Auditions will be held Monday, February 16 at 6 p.m. in Leedy Theater

Transcription

1 Audition Packet Auditions will be held Monday, February 16 at 6 p.m. in Leedy Theater DATES TO REMEMBER: Performances: April and Auditions: Monday, February 16 at 6 p.m. Cast list posted: Tuesday, February 17 by 8 a.m. First read-through: Monday, February 23 at 6 p.m. Tech Week: Saturday, April 11 through Thursday, April 16 Brush-up rehearsals: Tuesday, April 21 and Wednesday, April 22

2 Production Staff Director: Lacey Eriksen- (302) Stage Manager: Megan English- (856) Dramaturg: Dr. Kevin Pry- Characters Orgon (M)- Head of the house and husband of Elmire, he is blinded by admiration for Tartuffe. Tartuffe (M)-Houseguest of Orgon, hypocritical religious devotee who attempts to seduce Elmire and foil Valère's romantic quest. Valère (M)- The young romantic lead, who struggles to win the hand of his true love, Orgon's daughter Mariane. Madame Pernelle (F)-Mother of Orgon; grandmother of Damis and Mariane Elmire(F)- Wife of Orgon, step-mother of Damis and Mariane Dorine (F)-Family housemaid, who tries to help expose Tartuffe and help Valère. Cléante (M)-Brother of Elmire, brother-in-law of Orgon Mariane(F)- Daughter of Orgon, the fiancée of Valère and sister of Damis Damis(M)-Son of Orgon; and brother of Mariane Flipote (F)-Servant of Madame Pernelle (non-speaking character) Monsieur Loyal (M)-A bailiff A King's Officer (M/F)- An officer of the king Synopsis Madame Pernelle is visiting her son Orgon s house and uses the opportunity to criticize all the members of the household and to praise their boarder, Tartuffe, because he is a man of such holiness and zeal. The others object to Tartuffe, maintaining that he is false and hypocritical, but Madame Pernelle will not entertain such thoughts. Instead, as she leaves, she admonishes everyone to follow Tartuffe s precepts. After Madame Pernelle leaves, Cléante, who is Orgon s brother-in-law, and Dorine, Orgon s daughter s maid, discuss the situation and their boarder and agree that Tartuffe has beguiled not only Madame Pernelle, but Orgon as well. Orgon s son, Damis, adds to the situation by wondering out loud if his father, after being influenced by Tartuffe, will still allow his daughter, Mariane, to marry her love, Valère. Damis is also concerned because he wants to marry Valère s sister; thus he asks Cléante to question Orgon about his earlier promise to allow the marriage to take place.

3 Orgon arrives and seems much more concerned about the welfare of Tartuffe than anything else around him, including his wife s illness. Cléante tries to discuss Tartuffe with Orgon, but fails and discovers that Orgon is only interested in singing Tartuffe s praises. When he questions Orgon about the intended wedding, he dodges the issues and refuses to give a direct answer; however, when his daughter arrives, Orgon tells her that he wants to ally Tartuffe with his house and that this can best be done by Mariane s marrying Tartuffe. Mariane is so shocked that she cannot believe her ears. After Orgon departs, Dorine, the maid, reprimands Mariane for not having refused to marry Tartuffe. Mariane s beloved, Valère, arrives and accuses her of consenting to the marriage. Dorine listens to them argue and then, after they are reconciled, promises to help them expose Tartuffe s hypocrisy. Damis, incensed about Tartuffe, is also determined to reveal Tartuffe s hypocrisy, and, as he hears Tartuffe s approach, he hides in the closest. Elmire, Orgon s wife, arrives, and Tartuffe, thinking they are alone, makes some professions of love to her and suggests that they become lovers. Having heard Tartuffe s plans, Damis reveals himself and threatens to expose Tartuffe. When Orgon arrives, Damis tries to inform his father about Tartuffe s proposition, but Orgon is so blind that he thinks his own son is evil in trying to defame Tartuffe s good name and he immediately disinherits his son. As Orgon and Tartuffe leave, Orgon reveals his plans to make Tartuffe his sole heir and also his son-in-law. Cléante later confronts Tartuffe and tries to reason with him, but Tartuffe will only respond in religious clichés, and, as soon as the opportunity presents itself, he hastily excuses himself from the room. Orgon and Elmire arrive, and when she hears Orgon s plans, she extracts a promise from him to hide in some concealed place and observe Tartuffe s actions. Orgon consents, and Elmire sends for Tartuffe. When he arrives, he is accosted by Elmire, and soon he begins to make not only declarations of love to her but also derogatory comments about Orgon. Finally convinced of Tartuffe s hypocrisy, Orgon emerges and orders him from the household. Tartuffe then reveals that legally he is now the owner of the house, since Orgon has signed over all his property. Alone with his wife, Orgon reveals that he is frightened because, earlier, he had entrusted some secret documents to Tartuffe s care--documents which could ruin Orgon s trusted position in the court. When Orgon s mother arrives, he cannot convince her that Tartuffe is a hypocrite; it is only when news arrives that Tartuffe is having the entire family evicted that Madame Pernelle is convinced. Tartuffe brings with him officers of the court, but, as the family is about to be evicted, an officer reveals that the king has seen through the hypocrisy of Tartuffe and has ordered him to be imprisoned for this and for other crimes. The king has also restored to Orgon all his rightful property.

