Ascension Day by Timothy Mason Directed by Amanda Kuo and Caroline Kaler

Transcription

1 Ascension Day by Timothy Mason Directed by Amanda Kuo and Caroline Kaler AUDITION PACKET Please read the packet thoroughly. Fill out the audition card in the packet and bring it with you to your audition. In order to audition you must sign-up for an audition slot on the callboard by 171 and fill in all information at by 2/18/16. Audition Dates: February 22 th & 23 th Callback Date: February 25 th Performances: May 26 th -28 th, 2016 Questions? Amanda and Caroline ( ascensiondaydirectors@gmail.com )

2 Audition Card Please detach and bring this with you on the day of your audition. Actor Information Name Grade: DOB: Address: Cell# Please briefly list any past theatre experience you have had (or attach a résumé): What special skills or talents to do you have? (dialects, instruments, dance, etc): Please circle your answer: Would you cut/color your hair for this performance? Yes No Would you be comfortable kissing another person onstage? Yes No Is there a role you d prefer to play? Yes No If yes, which? Is there a role that you would not accept? Yes No If yes, which? Do you feel comfortable singing alone stage? Yes No Do you play any instruments? If yes, which? Note : No conflicts will be allowed on the following dates: - Designer Run (Date TBA late April)/Tech Saturday (May 21 st ) 9am-6pm - Production Week (May 23rd-28th) 3pm-10:30pm

3 - A mandatory Crew Saturday may also be part of the process this date would be announced prior to the start of the rehearsal process. Character Breakdown (5 Males, 4 Females) Charity- 16, younger sister to Faith. It is her first year at camp. Faith- 18, older sister of Charity. After being a camper the previous year, she is back as a junior counselor. Jerry- 17, camper with a complicated past and family history. Wesley- 17, camper, complicated love interest of Faith. Joyce- 16, camper, teacher s pet. June- 18, junior counselor at the camp. She has just gotten engaged to a soldier who fought in the war. Mary-Lois- 17, junior counselor, most authoritative. Danny- 16, camper, class clown. Randy- 16, camper, believes in UFO s. Play Synopsis Ascension Day takes place on the banks of a beautiful lake, where teenagers pursue the normal bible camp activities: learning lifesaving techniques, enduring "nature tip" lectures and delivering dreaded spiritual "testimonials." But the moon is full, hormones are young and raging, and the cries of the loons carry a message of menace and loss. This single week is seen entirely through the eyes of the nine adolescents: the adults who determine, and in some ways damage, the lives of these teenagers, are never seen, but their threatening presence is always felt. Above these nine adolescents hovers the rumor of a phenomenon: alien visitors in crafts that were for the first time being called "flying saucers." Beneath them, the depths of the lake itself hold an Indian legend of love and bloody death. A focus of the play falls on two sisters, Faith and Charity, as they move unconsciously and inadvertently from a relationship of affection and trust toward a rift which seems likely to be permanent. The image of their extremely stern father is forever before them, but they respond in different ways.

4 Charity, the younger sister, seeks the approval and acceptance, so far missing from her life, by exploring her impulsive and passionate side. Faith presents herself to the world as not caring for approval, but beneath her façade is the desperate fear that she herself is destined to turn to stone, just like her father. Faith's attempt to break free from her own rigidity ends in a disaster of the heart. Charity's bid for love is, unfortunately, somewhat more successful: It's clear by the end of the play that her disaster will last a lifetime. Innocent and not-so-innocent choices made by the youth alter the course of a lifetime. This theme is sensitively explored through expressive hymns that follow each scene accordingly and is set in a beautiful Wisconsin Bible summer camp after World War II. The Audition Process Who can audition? Any student at Newton North is eligible to audition for Ascension Day. No previous experience is necessary. This show does conflict with 9th Annual Playwrights Festival and Romeo and Juliet. Students are encouraged to audition for all, but cannot participate in more than one. Casting will be completed after callbacks; cast lists will be posted on the callboard. When casting, the student directors and Mr. Brown will take into consideration the audition and what will work best for each production. What and how to prepare for your Ascension Day audition All those interested in auditioning will be asked to memorize and perform one 1-2 minute monologue at their audition. This monologue could be comedic or a light dramatic piece in nature and come from a play similar in style in Ascension Day. Feel free to use the examples included later in this packet, or to find your own. No accents please. When you ve finished presenting your monologue, you may be given some feedback and asked to perform it again. You may also be asked to do a brief improvisation exercise. When preparing for your audition, keep in mind that Amanda and Caroline are looking for actors who connect well with their text and are genuine, who have a formidable physical and vocal presence, and who make strong choices in their performance. A good sense of comedic and dramatic timing is a plus.

