Flock Theatre's IN THE NEXT ROOM: Auditions
Have you ever heard the phrase "Comedy = Tragedy + Time"?
I heard that at Columbia College. I think Stephanie Shaw said it. Stephanie Shaw always had the zingers.
Anyway. I always felt that the best kind of comedy is that kind that makes you laugh, softens you up, exposes you, and then GUTS YOU while you're giggling, and then your guts are on the floor, and you're staring at them, horrified, but also still half grinning, then the next beat comes along, and someone helpfully scoops your guts back inside you and sews you up, and you laugh, and it hurts, but you walk away from it all thinking, "Wow, my guts really needed an airing out. Too long have they dwelled in darkness. I'm so glad I saw that show."
I haven't ever seen "In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play" but I have read it, and it is the gutsiest, funniest, saddest, truest play I've encountered since, I don't know, Liz Duffy Adams's "Discourse on the Wonders of the Invisible World" that I saw back in July.
You can read about it on Wikipedia, in an article that begins: "It concerns the early history of the vibrator, when doctors used it as a clinical device to bring women to orgasm as treatment for "hysteria." Other themes include Victorian ignorance of female sexual desire, motherhood and breastfeeding, and jealousy.The play was nominated for three 2010 Tony Awards."
The writing? EXQUISITE.
And it's by a FEMALE PLAYWRIGHT!
Why does this deserve capital letters? My friends, after a lifetime of Shakespeare, Brecht, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Sam Shepherd, even wonderful Tony Kushner and fabulous Tom Stoppard, do you know what a wild relief it was to discover Caryl Churchill in college? And then to have experienced Liz Duffy Adams! And NOW to read a Sarah Ruhl play!
You go through your theatre training thinking that women on stage are a certain way, and you just accept it, and then you see a woman character as written by a woman and suddenly you realize that there has always been a difference -- all along.
It's more apparent in TV and movies to me now. There's that odd sort of tingle you get, thinking, "Something's a bit... different... about this episode. Or film..." And then you realize, "OH! It's because a WOMAN wrote it. So the women are behaving like, well, YOU would. Or your friends. HOW NOVEL!"
It's VERY rare.
And I'm not saying anything against Shakespeare, because I love the dude. But dude. He was a dude. Okay? Even his girls were dudes. I can say that with authority after this year, having played Rosalind.
"In the Next Room" is exactly what I like. It's strong and fresh and it feels right. It's uncomfortable. My friend Erica Strickland called it "haunting." A haunting comedy! Don't you love that? What a beautiful contradiction! And how right!
And how right to have a play about awakening, and discontent, about early sexual science, and compartmentalization, about race, about gender, about homosexuality. It's just... IT'S GORGEOUS!
"In the Next Room" is a fairly new play - 2009, I think? - which showed in Berkley, and then on Broadway, but it hasn't been done at many small theatres, and now FLOCK THEATRE is going to be putting it on in FEBRUARY. Do you know how BRASH that is??? It's so exciting to me. I can barely stand it.
And I MUST audition! And if I don't get in, I hope I can do BOX OFFICE or something, because I just sort of want to be NEAR it. You know?
If you're local-ish, and you're a theatre person, and you're into this kind of thing, I HOPE YOU AUDITION TOO! Because the more of us flood the director, the better the chances that the ABSOLUTE PERFECTEST CAST will manifest, and that will be good for EVERYBODY, because this show deserves the best of the best, and so do its brand new audiences. I hope it reaches many people.
What Flock Theatre said on their Facebook Status Update:
Starting Monday, November 18th we will be holding ongoing auditions for our February production of In the Next Room (or the vibrator play) by Sarah Ruhl. Either email us at flocktheatre@hotmail.com or call us at 860-443-3119 to schedule an audition. We will be continuing to cast until the beginning of December so don't wait!
Role Breakdown:
4 Female, 3 Males
DR. GIVINGS - Late 30s-40s, a specialist in gynecological and hysterical disorders.
CATHERINE GIVINGS - 20s, his wife.
SABRINA DALDRY - 20s-30s, his patient.
ANNIE - 30s, Dr. Giving's midwife assistant.
LEO IRVING - 20s-30s, Dr. Giving's other patient, an Englishman.
ELIZABETH - Late 20s-30s, an African-American woman. A wet-nurse by default.
MR. DALDRY - 40s-50s, Sabrina Daldry's husband.
