The Boards, Wednesday Evening - Auditions!

[furnaceface]

So, this was it! Jono had known as soon as people had started showing up with their genders not quite in check last weekend that he was going to need to hold another set of auditions for the spring production, and, after spending yesterday in a distracted sort of daydream state, he was actually feeling fairly on the ball today.

Auditions!
The Consequence of Being Frank
Rehearsals on Wednesdays, Performance Friday, March 8
Cast and Crew Wanted!

He was kind of hoping for some guys to come in and audition today, too. After all, 'The Consequence of Being Francine' just didn't have that same double-meaning to it. But he'd work with whatever he was given, of course.


[Open auditions are open to all!]

Comments

Arrive/Mingle

[furnaceface]

Lemon water, tea, pastries, mingling. You know the score!

Re: Arrive/Mingle

[whenshewasnice]

Since Natalie was here and everything, she grabbed herself a pastry and some tea. Because they looked tasty.

[one-for-vanity.livejournal.com]

Porthos actually looked at the tea for the first time, and smelled it, and tasted it and then made a face. "How interesting!" he declared in an attempt at being polite. "And what do you call this beverage?"

[furnaceface]

"Tea," Jono replied, giving Porthos a bit of a side-eye. "It's just tea."

For what it was worth, Jono wasn't much of a fan, either.

Sometimes, he actually managed to buck the stereotype!

[one-for-vanity.livejournal.com]

"Is it?" Porthos asked. He took another sip, made another face, and contemplated the drink. "So... this is something native to the New World, then? It's quite interesting."

Audition!

[furnaceface]

It's easy. Just get up onto the stage, introduce yourself, and then perform your monologue.

Remember, the more you act it up, the more Jono has to work with while casting you! Be descriptive thorough expressive!

Re: Audition!

[glacial_queen]

Karla, being female again, was in a much better frame of mind to perform a monologue today than she had been on Saturday. After helping herself to some snacks, she bounded up to center stage.

"Kiss kiss," she said, mostly because she thought it was silly to introduce herself to Jono. "My name is Karla and I'm performing the monologue 'Catherine' by Chris Wind. I'm pretty sure that you will understand why I chose it by the time I'm done."

[SP for Remicaid.]

Re: Audition!

[furnaceface]

"I can only imagine what it is you're about to throw at me, Karla," Jono chuckled, shaking his head a little. "It's good to see your mood improved since last we spoke, at any rate. Let's hear what you've got prepared, luv."

Re: Audition!

[glacial_queen]

"We should also figure out when I'm going to come back and sing for you," she said, before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.

When she opened them again, she was someone else. Someone cold, proud, hard, and angry. Her voice was tight when she began speaking, tense with anger and contemptuous amusement. Taut with those two emotions as an imperfect cover for a depth of hurt that even she couldn't fathom.

Only her eyes and voice showed the volume of her emotions. It was a wonder that she was big enough to contain it all. She was Catherine and she was righteous fury kept barely in check, seething around the edges. She held herself perfectly still in hopes of maintaining that steely control, because even one false move might make her rage and hurt explode.

"That you don't recognize me by name is but the first of my complaints about my tale. Oh you know me alright. I'm the main character—in a tale titled with the name of one of the men in the story. But what's in a name? A lot. Especially if it's a man's name. This man's name is the answer to the question upon which rests the fate of myself and my newborn child. So his name is very powerful, it is very important. My name apparently is not."

How many females did this monologue speak to? How many women and girls, in literature and in history, had their names sandpapered over in favor of the men that lived with them? How many women had been the objects and the subjects, but never the actors in their own lives' dramas? How many of them felt nameless and voiceless and buried, even while they still breathed?

Catherine--and Karla--spoke for those women.

"Nor is my life. For whether it is to be filled with joy and delight from being with my newborn, or empty with grief and loss from separation is to be decided by a mere guessing game.

