[Capdist-auditions] Auditions for January play by Steve Martin & a February/March Jewish drama in Schenectady

[Michael Silvia]

Classic Theater Guild is pleased to announce auditions for our proposed Winter 2024 shows!

Picasso at the Lapin Agile by Steve Martin
Monday, November 13th and Tuesday, November 14th
(If needed, a 3rd night of auditions will be held on Thursday, Nov 16th.)
Sign-ups 6:30pm, Auditions start at 7pm

A Shayna Maidel by Barbara Lebow
The week after Thanksgiving. Dates announced soon.
Both shows' auditions and performances are held at the Congregation Beth Israel, 2195 Eastern Parkway, Schenectady, NY (Niskayuna).

Picasso at the Lapin Agile:
Parts for 7 male-presenting and 2 female-presenting individuals. Could be expanded, depending on what doubling is done.
If age is not listed after the name, there is some flexibility.
FREDDY - the owner and bartender of the Lapin Agile

GASTON - an older man

GERMAINE - waitress and Freddy's girlfriend

ALBERT EINSTEIN - age twenty-five
SUZANNE/A FEMALE ADMIRER - age nineteen
SAGOT - Picasso's art dealer

PABLO PICASSO - age twenty-three
CHARLES DABERNOW SCHMENDIMAN - a young man with big plans
THE COUNTESS
A VISITOR – age twenty-five
 Note: Plan is for Schmendiman actor to act as Swing for Einstein/Picasso/Freddy; Sagot actor for Gaston. Dependent on actors involved.

**This is a very short rehearsal period and there are multiple respiratory illnesses going around. Due to concern about safety for cast and crew, and not just safety but also successfully rehearsing and performing the show... actors will be asked to stay masked during rehearsals and off-stage during tech week. The plus side of this is no vaccination status needs to be proved. **
SYNOPSIS:  This long-running Off-Broadway absurdist comedy places Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso in a Parisian cafe in 1904, just before the renowned scientist transformed physics with his theory of relativity and the celebrated painter set the art world afire with cubism.

In his first comedy for the stage, the popular actor and screenwriter Steve Martin plays fast and loose with fact, fame and fortune as these two geniuses muse on the century's achievements and prospects as well as other fanciful topics with infectious dizziness.

Bystanders, including Picasso's agent, the bartender and his mistress, Picasso's date, an elderly philosopher, and an idiot inventor introduce additional flourishes of humor. The final surprise patron to join the merriment at the Lapin Agile is a charismatic dark haired singer time warped in from a later era.
Auditions will consist of provided sides from the play.
Performance dates are January 18, 20, 21; 25, 27 and 28, 2024.
Questions can be written to the director Michael Silvia at soundmic645 at hotmail.com<mailto:soundmic645 at hotmail.com>

A SHAYNA MAIDEL:

  *    Sides will be provided at audition.  If potential auditioners would like to look at sides in advance please write the director at StephenSanbornPhD at gmail.com<mailto:StephenSanbornPhD at gmail.com>
  *   COVID vaccination is required in order to be cast.  Please bring proof of vaccination to your audition.

Performances are February 29th, March 2nd & 3rd, and the following weekend of March 7th, March 9th & 10th.

ROLES

ROSE WEISS – Young Woman born in Poland.  Immigrated to United Stated as a child with her father MORDECHAI just before Depression hit.  She is now living in Manhattan, nice apartment, nice job, comfortable life.

MORCECHAI WEISS – ROSE’s Father, old-world stern & determined.  Brought ROSE with him to America just before Depression hit but was ultimately unable to bring his wife and other daughter to America before WWII broke out. Kept trying to raise funds to bring MAMA & LUSIA to America but invasion of Poland trapped them &they never emigrated.

MAMA – Wife of MORCDECHAI. MAMA & LUSIA were to immigrate with MORDECHAI & ROSE, but LUSIA contracted scarlet fever & was not allowed to enter the United States.  They were ultimately delayed so long that they were trapped in Poland during WWII.  MAMA died in Auschwitz.

LUSIA WEISS PECHENIK – Older daughter of MORDECHAI & MAMA.  LUSIA & MAMA were trapped in Poland during WWII & imprisoned in Auschwitz.  LUISA was liberated from Auschwitz with HANNA at the end of the WWII and through international aid agencies has been reunited in NYC with ROSE & MORCECHAI.

DUVID PECHENIK – Childhood friend of LUISA & LUISA’s family.  LUISA & DUVID wed sometime after MORCECHAI & ROSE emigrated.  DUVID disappeared during WWII and his whereabouts are unknown.  DUVID & LUISA had an infant daughter who also died in Auschwitz.

HANNA – Childhood friend of LUISA and LUISA’s family.  She survived Auschwitz but died very shortly after being liberated from typhus & malnutrition.

SYNOPSIS
Barbara Lebow's play A Shayna Maidel, first produced in 1985, dramatizes the saga of the Weiss family, Polish Jews whose lives are irrecoverably altered by the Holocaust.  A Shayna Maidel is a memory play in that it is set in three times: when Mordechai is born in 1876, when his two daughters (Rose White and Lusia Weiss Pechenik) are reunited in New York<https://www.encyclopedia.com/places/united-states-and-canada/us-political-geography/new-york> City during the present (1946), and when Lusia has flashbacks of her life in Poland immediately before and after the Holocaust.  Lusia has survived Auschwitz, and the Red Cross<https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/political-science-and-government/international-organizations/red-cross> and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society have contacted her father to inform him that she is coming to New York<https://www.encyclopedia.com/places/united-states-and-canada/us-political-geography/new-york>. Mordechai insists that she come to live with her sister, Rose. This order from her father upsets Rose because she does not remember her sister and thus feels uncomfortable about sharing an apartment with her. In addition, Rose, having come to New York at the age of four, has become fully Americanized and has even changed her name from Rayzel Weiss to Rose White. Although she is not ashamed of being Jewish, she has distanced herself from her past in Poland and her Jewish heritage; she does not even keep kosher, which disturbs Mordechai. The main reason Rose feels uncomfortable about living with Lusia is her guilt: she has enjoyed a peaceful and uneventful life in New York while her sister suffered unspoken atrocities during the Holocaust.





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