Latest / CINEMACTIVIST / S03E07 - Tethered Auditions Announcement
Transcript
- John C. Lyons: Hey everyone and welcome to Cinema Activist. My name is John Lyons, and I'm your host. And I've got some really exciting news to share this week. The tethered immersive experience that I've been teasing, that myself and the rest of the writing team's been working on for the past several months. so big shout out to them, Nisi Nicole, Marty Noachuku, and Shaiver Pettis for all of their hard work with putting this show together. So the show is happening. That's that's the big news. The show's happening. It's happening in October. We're looking at doing eight total performances. That would be four weeks, Friday and Saturday evenings. we'll be announcing that venue here very soon. So a couple things to share for this week's episode. we're announcing open auditions. For 12 paid roles on the show. And we're calling this narrative based immersive theatrical production the lever. So the branding will be the lever, a tethered production. Auditioners must be 18 years or older and bring a one to two minute contemporary dramatic monologue of their choice with them to perform. All ethnicities, races, and cultural experiences are encouraged to attend. I'll say strongly encouraged to attend. We plan for this to be a very diverse caste, a total mix of ages, of backgrounds. And I hope if you live in the northwestern Pennsylvania area. That you will consider attending these open auditions. with this show in particular, we want to give people opportunities that maybe don't usually get opportunities to be in shows of this kind or to be in shows in Erie, Meadville, and the surrounding areas. So really hoping that people Take us up on this opportunity. We're really excited for this show. We think this show is going to be unique and amazing and lead to a lot of conversation. And so, yeah, we want you to be a part of it. so a little bit of information about the auditions. And I will say for all of the information that I'm going to cover now, you can go to tetheredimers.com. And you'll see in the menu at the top a link for auditions. And if you scroll down just a little bit, you'll see all of the information about the auditions, the locations, the dates, and there's a link there that I urge everyone to click. that's going to lead to a PDF file that gives all of the information about the auditions. And actually, I'm going to pull that document up now. and kind of go through some of it here with you. So let me do that here. this is the audition packet, which starts off with some information about what is immersive theater. This is some information that I covered in episode two of season three And then so what is the lever about? the lever is tethered new original immersive theatrical production. The setting is mundane on its surface. So we have a local nonprofit organization called Feed Our Neighbors, and they are giving their annual report. And the public is invited to that. So a lot of times when nonprofit organizations, Give their annual reports, the public is invited to attend. It's where they kind of tout their successes for the year, you know, how they're fulfilling their mission, how they're doing financially, new programs that they're starting and reporting on programs, things like that. and the public's invited to it. That's how we get you, our audiences, in the door. And then there's going to be parallel storylines that reveal themselves. There's the staff that work at the club where the meeting takes place, and they also work for the nonprofit organization. These workers are trying to unionize. And at the same time, the board members are schmoozing the audience and giving their annual report, and there will be some cracks starting to reveal themselves while they're presenting and through the interactions with the audience. And so each night the audience will have the opportunity for direct interaction with all of these performers, the outcome of the show will be determined by the actions and the interactions of the audience members, Which is really exciting. So audition requirements, we're asking that auditioners be eighteen years of age or older. Again, we encourage actors of all ethnicities, races, cultural experiences, and ages. Literally, we're looking for anyone aged eighteen to as old as you are capable of performing the work. And we ask everyone to bring a one to two minute contemporary dramatic monologue with them as well. Doors are going to open one hour early, and our auditions will begin promptly at the time listed. And make sure you sign up when you arrive and that you give us an email address that you check regularly because casting notifications are going to be coming out quick on July twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh. So our auditions are going to be in a workshop style format. This means we're going to have some warmups as a group and work on ensemble community-building experiences. We're basically looking to see, you know, if you can be a generous performer, how you interact with our mock audiences, how you interact with Other talents that are there auditioning with you. So we want you to be generous and collaborative. You're also going to read your prepared monologue, of course, and you'll read it through once as you normally would at an audition, and then the second time we will start throwing some obstacles and interactions at you and seeing how you handle those. this is where the improv side of the show really comes into effect and will be tested. and you'll have to think on your feet, and you might have to answer questions. you know, in the voice of the character that you're reading the monologue of. I'm really excited for the team that we've assembled that will be leading the auditions. We have Brooke Ecknett, who is the resident director and producer for Vigilance Theater Group in Pittsburgh. They do some awesome immersive theater shows there. You should definitely check out. She's also an immersive performer that's worked at Star Wars, Galactic Star Cruiser, and The Disney Wish. Anna McJunkin, who is a tethered, immersive veteran. She's a theater director, producer, performer, audition coach. and she's the Schuster Arts Manager at Gannon University, based here in Erie, and myself, and then our writing team, who I mentioned, Nisi, Shyra, and Marty, will be joining us to assist as well. So it'll be a nice big group. with all of our auditioners, to work again workshop style on a number of exercises together. We are listing the character descriptions for each of the 12 characters we're looking to cast. And we've included also some information about tethered and the history of our shows and what we're looking to accomplish in these shows. We also have the pay rate listed in there as well for the performances. And we give a little information about our rehearsal schedule and the live show schedules as well. So you definitely want to look at that document in detail for all of the information about the show so that you know what you're getting into. our auditions are going to be at the ECAT Wayne building. at the home of Erie Center for Arts and Technology. We'll be on the first floor. Again, the doors will open an hour early. So you're welcome to show up early and prep, but we will start promptly at the time that's listed. So our dates and times are Wednesday, July 22nd at 6 p.m. Friday, July 24th at 6 p.m. and Sunday, July 26th at 1 p.m. And yeah, shortly after we wrap that third one, we're going to make our decisions, which I'm sure you'll make them very difficult on us. And I can't wait to get the cast together and jump right in on rehearsals and start further developing this show. As we march to its premiere in October. So that's all I'm sharing for today. I hope that you will help share the word with everyone that's, you know, an actor, a dancer, a singer, or anyone interested in and taking a chance and getting involved in immersive theater. All right. So that's it for this week. We'll be back soon. Have a great day.