OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:
Auditions
for the first ever Hillcrest High School Alumni Show will be Monday, July 7 at
7:00pm. Auditions will be held in Mr.
Long’s room (C202 if you forgot). You
may show up at any time between 7:00 and 9:00pm. You will need to perform a 30 to 60-second
Shakespearean monologue of your choosing.
The show will be
a cutting of William Shakespeare’s “King Henry VI, Part 1,” “King Henry VI,
Part 2,” and “King Henry VI, Part 3.”
The working title is “Henry 6: The War of the Roses” and will be
performed on the Hillcrest auditorium stage (remember that place?) on August
21, 22 and 23 at 7:00pm.
Auditions are
open to anyone who was a theatre student of Mr. Long’s from the graduating
classes of 2007 through 2014. If you
have not graduated yet, sorry no dice… go practice your audition for this
year’s Shakespeare Team J Anyone who
falls under the above criteria and can commit to the rehearsal schedule will be
cast.
The production
will be co-directed by Joshua Long and Giselle Gremmert (she’s a new theatre
teacher at Hillcrest…yup, there are now 2 of us) with additional help thrown in
from Jared Larkin when he can make it. J The production will be stage managed by
Zachary Bringhurst (class of 2009).
The show will
include many moments you will remember from past Shakespeare Teams including
the exact cuttings of 3 1st Place Hillcrest Shakespeare Competition
Ensemble Scenes: 2008’s “These words will cost 10,000 lives this day” scene
from Henry VI, Part 3; 2010’s “Knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to
heaven” scene from Henry VI, Part 2; and 2011’s “There comes the rain, there
begins confusion” scene from Henry VI, Part 1.
The show will be
a severely truncated version of Shakespeare’s script of the Henry VI
plays. It will follow Joan of Arc’s
invasion of England versus the Young King Henry and Talbot, York &
Somerset’s famous rose feud, the acquisition of Queen Margaret, the downfall of
Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, Suffolk’s schemings with Queen Margaret, the
distractions of Jack Cade, and the final battles of York and his sons versus
Margaret and Clifford, ending with Richard’s murder of King Henry.
All
roles are available except for the Duke of York which will be played by Joshua
Long (cause I think it would be awesome to act on stage with y’all…).
The
following major roles will need to be cast:
MEN:
King
Henry
Talbot
Young
Talbot
Duke
of Suffolk
Humphrey
Duke of Gloucester
Jack
Cade
Clifford
Young
Clifford
Bishop
of Winchester
Richard,
son of York
Edward,
son of York
George,
son of York
WOMEN:
Joan
la Pucelle
Margaret
Countess
of Auvergne
Duchess
of Gloucester
Lord
Say
Elizabeth
EITHER GENDER
(probably women):
Somerset
Brugundy
Buckingham
Warwick
Salisbury
There
are multiple other minor speaking roles and ensemble roles of course.
The rehearsal process will be very
different than what you are probably used to from past Hillcrest shows. We will not rehearse very much at all. Which means you will have to be able to
really bring it. J
Basically, our major rehearsal period
will be from August 11 through August 20.
That is one week of weeknight rehearsals (between 6-10pm probably), one
Saturday rehearsal (8am-3pm) and then 3 more weeknights before we open on
Thursday the 21st. That is
really all you will need to commit to. Anyone interested in being in the show
would need to be able to commit to those dates (or at least most of those
dates) since that is all we have to rehearse.
Before August 11, we will hold blocking
rehearsals where we will block each of the scenes once. These rehearsals will be scheduled based on
availability of the performers cast in the roles. Make sure you bring to your audition a list
of dates you will be available between July 7 and August 9 so we know when we
can schedule your blocking rehearsals.
We want to get as many of you in the cast as possible, so we will work
around summer schedules. Then on August
11, we will start putting it all together.
So you will need to be able to commit to coming to rehearsal on August
11 completely memorized and with your blocking down (you will have probably
only had one rehearsal per scene before that point to learn your
blocking). I think it will work…
Most of the roles are significant, but
aren’t in very many scenes because the story moves so quickly. Really the only ones that are in a ton of
scenes are Margaret and Henry, so we’ll have to find people for those roles
that will be around a little more in July to block the scenes, but most of the
other roles won’t be in more than a couple significant scenes. So it really will be like an all-star team
show. Kind of excited…
We will also be in need of people to
help out backstage or in other specialty roles (fight
choreographer…anyone?...anyone?)
I’m
really excited to work with you all again!
Email
or facebook me with questions.
---Josh