Nor are my words important. I denied my father's boast. I told the King I most definitely could not spin gold out of straw. But he didn't believe me. Of course not. He chose instead to believe the words of an immature, egotistic, vain man. And I suffer the consequences."

Now she began moving, an angry panther-stride back in forth at center stage. She'd worn her Widow's Weeds and they roiled around her feet, like an agitated whorl of ink.

Her voice dropped lower, still pitched enough to reach the audience, but quiet enough to make them lean forward to make sure they heard. There were no exclamations, no forceful questions, no yelling, even. Just words chosen to cut and delivered with all the feeling she could muster.

"The consequences. To pay for my father's ridiculous lie, I lose my sanity, my freedom, and my dignity for three nights—and almost my child, forever. (And one sentence—one sentence--in the whole tale is devoted to that ‘choice’, that decision to give up my child in return for my life.)"

No, seriously, did you understand how wrong that was? Karla stopped pacing to look out at the audience, giving the illusion she was meeting everyone's eyes with her own. For a moment, just a bare moment, her posture slipped; her fury faded, and the bare hurt had a chance to show throw. One sentence to damn her forever, to make the god-awful choice to give up now or to give up something even more later.

She looked away, a sharp motion, closing her eyes and drawing in one more breath. Now was not for her pain to be on view. If they'd wanted that, she should have gotten more than a single sentence. Instead, they would get her rage and they could choke on it.

"Because I 'succeeded' on the third night, I was 'rewarded' with marriage to the King. Thus, for all intents and purposes, I also lost my life. Can you imagine what it is like to be married—legally bound to honour and obey--until death, and socioeconomically bound with little option but to stay and make the best of it—to a man who didn't believe me, a man who locked me in a room for three nights, a man so greedy that he said three nights in a row he'd kill me unless I did as he wanted? And that was before he owned me."

Re: Audition!

[ihaveavideoblog.livejournal.com]

Lizzie bounced (http://fandomtownies.livejournal.com/6722048.html?thread=253992960#t253992960) onto the stage, giving a quick bow to her employer.

"My name is Lizzie Bennet, and I ... don't actually know if this monologue has a proper title," she said, squinting at the sheet. "But it's a speech from A Suitable Spouse by Oscar Wilde. And I haven't had any time to prepare, so bear with me if it's a little rough."

Re: Audition!

[furnaceface]

"I can be a little forgiving of rough," Jono replied, nodding up at her. "Considering you agreed to audition all of thirty seconds ago, rough is to be expected. If you'd like to take a minute to read it through and work out how you'd like to approach it, that would be fine, too."

Re: Audition!

[ihaveavideoblog.livejournal.com]

"Okay," Lizzie nodded. "I'm going to take thirty, here, and then I'll start."

It didn't help that she didn't remember this particular bit of the play, at least not offhand. That just meant she had to pick a characterization and stick to it. Okay, she could handle that. She scanned the monologue (http://www.monologuearchive.com/w/wilde_012.html), picking out spots to emphasize and getting the words a bit un-jumbled in her brain.

It was closer to a full minute than thirty seconds, but she had a feeling Jono wasn't sitting in the audience with a stopwatch.

She drew herself up, took a deep breath, and gestured a bit dismissively. Now or never.

"Well, Tommy has proposed to me again," she sighed. How aggravating. "Tommy really does nothing but propose to me. He proposed to me last night in the music-room, when I was quite unprotected, as there was an elaborate trio going on."

The nerve of some people, to just propose in the middle of a musical trio. Really.

"I didn't dare to make the smallest repartee, I need hardly tell you," she added, both rolling her eyes and clearly enjoying this chance at idle gossip. "If I had, it would have stopped the music at once. Musical people are so absurdly unreasonable. They always want one to be perfectly dumb at the very moment when one is longing to be absolutely deaf."

So take that, musical people. Bad enough she had to be proposed to, but she had to be proposed to against the backdrop of dreadful music.