4 Auditions Auditions will take place on Monday, February 16, and will mainly consist of cold readings from the script. If you would like to familiarize yourself with the script beforehand, this production will be using the Richard Wilbur translation. The script is avaliable online as a PDF at If you cannot attend auditions, or if you need to arrive late to auditions because of a conflict, please contact stage manager, Megan English, one week prior to auditions to make arrangements. Please bring your completed audition form to auditions. You are encouraged to type your audition form to make it legible and make the audition process run faster. Concerning Spring Break: Because the rehearsal process is losing time in both March and April for holidays, we are asking the cast to return from spring break on Thursday, March 5, 2015 to suppliment our rehearsal time. If you already have full break commitments please state them on your audition form. Rehearsals Rehearsals will be scheduled Monday-Thursday 6pm-10pm, and Saturday 12-4pm. The rehearsal schedule will be sent out one week prior by the stage manager. Not all actors will be scheduled for every rehearsal, and all properly reported conflicts will be acknowledged in scheduling. Please be honest and clear with all conflicts. Failure to do so will result with removal from the cast. Cast members are expected to attend all scheduled rehearsals. Tech week and brush-up rehearsals are mandatory. Cast members with night class are expected to discuss rehearsal with their professor and make necessary arrangements to attend tech rehearsals. Above all, school comes first please keep that in mind when auditioning and/or accepting a role. Understudies For this production there will be two understudies- a female understudy, and a male undertudy. The understudies will be the actors playing flipote and Monsiour Loyal. The roles that are being understudied will be announced after auditions. Understudies will be expected to fill in at rehearsal when a cast member is unavailable, and will perform as the role at the brush up rehearsal on Tuesday, April 21. Understudies are expected to learn their parts by observation, and no special rehearsals will shceduled. Post Production After the conclusion of the production (beginning April 27 th ) cast members are required to attend strike sessions, where they will help the technical crew deassemble the set, and help committees put away costumes, props, and furniture pieces. Cast members are required to attend each strike session until everything is done, or until the technical director says otherwise. Conflicts for strike will be reported to the stage manager a week before strike begins.

5 Tartuffe Audition Form Name: Year: Major(s):_ Phone: Character(s) Auditioning for: Will you accept another role? Yes No Will you be an understudy? Yes No Are you willing to come back early from spring break? Yes No Can you fluently speak French? Yes No (Responding no will not remove you from consideration) Can you do gymnastics? Yes No (Responding no will not remove you from consideration) Are you willing to engage in physical comedy? Yes No Theatrical Experience (please attach resume if necessary): Is there anything you are uncomfortable doing on stage? Special Talents: Anything else we should know?

6 Conflicts Time Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday X Time 6pm- 7pm X 12pm- 1pm Saturday 7pm- 8pm X 1pm- 2pm 8pm- 9pm X 2pm- 3pm 9pm- 10pm X 3pm- 4pm Any other known conflicts: By signing below I,, acknowledge that I have thoroughly read the audition packet in it s entirety, and if cast will abide by the stated policies. Name: Date: