Auditions for THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF THEATER (abridged) by Matt Thompson

Audition Sides

Director
ED BASSETT

Stage Manager
LAURIE PHILLIPS

Performance Dates:
Saturday, March 4, 2023 at 8PM
Sunday,  March, 5, 2023 at 3PM

Friday, March 10, 2023 at 8PM
Saturday, March 11, 2023 at 8PM
Sunday, March 12, 2023 at 3PM

Friday, March 17, 2023 at 8PM
Saturday, March 18, 2023 at 8pm

Monday, December 19, 2022 from 7-9pm
Tuesday, December 20, 2022 from 7-9pm

We are seeking 2 men, 1 woman and 1 of either gender. All roles are open. The production is being directed by Ed Bassett with Stage Manager Laurie Phillips. Performance dates are March 4 thru 18, 2023. Fridays & Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 3pm. Rehearsals will begin in January with schedule TBA.

Cast of Characters:
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (Bill): seems to act more like a child than the genius who penned some of the world’s greatest works of theatrical art.

CONSTANTINE STANISLAVSKY (Stan): The Russian scholar. Bill’s great friend.

SARAH BERNHARDT (Sarah): The greatest actress the stage has ever known.

ENSEMBLE MEMBER: Plays Stage Manager / House Manager / Playwright / Producer / Sound Designer / Light Designer / Set Designer / Costume Designer / Director / Stagehand
 
About the Show:
It’s opening night, and master playwright William Shakespeare, theatrical diva Sarah Bernhardt and the indelible intellectual Constantine Stanislavsky lead you on a wild and wacky journey through the history of theatre from Aristophanes to Emile Zola.

This crazy cast of characters will transport you back in time as we relive the various elements of theatre from all parts of the globe. Explore the beginnings of Greek theatre, Aristotle’s Poetics, the fine art of Kabuki, the history of mime, the gladiators of Rome and speculation on the real author of Shakespeare’s plays.

Along the way, the bumbling Shakespeare misquotes himself, Sarah Bernhardt can’t get over the sound of thunderous applause and Stanislavsky gets blown out of a cannon when someone says the name of “the Scottish play” in the theatre!

Through a little perseverance and commedia dell’arte, the famous trifecta attempt to hold the show together, but when the producer appears onstage, things only get worse when the cast finds out they are trapped in a play within a play.

With time running out on the theatre’s rental agreement, the trifecta pays homage to the world’s best-known and beloved plays and musicals by alluding to dialogue from Edward Albee, Bertolt Brecht, Samuel Beckett, Noël Coward, Anton Chekhov, Caryl Churchill, Henrik Ibsen, Arthur Miller, David Mamet, Harold Pinter, Sarah Ruhl, Sam Shepard, Neil Simon, August Strindberg, August Wilson, Thornton Wilder, Andrew Lloyd Weber, Oscar Wilde and many more all performed at breakneck speed.

​Near the play’s end, the cast realizes that the playwright hasn’t written an ending, wherein our iconic celebrities are forced to seek the audience’s help in finding a creative conclusion to the show.
​
For more information, call 860-417-2505 or email [email protected]