Upcoming Auditions: Bulrusher, Spring 2021

UPCOMING AUDITIONS
Honors Thesis Remote Project, Spring 2021:
Bulrusher
by Eisa Davis

CLICK HERE to sign up for an audition
No previous performance experience is neccesary! No memorization is required!

AUDITION DATE
Friday February 19, 4-7 pm
Saturday February 20, 4:30-7:30 pm
Sunday February 21 (callbacks, 3:30-6:30 pm)

LOCATION
Remote, via Zoom; links will be emailed to participants in advance of their scheduled audition time.

ABOUT THE PLAY AND THE PRODUCTION

In 1955, in the redwood country north of San Francisco, a multiracial girl grows up in a predominantly white town whose residents pepper their speech with the historical dialect of Boontling. Found floating in a basket on the river as an infant, Bulrusher is an orphan with a gift for clairvoyance that makes her feel like a stranger even amongst the strange: the taciturn schoolteacher who adopted her, the madam who runs her brothel with a fierce discipline, the logger with a zest for horses and women, and the guitar-slinging boy who is after Bulrusher's heart. Just when she thought her world might close in on her, she discovers an entirely new sense of self when a black girl from Alabama comes to town. Passionate, lyrical, and chock full of down-home humor, this play is an unforgettable experience by a new, thrilling voice; a 2007 Pulitzer Prize finalist.

This radio-play production of Bulrusher will be directed by Lexi Warden '21 as an honors thesis project, with Sam West '20 as sound designer. The production process will begin with a private read-through on or around March 9; rehearsals will officially begin the week of March 29, and will likely take place a couple of evenings/week. The performance will be pre-recorded; the final performance will take place via April 16 or 17 (streaming platform TBD), with recordings likely taking place the previous week. No memorization is required.

ABOUT THE AUDITION
No previous performance experience is neccesary!

CLICK HERE to sign up for an audition slot; time slots are in 10-minute increments. If you are not able to make any of the available time slots due to scheduling or time zone constraints, please email Brianna Parry to discuss the possibility of submitting a video audition.

Students are encouraged to read the script before their audition; the script is available HERE for viewing (note that this is a perusal copy only; absolutely NO printing!). The audition will include reading selected scenes (called "sides") from the script; sides are available HERE.

CHARACTER BREAKDOWN/AVAILABLE ROLES

Roles listed below may be played by actors of any gender identity.

  • BULRUSHER: 18, multiracial, Black female (should be played by Black identifying actor)
  • VERA: 18, Black female
  • MADAME: 40s, biracial, Native American female (should be played by a Native/Indigenous identifying actor)
  • LOGGER: 40s, Black male
  • SCHOOLCH: 40s-50s, white male
  • BOY: 18, white male
  • STAGE DIRECTIONS: may be played by an actor of any racial identity