AUDITIONS – THE TAMING

Open auditions for Silverthorne Theater Company’s 2022-23 Season opener, Lauren Gunderson’s The Taming, will be held June 10-12 at the LAVA Center, 324 Main Street, Greenfield.  

Audition slots are available for Friday, June 10, from 6-8 pm; or Saturday, June 11, from 9:30-11:30 am. Callbacks will be held on Sunday, June 12, from 1-3 pm. Auditioners should submit recent headshots and current resumes to [email protected]. Video submissions will be considered if received by June 10, but anyone submitting a video would need to be available for the Sunday callbacks. Proof of vaccination against Covid-19 is required for all auditioners. Call 413-7678-7514 for more details.

Performance Dates: October 14-22, 2022.

Director Mary Corinne Miller is a theater-maker, educator, and arts administrator based in the Pioneer Valley. She has worked with numerous professional theater companies in New York City and throughout Western Massachusetts including The Player’s Theater, The Children’s Theater Company, TADA! Theater, Shakespeare and Company, New Century Theater, and Barrington Stage Company.

The Play:

The Taming by Lauren Gunderson is a raucous, all-female political comedy inspired by Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew. When two political opponents wake up to discover themselves locked in a hotel room with a beauty queen hell-bent on revolutionizing the American government, they are forced to face the vast political divide in order to find a way to save both themselves and our great democracy. Born out of frustration over the partisan grid-lock holding our country hostage, this play tackles the role of women in contemporary American government, the vision and biases of the founding fathers, feminism and beauty pageants, political extremism, Liberal angst and the GOP, through the startling humor of three wildly different, and richly developed women who might just be political geniuses.

Settings:

The present, Georgia, at the hotel hosting the Miss Georgia Pageant.

July, 1787, the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.

Cast:

The cast is comprised of three roles, with each role portraying two to three characters. All roles are described as being in their 20s-30s and female-identifying. As per the playwright: “Actors need not be white”. Actors of all races, ethnicities, abilities, genders, ages and political leanings are strongly encouraged to audition.

KATHERINE- A southern belle and determined pageant winner. Also plays George and Martha Washington in 1787 as well as Dolley Madison.

PATRICIA- A conservative aide to Georgia’s Senator Peter Baxter. Also plays James Madison in 1787.

BIANCA- A liberal southern hipster activist. Also plays a sweet southern good-girl intern, and Charles Pickney in 1787.

For the auditions, actors may choose to:

Read from sides provided

OR

Perform a 1-2 minute contemporary comedic monologue of their choosing

Actors are also strongly encouraged to demonstrate a non-musical talent (such as a magic trick, telling jokes, flexibility/ yoga, gymnastics, juggling, baton-twirling, tap-dancing, hip-hop, etc.)