"Then he proposed to me in broad daylight this morning, in front of that dreadful statue of Achilles," she continued. Tacky! What was he thinking!? "Really, the things that go on in front of that work of art are quite appalling. The police should interfere." Why else even have police?

"At luncheon I saw by the glare in his eye that he was going to propose again, and I just managed to check him in time by assuring him that I was a bimetallist. Fortunately I don't know what bimetallism means." She could not be prouder of herself, for that sly little misdirection. "And I don't believe anybody else does either. But the observation crushed Tommy for ten minutes. He looked quite shocked."

Luckily, if he tried gossiping about her to anyone else, he'd hit the dead end of none of them knowing what bimetallism was, either. It couldn't be anything too terrible, after all, or she would have heard of it by now.

She sighed. She might enjoy the gossip, but dear heavens, Tommy was exasperating. "And then Tommy is so annoying in the way he proposes. If he proposed at the top of his voice, I should not mind so much. That might produce some effect on the public. But he does it in a horrid confidential way." She dropped her voice to mimic his wimpy tones. "When Tommy wants to be romantic he talks to one just like a doctor."

Like she was going to accept such a terrible, uncouth proposal. As if.

"I am very fond of Tommy, but his methods of proposing are quite out of date. I wish, Gertrude, you would speak to him," imperiousness at its best, "and tell him that once a week is quite often enough to propose to any one, and that it should always be done in a manner that attracts some attention."

Because if she wasn't going to receive thunderous applause for her part in this proposal, why did he even ask!?

Lizzie waited a moment before dropping the haughty mannerisms and executing a very polite bow.

[one-for-vanity.livejournal.com]

Porthos stood up on the stage with a look of consternation on his face. He was a large man, both head to toe and around the middle, but his presence seemed to fill the space far beyond that. "Bonjour!" he thundered. "I am Monsieur le Chevalier du Vallon de Bracieux de Pierrefonds d'Efferton, late of the King's Musketeers and current proprietor of le Cafe Fina. No one informed me that I was supposed to prepare a piece beforehand, and therefore I regret to inform you that I must disappoint you on that front. May I, instead, regale you with a song?"

[furnaceface]

"Er..." Jono was side-eyeing Porthos some more. He was positive that he had mentioned something about monologues at last week's improv class, and that the man had been there. But then, he supposed he couldn't put too much stock in his ability to remember something like that.

Frenchmen.

"I have monologues here for you to choose from, if you haven't brought anything. This show isn't a musical, mate."

[one-for-vanity.livejournal.com]

Porthos would be willing to swear to the fact that Jono had mentioned nothing of the sort -- or, at least, if he had, he hadn't done it nearly loud enough.

"You do?" he asked graciously. "How thoughtful of you!"

He flipped through the monologues quickly, and snapped at one from Sophocles -- at least that was a name he recognized. He had several works by Sophocles on his shelves at home, in fact, although like all of the rest of his books they had never been opened.

He stepped back to center stage again and stood proudly in the center, looking the complete opposite of someone who had just screwed up. "Very good. You will let me know when you are ready for me to begin," he instructed.

Re: Audition!

[beautifulsenshi.livejournal.com]

"OHAYO!" Minako cheered as she bounced on to the stage. "I'm still Minako Aino, and I'm doing a bit from 'The Pretentious Young Ladies' by Moliere."

She didn't give him a chance to reply before putting her hands on her hips and launching into her piece. "Good heavens!" she said, making a face. "If everybody was like you a love-story would soon be over. Matrimony ought never to happen till after other adventures!" DUH.

"A lover, to be agreeable, must understand how to utter fine sentiments, to breathe soft, tender, and passionate vows; his courtship must be according to the rules." Because it was no fun if you didn't make them work for it, and Minako winked at him. "In the first place, he should behold the fair one of whom he becomes enamoured either at a place of worship, or when out walking, or at some public ceremony; or else he should be introduced to her by a relative or a friend, as if by chance, and when he leaves her he should appear in a pensive and melancholy mood."

