Dracula – A Comedy of Terrors Auditions

AUDITION INFORMATION

Sunday, September 7 @ 6PM
Monday, September 8 @ 6PM

Callbacks, if needed, will take place in the evening on Tuesday, September 9.

Performers should plan to arrive at the start of the audition time. Please contact casting@thegrandoperahouse.com if you cannot be there at the top of the audition time.

Actors will be notified if they are needed for callbacks. If you are not called back, it does not mean you are not being considered for a role.

Location:

Auditions will be held at The Grand’s Rehearsal space in the Arcade Building, 880 Locust St., Suites 222 and 228.  Please enter through the Locust Street entrance.  When you enter, take the stairs on the right to the second floor. The rooms are right at the top of the stairs.

AUDITION REQUIREMENTS:

• Fill out the digital audition form HERE prior to your arrival to save time at auditions. Those auditioning should be prepared to list all conflicts or potential conflicts that overlap with a production’s rehearsal and performance schedule.
• Actors will be asked to read from a selection of short sides from the piece.

Alternate Audition and Video Submissions:
Actors unable to attend auditions may submit an audition video to casting@thegrandoperahouse.com. Video submissions should include a  1-2 minute comedic monologue and must be received no later than 6pm Monday, September 8.

GENERAL PRODUCTION INFORMATION:

Diretor – Jenna Jensen

This production is open to adult actors, ages 18 and above.

Performances
October 17, 18, 24 and 25 @ 7:30PM
October 19 and 26 @ 2:00PM

Full company rehearsals will begin tentatively September 14
Dress/Technical and Brush-up Rehearsals are October 12 – 16 and 23
Availability for dress/technical rehearsals and all performances is mandatory

Detailed Rehearsal schedules will be made available upon the completion of casting.

CASTING INFORMATION:

The creative team seeks a diverse company of adult actors, ages 18-above. Actors of all ethnicities will be equally considered for all roles and actors of color are encouraged to audition. All roles are open. This piece was originally written for 5 actors to play multiple parts. The breakdown below reflects that doubling, although the creative team may change that doubling based on final casting.

Author’s Notes About Casting and Gender:
Please note that the play lovingly sends up gender “norms” in the style of some of our comedic heroes like Charles Ludlam and Monty Python, in that all characters can be played by actors of any gender, ethnicity, age or type.

Actor 1
Jonathan Harker – Prim and proper and obsessive-compulsive real estate agent, frightened of his own shadow. Engaged to his childhood crush Lucy Westfeldt and enamored of her fearlessness. Once bitten he loosens up … a lot … and becomes a Tom Jones-style rock star in leather pants.

Lord Cavendish – Lucy’s suitor; a Scottish dolt.

Lord Worthington – Lucy’s suitor; posh, British and petulant.

Lord Havemercy – Lucy’s arrogant suitor from Memphis, a la Yosemite Sam.

Bosun – A scurvy seaman who goes down with the ship in a storm.

Gravedigger – A drunk gravedigger with a secret.

Actor 2
Dr. Wallace Westfeldt – Lucy and Mina’s father, a blowhard; self-important misogynist given to proclamations and posturing with his pipe. A doctor caring for the criminally insane, he has recently lost his wife to consumption.

Renfield – Insane patient of Dr. Westfeldt who lives to serve and loves to eat bugs. In a word, the dude is nuts.

Captain – The salty captain of a doomed ship caught in a raging storm.

Actor 3
Lucy Westfeldt – Brilliant plucky earth scientist daughter of Dr. Westfeldt, she is full of energy and the spirit of adventure and often underestimated because of her beauty. Engaged to Jonathan, but when Dracula moves to Whitby, she is curious about his strange ways and impressed by their similar interests.

Kitty Rutherford – A dotty kleptomaniac patient of Dr. Westfeldt, she serves as a maid in his house. Think Mrs. Lovett but servile and easily distracted.

Driver – The male, Transylvanian driver of the carriage carrying Jonathan to Dracula’s castle who tries·to warn him. Borat meets Boris and Natasha.

Actor 4
Mina Westfeldt – The less attractive, less intelligent Westfeldt daughter, she lives in her sister Lucy’s shadow and is desperate for attention. She is immediately (pathetically) receptive to Dracula’s charms.

Dr. Van Helsing – Brilliant and sturdy German vampire-hunting doctor from the University of Schmutz. Deadly serious in the way Germans can be, she is accustomed to people not believing she is a real doctor. Strong, shmart, unt bold, she is a woman of action.

Actor 5
Count Dracula – He is a narcissist whose greatest love is himself -and his leather pants. Bored with women falling all over him, he becomes obsessed with Lucy when he hears of her strength and adventurousness. The less she needs him, the more interested he is. He travels to Whitby to find her and make her his bride for eternity.