[Capdist-auditions] Casting call for play, single performance, May 5th, Albany, Forbidden to Protect

[H, M]

Hello. I am a Siena College professor facilitating the casting of a play to
be performed in Albany on the evening of Saturday, May 5th.

I chair and run an annual conference, weekend-long conference, the Battered
Mothers Custody Conference (BMCC).  This event, which will be held this
year on May 4th - 6th at the Red Lion Inn on Wolf Road, Albany,  brings
together national and local DV experts to address the legal, psychological,
and social justice barriers affecting domestic violence survivors who
attempt to gain legal protections for their children upon leaving a
relationship with an abuser.

This year, on Saturday evening, May 5th, we plan to host the original
hour-long play, *Forbidden to Protect.*  The play depicts the true-life
stories of women who lost custody of their children to an abusive
ex-partner via the family court/divorce system of our country.  The script
is taken directly from actual court transcripts and interviews with the DV
survivors whose stories are being depicted. The material is appropriately
shocking and timely, and it has profound social justice implications.  In
participating, you would be contributing to the enlightenment of the
general public about a serious pattern of societal injustice.  I hope you
will consider donating your skills to this cause.

The director and co-author of the play, Lundy Bancroft, is an
internationally known author ("Why Does He Do That?"  "The Batterer as
Parent") and expert on the dynamics of battering relationships.
http://lundybancroft.com/

Lundy has asked me to reach out to local actors to cast this play, which
will have a single performance on the evening of May 5th and will involve
2-3 rehearsals in the upcoming few weeks prior to the performance. He
also informed
me that the main roles will involve monologues of between 1000 and 1500
words, although it is my understanding that some roles involve fewer lines.

Please see below a description of the play and, beneath that, a list of the
roles to be filled.  A link at which the event is publicized is
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/forbidden-to-protect-a-debut-stage-performance-
tickets-44165071919

If you would be interested in being in this production, please email me
back at this address, hannah at siena.edu with a cc: to Lundy Bancroft at
lundybancroft at juno.com.  Also feel free to pass on this announcement to any
of your theatre friends and colleagues. Prior acting experience is not
necessary.

Thank you!
Dr. Mo Hannah
Professor of Psychology, Siena College
Chair, BMCC

* Forbidden to Protect *is a stage show that depicts the true stories of
seven cases from across the U.S. where family courts have taken children
away from non-violent mothers to give them to violent batterers and child
molesters.  These stories were collected and compiled by Patrice Lenowitz
and Lundy Bancroft. The words spoken in the play are almost entirely the
actual words of the mothers and children we interviewed, along with the
precise statements of judges and court-appointed evaluators from court
records. While each of these cases examined in isolation would seem
unbelievable, taken together they form an inescapable portrayal of a
national system of cruelty that oppresses and exploits women and children.



     Our intention is for this play to be performed in communities
throughout the United States, exposing the human rights abuses committed by
family courts, and driving mandatory trauma-informed training and ACE*
prevention goals to be met by all professionals involved in child custody
decisions.



*** The *CDC*-*Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences* (ACE) Study
is one of the largest investigations of childhood abuse and neglect and
later-life health and well-being. Exposure to child abuse and neglect will
negatively impact the short and long-term mental and physical health and
wellbeing of a child, as well as negatively affect their biological systems
and structures. As such, the wide-ranging health and social consequences of
ACEs make them a public health issue. A lack of commitment to act by family
court and child welfare professionals is a significant obstacle to improved
community health.


*FORBIDDEN TO PROTECT CAST*


Race/skin color unimportant except where noted. Ages are goals but not
essential. The six main parts, listed first, all require extensive
memorization, as these characters give monologues of between five and ten
minutes in length, mostly closer to ten

** KIM: *30-60, female, African-American
** PRITHI: *30-60, female, East Indian
** AMELIA: *30-60 female, Latina
** SAVANNAH*: 30-60 female
** NICOLE: *30-60, female
** LOGAN: *15-25, male

We could also use, for small parts:

*TALIA*: 15 - 25, female
*HEATHER: *30-60, female
*JUDGE MICHAEL SMYTH*: any age, male
*JUDGE MARY THOMPSON*: any age, female
*ATTORNEY TERRY CHUCAS: *any age, male
*ATTORNEY JOHN WARREN*: any age, male
*PETER SANDERSON: *30 + male
*MARTIN: *any age, male
*GLORIA: *any age, female

-- 
Mo Therese Hannah, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology, Siena College
NYS Licensed Psychologist
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