[Capdist-auditions] Auditions: BETRAYAL - Schenectady Civic Players

[LWAndruski at aol.com]

Auditions for SCP’s  fourth show of the season, Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, 
will be held on  Tuesday, January 17 and Thursday, January 19 starting at 7:00 
PM at the  Playhouse, 12 S. Church Street, Schenectady, NY  12305.  
Betrayal is the story of a  married couple, Emma and Robert, and Robert’s 
best friend Jerry.  Jerry was the best man at the wedding,  lunched and played 
squash with Robert, and was a close business associate.  The play chronicles the 
lives of these  people during a 9-year period when Emma and Jerry had an 
illicit affair.  However, true to Pinter’s style, there  is a twist – he tells 
the story backwards, starting with a meeting two years  after the affair ended 
and finally, in the last scene, revealing how the affair  began. 
The play often leaves  you with more questions than answers. Not until the 
final curtain do you have  all the pieces of the story and can begin to put them 
together.  The audience leaves asking more  questions, and making their own 
judgments and opinions of the events they have  just witnessed.  The underlying 
 themes of trust, love, lust, envy, and revenge all are explored in an 
economy of  words and abundance of silence. 
The trademark of Mr.  Pinter’s lifelong work is the “Pinter pause”.  Mr. 
Pinter uses silence as frequently as  words to mark an event or revelation within 
a scene or a character.  Actors must be comfortable with being  silent, 
letting the pauses take the place of words.  At the audition, a brief instruction  
into the use of the Pinter pause will be conducted at the start of the 
audition  with the expectation that persons auditioning will be able to demonstrate 
the  proper use of the convention. 
Since the characters  are British, please be prepared to use an accent during 
audition, but do not let  the lack of one discourage you from auditioning.  
If needed, modifications can be made for  persons of interest to the casting 
committee.  Roles available  are: 
Emma:  40’s. Slightly younger than the men.  Confident and shrewd in the 
sense that she knows how to manipulate a situation  to her advantage.  Throughout 
the  play, she demonstrates that trust is a virtue only when it is to her  
advantage. 
Robert:  40’s.  His life is perfectly in order:  a wife, children and 
successful  career.  His best friend views him  as the cuckold husband, however, 
Robert makes it known, in a painfully frank  way, that he is in control of the 
situation. 
Jerry:  40’s.  Jerry lives for the excitement of the  moment – the afternoon 
trysts, stolen kisses, as long as they don’t interfere  with his own family 
life.  Jerry is  used as a pawn between Emma and Robert, without him being 
aware of the  situation. 
Production dates are March 17-19 and  22-26, 2006.  Please  contact Tom 
Heckert at 877 – 6777 with any questions. 

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