Auditions for JULIUS CAESAR

Hello all! Hope you're ready for this semester's first round of auditions. JULIUS CAESAR, directed by our very own Josh Wolonick, will be holding auditions next Tuesday and Wednesday, the 17th and 18th of January, respectively. Bring a one- to two-minute classical monologue, and a schedule so we can start planning rehearsals. Don't forget to sign up on the call board in the CDA hallway - auditions will be taking place from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm each night.

And here follows a note from director Josh Wolonick:

Actors,

Julius Caesar was Shakespeare's first great tragedy, the play he wrote right before Hamlet. It is the story of the conspiracy to kill Julius Caesar and the civil war that followed. The question is raised, how best do we rule a city? A nation? Who is the best ruler? The man of cold reason and logic? The soldier? The shrewd manipulator? The handsome young orator who can sway the opinions of a nation with a speech? Shakespeare is ambiguous: there is no right answer. What he was clear about is that the question is difficult and constant, and so, we are going to ask it. The play is fast, bloody, funny, gorgeously written, and confounding. WE will produce the play as Shakespeare wrote it, as if we were playing on the Globe Stage in 1599, representing the assassination of 44 BC that rocked Western civilization for centuries. And most importantly, we will be an ensemble. We will cast around 14 actors to play 45 roes. That means most actors will have several characters to work with.

Men and women are welcome to audition for all roles. Yes, we are gender bending, and any person may be cast in any role.

With a month between auditions and rehearsals beginning, we'll have lots of time to dig into the text before we get into the room. If you're working on another play during that interval, I can meet with you during the day, on weekends, on your time. During the interval, the cast will get together to break bread and get to know and trust one another.

My goal is this: LAB!'s production of Julius Caesar will be a big, collaborative project. We'll play in the room with improvisations, physical theatre exercises, games, and with the words of a man who makes me proud to speak English. We will support each other and Shakespeare's text will support us. And it's going to be fun.

Looking forward,

Josh Wolonick

"There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune:
omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
on such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures."
Brutus, 4.3.216-222