TCR announces auditions for The Play That Goes Wrong, to be performed live, in the Theatre Cedar Rapids Auditorium, March 31st – April 8th, 2023.
Performances take place Thu – Sat evenings, and afternoon matinees on Saturdays and Sundays. See all performance dates HERE.
Rehearsals will start near the beginning of February, 2023. Rehearsals will typically be held 4-5 days per week, to be scheduled weeknights 6:30-10:00 and one weekend day, to be determined based on cast availability and conflicts.
ABOUT AUDITIONS
Contact Courtny Rocarek (courtny.rocarek@theatrecr.org) with questions about auditions. If you cannot attend auditions on these dates we may accept a video audition. Email for more information. A perusal copy of the script is available HERE.
- Audition Dates/Times: October 2nd and 3rd, 2022, 6:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
- Fill out an audition form HERE
- You will receive audition times via email 48 hours prior to auditions. Those who sign up after that window will receive your audition time(s) as quickly as we can.
- If your audition form is submitted after 11:30 a.m. Friday, September 30th, please email Courtny Rocarek (listed above) to confirm your slot. You may still audition, however you’ll be asked to join a later audition depending on the slots still available.
- On audition day – arrive at the TCR lobby at least 10 minutes before your scheduled audition time and you will be directed to the audition space.
- Oct. 4th, 2022 Callbacks We will let you know via email if you should attend callbacks by 10:00 a.m. that morning. Callbacks will involve reading sides in arranged pairings. Not receiving a callback does not mean you haven’t been cast. All auditioners will receive an email by the end of the week.
What to Prepare
Please prepare to read both of the following sides from the script. No monologues requested but the team will listen if you have one prepared, pending time available after reads. A perusal copy of the script is available HERE. We will provide copies of the sides at your audition, and you may be asked to read more than one character’s lines. Please read with your best British dialect (see character descriptions for details – basically RP or cockney), understanding perfection is not expected, and there will be a dialect coach for the rehearsal process.
- SIDE #1: Chris, Dennis, Sandra, Robert, Max: Pages 30 – 34
- SIDE #2: Chris, Robert, Dennis, Annie: Pages 46 – 50
ROLES AVAILABLE
The creative team seeks a diverse company of adult actors. Actors of all ethnicities will be equally considered for all roles and actors of color are encouraged to audition. Age ranges for characters are flexible (18+) and will depend upon groupings and pairings found through auditions.There may be some gender flexibility for roles typically male-identified, TBD through the audition process.
PLEASE NOTE: This is a physically demanding show. Most roles will require varying amounts of crawling, climbing, lifting, running, and/or falling.There is also a sword fight and some hand-to-hand combat. Some actors will perform on a tall platform and some will be asked to stay in an enclosed (not locked) box for roughly 5 minutes. We will be working with a movement coach, fight coach and intimacy director to ensure all is done safely, properly, and respectfully.
- CHRIS: (The director of the show – also plays Inspector Carter). A first-time director but a fairly decent actor, if maybe a little melodramatic. Maybe he’s been in a Shakespeare play once. He tries his best to keep the show on track while gritting his teeth at the ineptitude which surrounds him. Note: RP dialect.
- JONATHAN: (Plays Charles Haversham, deceased). Jonathan has been cast as the murder victim but has trouble playing dead. Don’t worry – The longer he is dead the more lines he has in the play. RP dialect.
- SANDRA: (Plays Florence, the fiancé of the deceased who is having a secret affair with his brother) The secret to Sandra’s acting “success” is to play every single line as though she was trying to catch the attention of a casting director that may be distantly seated in the audience. RP dialect.
- MAX: (Plays Cecil, brother of the deceased who is having a secret affair with Florence – also plays Arthur the gardener in Act II). Do you remember that one kid from elementary school plays that would break character to wave at his mom in the audience? That kid grew up to be Max. RP dialect.
- ROBERT: (Plays Thomas, the deceased best friend and Florence’s brother). Robert is the lead actor of the show, at least that is his opinion. He is also the author of the self published book Anything You Can Act, I Can Act Louder. RP dialect.
- DENNIS: (Plays Perkins the butler). Poor Dennis. Their one goal for opening night is keep the nervous flop sweat from blurring the lines written on their hand. RP dialect.
- ANNIE: (The stage manager). Annie would sincerely prefer to remain in the shadows backstage and is terrified by the audience… until opportunity knocks and she gets her first taste of the spotlight. Now she is never going back no matter who gets hurt. Cockney or Northern England dialect.
- TREVOR: (The sound tech guy). Trevor is so cocky at running sound he says he could do it in his sleep. Wait, no. He IS asleep. At the controls. Again.
ABOUT THE SHOW
The Play That Goes Wrong By Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer & Henry Shields: From Mischief, Broadway masters of comedy, comes the smash hit farce. Welcome to opening night of the Cornley University Drama Society’s newest production, The Murder at Haversham Manor, where things are quickly going from bad to utterly disastrous. This 1920s whodunit has everything you never wanted in a show—an unconscious leading lady, a corpse that can’t play dead, and actors who trip over everything (including their lines). Nevertheless, the accident-prone thespians battle against all odds to make it through to their final curtain call, with hilarious consequences. Part Monty Python, part Sherlock Holmes, this Olivier Award–winning comedy is a global phenomenon that’s guaranteed to leave you aching with laughter.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Joe Link (pictured lower right) is a director, educator, writer, designer, inventor, tinkerer, effects and puppetry wizard, and an all-around curious and ingenious human. In fact, we call upon Joe whenever we need magic to happen, such as: fire-breathing dragon, fantastical (and non-fantastical) horses, literally any puppet or T-Rex, giant frogs…and plays in which everything must go very right in order to appear to have gone very wrong. Joe is a Language Arts teacher and the Head of the Theater Dept at Jefferson High School. He has directed 50-ish plays in the area over the past 18 years. For TCR, he most recently directed Elf – The Musical, has designed multiple sets (each with built-in surprises), and continues his long-term stint as one of our most beloved summer camp instructors in the history of history.