb’s cousin, who has left Grover’s Corners to travel west, but returns for her funeral in Act III. Though originally from the town, Sam has the air of an outsider.
10: Simon Stimson: (M) The organist and Choir Director of the Congregational Church who is the subject of town gossip because of his alcoholism. Simon’s memories of the past are negative. (Content Disclosure: Simon is visibly drunk in Act 1. He takes his life between Acts 2 and 3).
11: Constable Warren (M): The town law enforcement officer. We hear that he saves a man from freezing to death. / Joe Crowell (M) A paper boy- in Act 1 & in the flashback in Act. 3. We learn that in between he became a scholar at Massachusetts Tech and was killed in France during World War I. / Si Crowell (M): Joe’s younger brother, who takes Joe’s job as paper boy in Act II to indicate the passage of time.
12: Woman In Audience (F) “random” audience member who asks a question about culture in Grover’s corners. / Mrs. Soames (F) A local busybody who clucks over Simon’s alcoholism and idealizes George and Emily’s marriage. She is a spirit in the last act. / Joe Stoddard (M): The town undertaker. Joe prepares Emily’s grave and remarks on how sad it is to bury young people. This statement emphasizes a theme that grows ever more apparent throughout the play and receives its most explicit discussion in Act III: the transience of human life.
*We may get guest faculty members to stand in for Professor Willard (A); if not then it will be played by actor 9. Professor Willard is a faculty member of “State University” who recites facts about Grover’s Corners.
THE GROWN-UPS INFORMATION
Being in your early twenties is hard. You have so much ambition to change the world but with what feels like such little power to do anything about it. I know that I’ve been feeling this for some time and so many people my age have as well. That’s why I feel that this play is so important to do. This play is set at a sleepaway camp, and it unfolds around a campfire, where the senior counselors, who are barely older than the kids under their charge, gather to unwind once their cabins have been put to bed. The dialog is so real and makes me feel like I’m right back at that summer camp talking to the other counselors about our least favorite kids. As the counselors navigate internal conflicts over the course of several weeks, and wrestle with their nostalgia for the way things have always been done.
General Content Disclosure: an implied sexual relationship but nothing is explicitly said.
Performance Dates: February 13-16. Rehearsals will begin in late January and generally be Sunday Thursday evenings from 7-10 PM.
The Grown-Ups Character Breakdown
5 characters: The characters do not have explicit genders assigned to them however their names and pronouns do insinuate that there are 3F (female presenting) and 2M (male presenting). Most, if not all roles could be played by any gender.
1: Lukas: (M) Early twenties, white, is pumped to be back this summer.
2: Cassie (F) Early twenties, not white, is excited to be joining this summer.
3: Becca (F) Early twenties, white, is honestly thrilled to be back this summer.
4: Maeve (F) Early twenties, white, is literally sooo jazzed to be back this summer you guys.
5: Aidan (M) Late twenties, white, has a lot of new responsibilities this summer.