Auditions

Upcoming Auditions

(scroll down for POTUS)

More of a Heart

by Dave Osmundsen
Directed by Allen J. MacLeod

Production Details

Full rehearsals begin February 26
Tech Week: March 23-27
Performance Dates: March 28-April 21
Performance Times: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays @ 7:30pm, Sundays @ 2pm or 6pm
More of a Heart is a Non-Equity production.

Audition Details

All first-round auditions will be via online video submission, due by January 10.
Initial Callbacks will be January 14, in person at the BLUEBARN.
See link at the bottom of the page for video submission instructions.

About the Play

When Mary-Ellen’s son Zachary was diagnosed with Autism, she became his fiercest advocate.  Now, many years later, she has become an Autism Warrior Extraordinaire – and he is grown up, struggling in college, and confronting the trauma of his compliance-based upbringing. When Zachary’s first romantic relationship goes awry, and Mary-Ellen receives a devastating diagnosis, mother and son must learn to communicate what needs to be said before time runs out.

About the Creative Team

Dave Osmundsen (He/Him/His) is a queer and Autistic playwright whose work has been seen and developed at the Kennedy Center/NNPN MFA Playwrights Workshop, Purple Crayon Players, B Street Theatre, the William Inge Theatre Festival, Phoenix Theatre Company, Clamour Theatre Company, Premiere Stages, the Valdez Theatre Conference, and more. His play Light Switch was a Distinguished Achievement recipient of the Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award. A recipient of the Blank Theatre/Ucross Foundation’s inaugural Future of Playwriting Prize, his plays have been published by The Dionysian, Canyon Voices, Exposition Review, Concord Theatricals, Broadway Play Publishing, and more. MFA: Arizona State University.

Allen J. Macleod is a New York-based director of new plays and musicals. Recent credits include Love + Science (New York City Center Stage II), Light Switch (Spectrum Theatre Ensemble), The Trade Federation: or, Let’s Explore Globalization Through the Star Wars Prequels (IRT Theater); and Prophesy (The Wild Project; best direction award, Fresh Fruit Festival). Select associate/assisting credits include: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (The Kennedy Center); Frozen: A Musical Spectacular (Disney Cruise Lines); Presto Change-o, A Little More Alive, and Man of La Mancha (Barrington Stage); I Hate Hamlet (Bucks County Playhouse); We Are the Tigers (Gallery Players); Cory and Smin’s Love Conquers the Universe (Smiling Hogshead Ranch).

Director’s Note

More of a Heart is, at its core, a play about growth: about mothers and sons, the difficulty in connecting through differences, and the process of allowing relationship dynamics to change as participants struggle to know themselves – and each other – more deeply. Though there are moments of humor and levity, the piece is firmly a drama.

Roles

ZACHARY, male-identifying, 18—22
Autistic man, low needs/independent. Freshman in college for most of the play, studying computer science. A bit of an introvert, his favorite activity is playing video games. He finds in them the narrative control he lacks in his own life. Deeply loving and intelligent, he has a lot to say, but hasn’t been encouraged to fully, or honestly, articulate his thoughts and feelings. A former student of ABA therapy, he carries deep-seated trauma from this compliance-based practice. He gets emotionally overwhelmed easily, and occasionally stims with his mouth to emotionally regulate himself. A budding rebel, he learns to harness the power of his words throughout the play and is left with a lot of questions by the end.

MARY-ELLEN, female-identifying, 48
Zachary’s mother. Autism advocate. Passionate, upbeat, charming, especially in public. She is slightly self-absorbed and occasionally domineering but is not a cruel person by nature. She adores her son and takes great pride in all she thinks he has accomplished. She earnestly believes her story can help other moms in a similar situation to her without fully accounting for her privilege and access to resources. Simultaneously wants independence for Zachary and exerts too much control over him. Unafraid to be firm. She receives a fatal diagnosis part-way through the play and handles it with secrecy and discretion. She doesn’t want Zachary’s life to become taking care of her.

ANNE, female-identifying, 56-60
Ben’s mother. Autism advocate. Mary-Ellen’s best friend and mentor. Warm, good-natured, deeply compassionate, open-hearted, a community builder, energized by her Autism awareness advocacy. She is deeply proud of Ben but is worried about what support he’ll have after she is gone. She also questions her upbringing of Ben—she wonders if an alternative therapy to ABA would have made Ben feel more empowered. She’s not the most direct with conflict but will give an honesty dump when needed.

