The Mobtown Players announce auditions for its upcoming production, She Stoops to Conquer

Production dates are January 14 through February 5.

Auditions will be held 10/18 and 10/20 from 7 – 9.

Callbacks will be held on 10/25 at 7:00.

If you are interested in auditioning but cannot make it to the 10/18 or 10/20 dates, please contact the director, Caitlin, at cdbouxsein@verizon.net

Please prepare a short monologue (preferably classical). You may also be asked to read from the script. If you would like to read the play, the entire text can be found online:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/383

http://www.fullbooks.com/She-Stoops-to-Conquer.html

The play:

Charles Marlow and George Hastings set out for the Hardcastles’ manor to meet the parents of Kate Hardcastle, the young woman whom Marlow may potentially marry. Hastings is an admirer of Miss Constance Neville, another young lady who lives with the Hardcastles. On their journey, they encounter Tony Lumpkin (Mrs. Hardcastle’s son who will acquire a fortune when becoming of “age”). He tells them that they are a long way from their destination and will have to stay overnight at an inn and that the Hardcastles’ old house is the inn, thus the pair arrive and treat the Hardcastle’s home as such, and treat Hardcastle as a mere inn keeper. This greatly angers Hardcastle and he decides that Marlow is an inappropriate suitor for his beloved Kate. Meanwhile, Kate devises her own plan to win Marlow’s affections and Tony, Constance and Hastings conspire together to steal Constance’s inheritance from her aunt, Mrs. Hardcastle. The constraints of polite society are challenged by youthful desires in this classic Comedy of Manners by Oliver Goldsmith. Over the course of an evening practical jokes are played, identities are mistaken, and lovers conspire, spurring an absurd chain of events that will keep you laughing to the very end!

Characters:

Charles Marlow – 20s/early 30s. Suitor to Kate Hardcastle. Marlow is sophisticated and has travelled the world. Around lower-class women Marlow is a lecherous rogue, but around those of an upper-class card he is a nervous, bumbling fool. Thus, his interview with Kate exploits the man’s fears, and convinces Miss Hardcastle she’ll have to alter her persona drastically to make a relationship with the man possible.

George Hastings – 20s/early 30s. Friend of Charles Marlow and the admirer of Miss Constance Neville. Also an educated man. He cares deeply about Constance, and intends to flee with her to France. However, she tells him that she can’t leave without her jewels that are guarded by Mrs. Hardcastle, so they conspire with Tony to steal the jewels.

Tony Lumpkin - 20s. An immature, foolish young man. He is promised in marriage to his cousin, Constance Neville, yet they despise each other, and so he goes to great effort to help herself and Hastings in their plans to leave the country. He cannot reject this betrothal to Neville, because he believes he’s not of age (as this is what his mother, Mrs. Hardcastle, has told him).

Mr Hardcastle – 40s-60s. Kate Hardcastle’s father, whom Marlow and Hastings believe to be an innkeeper. He arranges for Marlow to come to the country to marry his daughter. Mr Hardcastle is an old-fashioned man of good manners who wants only the best for his beloved daughter.

Mrs Hardcastle – 40s-60s. Mr. Hardcastle’s wife and Tony’s mother. She is overprotective of Tony and denies him his fortune, convincing him that he is not yet ’of age.’ Her intentions are selfish, as she wants Constance to marry her son to keep the jewels in the family.

Miss Kate Hardcastle – 20s/early 30s. Mr Hardcastle’s beloved daughter, and the one who ‘stoops to conquer.’ She is intelligent and clever, and discovers that by posing as a barmaid she will be able to get Marlow to fall in love with her.

Miss Constance Neville – 20s/early 30s. Mrs Hardcastle’s niece who also lives with the Hardcastles. She is in love with Hastings and they intend to run away together after she steals the family jewels that she inherited.

Sir Charles Marlow – 40s-60s. Charles Marlow’s father; who follows him to the country. He is an old friend of Mr Hardcastle’s and is pleased with the arranged union between his son and Kate.

Supporting Ensemble Characters – Maids, Servants, Townspeople

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SAY YES TO THE DRESS!

Alan Ball’s Five Women Wearing the Same Dress makes Baltimore premiere at Mobtown

For generations, women have humiliated their dearest friends with a fiendish weapon - the bridesmaid dress.  Friendship usually wins out in the end, but it’s never pretty and the dress is usually relegated to the back of the closet for years or even decades.  This month the Mobtown Players are breaking our ugly dresses out of the closet for a hard look at bows, lace, boning, the color pink, and the power of friendship.  Five Women Wearing the Same Dress runs September 24 through October 16, with performances Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm.  There will be two Sunday matinees on October 3 and 10, at 4 pm.