5 Callbacks Callbacks will occur on February 25 th, immediately after X-block. Actors will be reading sides from Ascension Day. It is suggested that the actors preview the sides beforehand; they will be made available the week of auditions (both as hard copies and on Theatreink.net ). Reading the play itself is also advisable, as being familiar with the plot and characters will be useful during the callback process. Actors will also be asked to sing and play instruments at Callbacks, as there are hymns between scenes that relate to the previous or following scene. These will be sung and played on stage in small groups, solos, or a whole cast. Ascension Day is a sheet music free process, and music will be taught how the campers would have learned it; call and response. Those playing instruments will be given chord progressions to play. Melodies will be simple. You do not have to be a singer to be cast, and not being able to sing will not disadvantage you in the process. We ask that you be open about singing and take risks. The Rehearsal Process Rehearsals will occur every weekday after all school obligations have finished (this includes X Block). All rehearsals will last two and a half hours and will include any combination of the following: warm-ups, table work, song work, character work, blocking, and feedback. Actors will also need to commit to work outside of the daily rehearsal time; this will include memorization of lines, character work, music practice, and other research. In many ways, being cast in Ascension Day will be like taking an additional class. Those with a heavy course load should consider this before auditioning. Tech Day will be Saturday, May 21 st. All involved with Ascension Day will be expected to be in attendance from 9 AM to 6 PM. During Production Week (May 23 rd -28 th ) actors may be held as late as 11 PM in order to accommodate dress rehearsals. Dinner will be provided before the runs on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, but not on show nights.

6 From Timothy Mason s Ascension Day : Male Monologues: Randy: Hello. Some of you here at camp know me as Randy, some of you don t know me. Most of you don t know me. A few of you know me as Boner. For some of you, this is your first time here, this is my second time, I guess nobody here has been here more than twice since this is only the second year that camp has been open after shutting down during the war, but know Japan lies in ruins and we re glad to be back. Pastor Tollefson asked for testimonies and I don t know, nobody else got up, so I guess I m it. We re going to be doing this for the next week, it ll probably get easier as we go along. But it s not always easy to talk about how you stand with Jesus. Kids think you re strange if you do, but most of the kids I know, they already think I m strange, so, you know, I don t have an awful lot to lose. Anyway. I used to have terrible skin. But, it says in the Bible, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can move a mountain. And I don t know, but I believe that s just what I did with my acne.

7 Wesley: Half an hour. I m ready to blow up and so are you, I can see it, we re just the same, that s why we found each other last year. If we don t get out of here, we ll die, we ll start screaming or laughing and we won t be able to stop. You know what s wrong, you were just saying what s wrong, what s wrong is where we were born and if we don t get out now it s going to kill us. I can t feel at all in this place, with these people, and neither can you. What s wrong? You going to work for your father in a feed-store, that s what. Jesus, that poor girl so excited she can hardly stand it because she gets to marry some farm boy she s known all her life and move into her father s basement? And the others, they envy her, they actually do! Babies, all I want to do is have babies, lot and lots of babies for the rest of my miserable life, it s pathetic, it s horrifying. I just can t take it anymore, and neither can you.

8 Female Monologues: Mary-Lois : To say goodbye to our friends at the end of this week is going to be terribly hard. The friends you make at camp, by the side of the lake, it s different somehow than ordinary life. The smells are different, there s the smell of the pine forest, and the watery smells of the lake, the reeds, the water plants, campfire smoke. Melted marshmallows and chocolate. The sounds are different, too. There s the water lapping against the shore, of course. There are the loons. And for the rest of your life, I just have this feeling, for me anyway, that the smell of wood smoke is always going to make me think of you. I ll see you. I ll hear a loon or bite into a piece of chocolate and I ll see you. Just as you are now. Never any older. Forever. Anyway, Jesus made his friends at the side of a lake, too. For Him, and for them, there was the sound of the water lapping on the shore. But think of how hard it must have been for Him to leave too, how terribly hard. And then try to imagine how it must have been for them who were left behind. Someone who had changed their whole lives for ever, and now, suddenly, they were alone with the sound of the water on the shore. And everywhere they looked or smelled or listened, there were all these reminders of what they didn t have anymore.

9 Faith: It just came to me, how tired I am of all of this, you were right, this isn t for me, I don t belong here, I belong with you and both of us belong somewhere else, a long long way from here. It s not the religion so much, it s how they understand it, which is not at all, they don t get it, there s no room in their puny hearts to get it and their minds are tiny and I m just sick of it. You re going to think I m terrible, but I just realized It s hard to say it, even, but I just realized that I don t even like my Dad, he s so hard, it s like he s made of stone, and he s on his way here now with that stone look of his and I know that I could turn out that way, I could turn to stone if I don t get out now. (Beat.) I m sorry I just