RACHEL, female-identifying, 18
A college student studying Women’s and Gender Studies. Spunky and intelligent, but rarely says the right thing at the right time. Her deep-seated sense of justice for marginalized groups is earnest and well-intentioned even though she sometimes speaks for or over the groups she claims to represent. Loves playing video games but hates the misogyny in the gamer community (the play mostly takes place in 2013, pre-Gamer Gate). A proud feminist.

BEN, male-identifying, 24
Autistic man, medium needs, occasional echolalia, and has an elevated speech pattern bordering on performative. Anne’s son. A gay man, he is embarking on his first relationship with another man. He works stocking shelves at the local pharmacy and is a valued and skilled employee. Clean cut and meticulous in appearance. Naturally hilarious, even when he doesn’t mean to be. He doesn’t like being laughed at for the wrong reasons. Another former student of ABA, he learned to comply at a young age. He doesn’t reflect on his trauma often—he doesn’t want his mother to feel guilt over how she raised him.

Audition Requirements

We request that you submit a prepared, contemporary dramatic monologue that you feel is a good fit based on the above descriptions. Alternatively, if it feels appropriate, one comedic monologue – contemporary – is also welcome. In total, submitted monologue(s) should not exceed three minutes.  Video auditions should be full head to toe with a neutral background.

Please follow the link below to submit your auditions materials. If you need assistance or encounter technical difficulties, please contact BLUEBARN’s Production Manager Amy Reiner at areiner@bluebarn.org, with the email subject line ‘More of a Heart Auditions.’  

Presented in partnership with Great Plains Theatre Commons

POTUS

Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive

by Selina Fillinger
Directed by Susan Clement

Production Details

Rehearsals begin April 22
Tech Week: May 18-22
Performance Dates: May 23-June 23
Performance Times: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays @ 7:30pm, Sundays @ 2pm or 6pm
POTUS is a Non-Equity production.

Audition Details

All first-round auditions will be via online video submission, due by January 7.
Initial Callbacks will be January 21, in person at the BLUEBARN.
See link at the bottom of the page for video submission instructions.

About the Play

One four-letter word is about to rock 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. When the President unwittingly spins a PR nightmare into a global crisis, the seven brilliant and beleaguered women he relies upon most risk life, liberty, and the pursuit of sanity to keep the commander-in-chief out of trouble.

About the Creative Team

SELINA FILLINGER is an internationally produced writer and performer. Original plays include THE COLLAPSESOMETHING CLEANFACELESS; and THE ARMOR PLAYS: CINCHED/STRAPPED. She recently made her Broadway debut with her seven-woman farce, POTUS: OR, BEHIND EVERY GREAT DUMBASS ARE SEVEN WOMEN TRYING TO KEEP HIM ALIVE. Her plays have been developed at Roundabout Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, McCarter Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Old Globe Theatre, Alley Theatre, St. Louis Repertory Theatre, and Northlight Theatre. She’s currently commissioned at South Coast Repertory and Roundabout. She was a Hawthornden Fellow and a resident of McCarter’s Sallie B. Goodman Artist’s Retreat; SOMETHING CLEAN is the recipient of the 2019 Laurents/Hatcher Award and CINCHED/STRAPPED received the 2019 Williamstown Theatre Festival’s L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award. POTUS was on the 2019 Kilroys List. Selina wrote for the third season of Apple TV’s THE MORNING SHOW, and is developing a pilot with Hunting Lane/Hulu.

Susan Clement (She/Her) has served as BLUEBARN’s Producing Artistic Director since 2002. She has directed numerous productions at the BLUEBARN, beginning with The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me in 1993. OEAA Awards – Best Director: Red Summer (2020), Indecent (2019), The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (2018), Our Town (2015), Red (2013), The Pillowman (2006). As director of the BLUEBARN, Susan alongside Shannon Walenta (Managing Director at the time) spearheaded the capital campaign that enabled the BLUEBARN to build its own stand-alone theater, and saw the dream fulfilled when BLUEBARN moved into its new home at 10th and Pacific in 2015. Susan holds a B.F.A. in Theatre/Film from the State University of New York at Purchase Conservatory.

