Alumni Show

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 1^st 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 21^st.  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