The performances are the last two weekend of February (21st-23rd, 28th-March 2nd) with previews the 14th-16th.
***
I heard that at Columbia College. I think Stephanie Shaw said it. Stephanie Shaw always had the zingers.
Anyway. I always felt that the best kind of comedy is that kind that makes you laugh, softens you up, exposes you, and then GUTS YOU while you're giggling, and then your guts are on the floor, and you're staring at them, horrified, but also still half grinning, then the next beat comes along, and someone helpfully scoops your guts back inside you and sews you up, and you laugh, and it hurts, but you walk away from it all thinking, "Wow, my guts really needed an airing out. Too long have they dwelled in darkness. I'm so glad I saw that show."
I haven't ever seen "In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play" but I have read it, and it is the gutsiest, funniest, saddest, truest play I've encountered since, I don't know, Liz Duffy Adams's "Discourse on the Wonders of the Invisible World" that I saw back in July.
You can read about it on Wikipedia, in an article that begins: "It concerns the early history of the vibrator, when doctors used it as a clinical device to bring women to orgasm as treatment for "hysteria." Other themes include Victorian ignorance of female sexual desire, motherhood and breastfeeding, and jealousy.The play was nominated for three 2010 Tony Awards."
The writing? EXQUISITE.
And it's by a FEMALE PLAYWRIGHT!
Why does this deserve capital letters? My friends, after a lifetime of Shakespeare, Brecht, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Sam Shepherd, even wonderful Tony Kushner and fabulous Tom Stoppard, do you know what a wild relief it was to discover Caryl Churchill in college? And then to have experienced Liz Duffy Adams! And NOW to read a Sarah Ruhl play!
You go through your theatre training thinking that women on stage are a certain way, and you just accept it, and then you see a woman character as written by a woman and suddenly you realize that there has always been a difference -- all along.
It's more apparent in TV and movies to me now. There's that odd sort of tingle you get, thinking, "Something's a bit... different... about this episode. Or film..." And then you realize, "OH! It's because a WOMAN wrote it. So the women are behaving like, well, YOU would. Or your friends. HOW NOVEL!"
It's VERY rare.
And I'm not saying anything against Shakespeare, because I love the dude. But dude. He was a dude. Okay? Even his girls were dudes. I can say that with authority after this year, having played Rosalind.
"In the Next Room" is exactly what I like. It's strong and fresh and it feels right. It's uncomfortable. My friend Erica Strickland called it "haunting." A haunting comedy! Don't you love that? What a beautiful contradiction! And how right!
And how right to have a play about awakening, and discontent, about early sexual science, and compartmentalization, about race, about gender, about homosexuality. It's just... IT'S GORGEOUS!
"In the Next Room" is a fairly new play - 2009, I think? - which showed in Berkley, and then on Broadway, but it hasn't been done at many small theatres, and now FLOCK THEATRE is going to be putting it on in FEBRUARY. Do you know how BRASH that is??? It's so exciting to me. I can barely stand it.
And I MUST audition! And if I don't get in, I hope I can do BOX OFFICE or something, because I just sort of want to be NEAR it. You know?
If you're local-ish, and you're a theatre person, and you're into this kind of thing, I HOPE YOU AUDITION TOO! Because the more of us flood the director, the better the chances that the ABSOLUTE PERFECTEST CAST will manifest, and that will be good for EVERYBODY, because this show deserves the best of the best, and so do its brand new audiences. I hope it reaches many people.
What Flock Theatre said on their Facebook Status Update:
Starting Monday, November 18th we will be holding ongoing auditions for our February production of In the Next Room (or the vibrator play) by Sarah Ruhl. Either email us at flocktheatre@hotmail.com or call us at 860-443-3119 to schedule an audition. We will be continuing to cast until the beginning of December so don't wait!
Role Breakdown:
4 Female, 3 Males
DR. GIVINGS - Late 30s-40s, a specialist in gynecological and hysterical disorders.
CATHERINE GIVINGS - 20s, his wife.
SABRINA DALDRY - 20s-30s, his patient.
ANNIE - 30s, Dr. Giving's midwife assistant.
LEO IRVING - 20s-30s, Dr. Giving's other patient, an Englishman.
ELIZABETH - Late 20s-30s, an African-American woman. A wet-nurse by default.
MR. DALDRY - 40s-50s, Sabrina Daldry's husband.
The performances are the last two weekend of February (21st-23rd, 28th-March 2nd) with previews the 14th-16th.
***