Roles

7 fast, fierce, and f***ing hilarious Females (cis, trans, enby female identifying all welcome).All abilities are encouraged to audition. Ages are flexible. Beauty is subjective.

HARRIET – Late 40s-60s. Any ethnicity. Chief of Staff. A political bulldog who has chosen every aspect of her life, appearance, and personality in service of her career. A sexless and humorless middle-aged woman who lives and dies by the polls. Starts the play at a 7 and skyrockets from there. Everything is a means to the end.

JEAN –  Late 40s-60s. Any ethnicity. Press Secretary. A hawk in a turtleneck. A high-strung,quick-witted woman who can handle any pressroom and sterilize any scandal. A single working mother whose pristine life is threatened only by her knee-weakening attraction to disastrous sexual partners—one, in particular. Harriet’s more polished and more tactful counterpart. Think CJ from West Wing, but with more bite, cynicism, and learned paranoia.

STEPHANIE – 20s-30s. Any ethnicity. Presidential secretary. An obedient and diminutive millennial, terrified of failure and perpetually on the edge of nervous breakdown. Deeply brilliant, just crippled by her own imposter syndrome. So much potential energy and rage just waiting to be set free.

DUSTY – 20s-30s. Any ethnicity. President’s plaything. A glowing, curious, sex-positive girl with a multitude of skills and a bright future! Loves civic duty! Loves democracy! Determined to make the world better!

BERNADETTE – Late 30s-50s. White/Caucasian. President’s sister. A total trash fire. Strife and mayhem. A coked-up tornado with raw sexual charisma, fiery temper, and fantastic sense of humor. Jean’s kryptonite.

CHRIS – 30s-40s. Black/African-American. A journalist. Overburdened, under-slept, postpartum, newly-divorced, on the brink of irrelevancy. A dogged reporter with much to gain and everything to lose. 

MARGARET – She/her. Late 40s-60s. Black/African-American. The First Lady. An impeccable combination of high fashion, corporate experience, and legal savvy. Regal, sophisticated, brimming with bitterness and pent-up rage. Goes for the jugular.

Playwright’s Notes on Casting

American power structures are rooted in, and shaped by, white supremacy. Racism permeates our institutions, compounding gender and class inequity everywhere, but especially in electoral politics. This play is a critique of complicity in white patriarchy; thus, the following requirements speak to those dynamics and must be followed.
 
Bernadette is white. Margaret is Black. Chris is Black. Jean, Harriet, Dusty, and Stephanie can be played by actors of any ethnicity; but be aware that lines and relationships will land differently depending on the racial breakdown of the cast. Some of the insults will be more cringe, some less, depending on the privilege each character possesses. These are interesting dynamics to explore, but they should be interrogated consciously, with care for each community.
 
At least three of the characters must be women of color. Actors can be cis or trans. Age is flexible. Beauty is subjective. So long as they’re fast, fierce, and f***ing hilarious.
 

Audition Requirements

We request you submit a comedic or dramatic monologue or a monologue from a dramedy that you feel is a good fit based on the descriptions above. The monologue should not exceed three minutes.

Please follow the link below to submit your auditions materials. If you need assistance or encounter technical difficulties, please contact BLUEBARN’s Production Manager Amy Reiner at areiner@bluebarn.org, with the email subject line ‘POTUS Auditions.’  

Statement of Principle

BLUEBARN Theatre acknowledges the historic exclusion and lack of opportunity for artists who identify as Global Majority (Black, Indigenous, and people of color), LGBTQIA2S+, neuro-diverse, and artists with disabilities. We are actively working against the field-wide implicit bias and systemic inequities that result in default white, cis, heteronormative casting. BLUEBARN is likewise committed to countering all modes of discrimination in casting.

Statement against Harassment

BLUEBARN Theatre is committed to fostering a culture of civility, dignity and respect as a right and responsibility of all who walk through its doors. Employees, guest artists, volunteers, and patrons are entitled to and responsible for maintaining an environment of mutual trust – free from intimidation, exploitation, harassment and discrimination. Offensive, abusive, or unwelcome verbal or physical conduct will not be tolerated. Adhering to this standard is vital to the BLUEBARN’s mission: “to provoke thought, emotion, action, and change.”