Fells Point Corner Theatre Holds Auditions for Baltimore Playwrights Festival, 5/7-8

Fells Point Corner Theatre has announced auditions for two original plays for The Baltimore Playwrights Festival on Monday and Tuesday, May 7 & 8 at 7:00 PM at Fells Point Corner Theatre, 251 South Ann Street.

Run Dates: Shana Unsettled - June 22 - July 15 (rehearsals starting immediately); Following Sarah - Aug. 3 - 26.

All Roles are open. Audition will be reading from scripts.

Shana Unsettled - Shana is an orthodox woman living in an outpost settlement on occupied land. Her husband, Michael, a warrior, has recently been killed while on a secret military mission. Since that time, she has learned hauntingly unpleasant details of his excessive violence outside the settlement. Long suppressed doubts about her husband’s righteousness begin to emerge as Shana confronts a representative cast of allegorical characters, both real and imagined. Tribalism and religious fundamentalism are at the root of Shana’s struggle. Has the path that she has chosen lead to a dead end?

CHARACTERS:

Shana -An attractive but tired woman in her early to mid- thirties. Her hair is often covered in a kerchief. She wears a long skirt and basic blouse.

Amos A sadder, wiser soldier. Michael’s underling.

Hadi & Beni -Two old itinerant farmers, dressed accordingly.

Deborah- Shana’s neighbor, older than Shana.

Grandma- An aged but sturdy, powerful woman from the old country.

Michae-l A swaggering, intimidating soldier. Shana’s husband.

Following Sarah - Following Sarah is a play about young women coming to terms with the death of a schoolmate. Sarah Gardner won the State Cross Country championship last season and immediately jumped off a bridge to her death. Nearly a year later, her three surviving teammates Maddy, Julia and Kat, who still attend Thwaite Academy, a boarding school full of high achievers, receive an email from Sarah at the start of their Senior season. Still deep in school-sponsored denial about Sarah's suicide, the three survivors refuse to discuss or view this chilling intrusion. Instead, they each pursue more strongly the self-destructive paths they first embarked upon when they failed to accept Sarah's suicide. Kenya, a new student who's been housed in Sarah's former room, starts probing for information about the mysterious Sarah and consequently forces the three survivors to each begin a journey towards acceptance. Maddy, Julia and Kat each eventually manage to open Sarah's email, acknowledge the truth, reveal their fear and guilt, and ultimately correct their behaviors and successfully mourn the loss of their friend.

CHARACTERS:

Sarah Gardner -18, white, star runner, the image of perfection, quietly anxious, doesn't talk much and appears in flashbacks.

Julia Goldblatt - 18, Chinese by birth, adopted by a white single mother, thinks she needs to lose 15 pounds, throws Elizabethan language into everyday conversations, rather snarky and witty.

Maddy White -18, white, high-strung, overachiever, overdosing on ADD medication to get an edge on schoolwork and hallucinating as a result.

Kat Winner -18, white, shameless self-promoter with her own website displaying all her achievements, obsessed with winning the State title, deeper in denial than anyone else about Sarah and less in touch with her feelings at the start than the others.

Kenya Hopewell -17, African-American, new to Thwaite Academy and the private school world, desperately homesick and struggling to fit in, quick to anger.

Coach Wagner/Eyewitness/Male Birth Parent/High Performance Shoe/Moth Larva/Mr. Gardner - 40's, a single male character who appears to each young woman in a different form.

For more information, email info@fpct.org.

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