The play takes place during an ostentatious wedding reception where a group of reluctant, identically-clad bridesmaids hide out in an upstairs bedroom, each with her own reason to avoid the proceedings below.  As the afternoon wears on, the five very different women discover a common bond in this wickedly funny, irreverent and touching look at the intricacies of friendship and the power of similar dressing.

Mobtown regular Melissa O’Brien makes her directorial debut with a young cast that’s mostly new to Mobtown. The script was written by writer/director/producer Alan Ball, who is perhaps best known as the Emmy-winning writer/director of HBO’s hit series Six Feet Under and True Blood.  Ball also won an Academy Award for his screenplay for the 2000 film American Beauty.

Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for students and seniors.  Throughout the run, all patrons dressed in tuxedos, wedding gowns or bridesmaid dresses will receive two-for-one tickets.  The Mobtown Theater is located at Meadow Mill, 3600 Clipper Mill Road in Hampden. To purchase tickets or find directions, visitwww.mobtownplayers.com.

One of Baltimore’s most popular young theater groups, the Mobtown Players were founded in 1998, finding a permanent home in Hampden in 2003. The non-profit theater company is dedicated to making both classic work and contemporary plays accessible to a wide variety of audiences.  For more information, visitwww.mobtownplayers.com

The Mobtown Players announce auditions for their fall production of Five Women Wearing the Same Dress!

During a grand wedding reception on the grounds of a Southern estate, five bridesmaids are holed up in an upstairs bedroom, determined to avoid the festivities at all costs. Written by Alan Ball (Six Feet Under, True Blood, American Beauty), this comedy offers a frequently hilarious, sometimes touching, look at the intricacies of friendship and love.

The show runs 9/24 through 10/16. Fridays and Saturday nights with TBD Thursday and/or Sunday shows.

Directed by Melissa O’Brien.

Please prepare a 60 to 90 second comedic monologue for the audition. You may also be asked to read from the script.

Please also bring your headshot and resume. We also ask that you come prepared to list any potential conflicts between now and the run of the show.

Initial auditions will be held July 5 from 7:00 to 9:30 pm
Callbacks will be held July 7 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm

For an audition appointment, contact the stage manager, Brian Kraszewski, at briankrasz@gmail.com. We may also be able to accommodate some walk-ins, but appointments are encouraged so that we may keep the evening running smoothly.

All roles are open. The play takes place in Knoxville, Tennessee, so the appropriate dialect will be required.

Female roles (in order of appearance):
Frances–early 20′s. A somewhat timid Christian, Frances looks down on the other women smoking and drinking–until she gets a bottle of champagne in her hands.
Meredith–early 20′s. Her tough exterior hides some pretty deep wound, the source of which is waltzing around picking up women at the reception.
Trisha–early 30′s. Glamorous and seemingly self-assured, Trisha’s claim to fame is being the one who’s slept with just about every man they know.
Georgeanne–early 30′s. Feeling trapped in an unhappy marriage, Georgeanne came to the wedding hoping to reconnect with a former lover.
Mindy–mid to late 30′s. Despite a tendency to ramble and a deep love of the Miss America pageant, Mindy is often the one who sees situations with the most clarity.

Male role:
Tripp–late 20′s. A guy who likes to have fun, he’s set his sights on Trisha, with whom he might just have a real connection.

So, what’s this supposed to be, besides a place for the presskit and audition announcements.

I have always been very interested in putting out there glimpses of the creative process. Just how does a show come together? What are the elements?

It’s not just a bunch of people getting together and memorizing lines. It’s a project, multi-threaded and with lots of people contributing their efforts and skills to the common effort. It’s really quite amazing when you get down to it – and when it works well a whole team of strangers come together to form a community that just really clicks – and there aren’t too many things in the world that are better than that.

It was always my intent to let people in on the experience. There’s a certain thrill at the first read through when you get the script cuts, or when the designers come back with their first sketches, or when you see the poster art for the first time, or when the set starts to get built.

Previously, it was a damned bear to try to craft pages for that stuff, though. Go home, fire up FrontPage, load some pictures, type some words, connect to the server and upload the new or edited page…. But WordPress’ blogging software makes this easy.

I can still come home and hop on the ‘Net and type out a quick blog post. But I can also – right from rehearsal with my cell phone – snap a picture of the set and upload it to the blog. I can use my iPhone to type a quick post at a break after the first run through. I can email links to the costume designs. I can post a series of links to source material. Lots of possibilities. I really hope the directors and their teams take advantage of it