"For some time he should conceal his passion from the object of his love, but pay her several visits, in every one of which he ought to introduce some gallant subject to exercise the wits of all the company. When the day comes to make his declarations--which generally should be contrived in some shady garden-walk while the company is at a distance--it should be quickly followed by anger, which is shown by our blushing, and which, for a while, banishes the lover from our presence. He finds afterwards means to pacify us, to accustom us gradually to hear him depict his passion, and to draw from us that confession which causes us so much pain. After that come the adventures, the rivals who thwart mutual inclination, the persecutions of fathers, the jealousies arising without any foundation, complaints, despair, running away with, and its consequences. Thus things are carried on in fashionable life, and veritable gallantry cannot dispense with these forms."

"But to come out point-blank with a proposal of marriage!" Minako threw up her hands in exasperation at the very idea! "--to make no love but with a marriage-contract, and begin a novel at the wrong end! Once more, father, nothing can be more tradesman like, and the mere thought of it makes me sick at heart."

Re: Audition!

[furnaceface]

"Well done, Minako," Jono said, once it looked like she was through. "That was very... enthusiastic."

Much like everything that Minako had done on his stage, really. Jono was starting to see that this was more or less her default setting.

"And not an easy piece to perform, at that," he added, smiling faintly. "You get props for that, luv."

Re: Audition!

[beautifulsenshi.livejournal.com]

Minako's default setting was pretty much 'gerbil on sugar,' yes.

"Thank you!" she said, placing her hands on her legs and bowing. "I really like that one, since she gets to lecture him about how these things need to be done. The social expectations are there because there needs to be a chase, or else you can't know what you're getting into."

Talk to Jono!

[furnaceface]

He has coffee. He's here to talk to about the production, or whatever suits your fancy, really. For all that he's a big grump, he actually kind of loves talking.

Sssh, don't tell.

Re: Talk to Jono!

[whenshewasnice]

"How go the auditions?"

Natalie was back to normal in just about every way, yes.

Re: Talk to Jono!

[furnaceface]

"I'm dangerously close to dancing on the sidewalk wearing a sandwich board in an attempt to draw more people in," Jono replied, offering Natalie a wry smile. "Still, it's early in the evening, there's hope yet. And everyone who has auditioned so far has been very enthusiastic. That's always a good sign."

But he was going to be putting a lot of women in men's clothing for this show.

... Also not a complaint.

Re: Talk to Jono!

[whenshewasnice]

After the weekend she'd had, Natalie couldn't have really objected to that notion, no.

"Think you'll need more actors from the crew?"

Was she offering? Who even knew. She posed it as an idle question.

Re: Talk to Jono!

[ihaveavideoblog.livejournal.com]

Lizzie also had coffee.

"How are the numbers looking?" Lizzie asked, dropping into a seat near his.

She sort of assumed she'd be helping out with Frank. It helped that she had large chunks of it memorized, from watching the Colin Firth version.

... sure, most people liked the older black-and-white version better, but the older one didn't have Colin Firth.

Re: Talk to Jono!

[furnaceface]

"Four so far," Jono sighed, glancing her way. "At this rate, luv, I might ask you to read for me, too. You like Wilde, right?"

Was that a stupid question? Jono was sure it might be a stupid question.

OOC!

[furnaceface]

I might be thrust into SP for the start of the day, since it looks like work is starting to hand me, you know, work to do! But I will be around in the evening, so don't fret if I don't get to you right away.

Please, be descriptive with your character's performance of their monologue, so that I know what sort of job they actually did up there. Preference will be given to people who give more for me to work with, so it can't hurt to go through and show how your character acts out the whole thing.

If you don't have a monologue handy, poke me here OOCly or just have your character ask Jono ICly, and one will be chucked at you at random.

Have fun!