Posts filed under 'Auditions'
We’re pleased to announce the upcoming auditions for SWEENEY TODD, a dark American musical thriller by Stephen Sondheim. We are looking for talented singer-actors who want to challenge themselves with this amazing (and amazingly difficult) music. We are also looking for instrumentalists to perform in the orchestra. Please see Emmanuel’s post on expats.cz for more details.
The production will be IN ENGLISH, but all nationalities are welcome to audition. It is a great chance to work on a musical with experienced director, vocal coach and choreographer Steve Josephson, who will be coming to Prague to direct. Rehearsals should start March/April and the performances will be June/July 2012. At this point, all roles are open for audition. A list of roles and their vocal ranges (along with other information about the show) is here: http://www.mtishows.com/show_detail.asp?showid=000075 (select “casting” for the roles). The Beggar Woman, Beadle, Pirelli will also be included in the ensemble. We are especially looking for trained ensemble singers who can handle singing in harmony to sing in the chorus.
Auditions will be the week of February 15.
Callbacks will likely be the 18.2 or 19.2.
Please prepare: 2 songs: 1 ballad (slow), 1 uptempo (fast) for the audition. The songs should NOT be from SWEENEY TODD (but other Sondheim shows are welcome) and should show off your vocal range and interpretation. If you have any questions or to schedule an audition, please either email brian@pragueplayhouse.com or SMS/call 608 577 012.
Please pass this on to others who may be interested!
January 24th, 2012
If you are interested in the combination of singing and acting, please come to the auditions for the Prague Playhouse’s upcoming production of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”. The show will go up mid-November and play until the end of that month. Rehearsals will start at the beginning of October.
Auditions will be on Sunday 18.9. between 14:00 and 16:30 hrs. (2 to 4:30 pm) at the Prague Playhouse Acting Studio, Frantiska Krizka 1, 3rd floor in Prague 7. Please prepare a one-minute-monologue and a christmas carol to show your ability to tell a story through the song! To schedule an audition, please text/call Laura on 776 605 227!
We are doing something a little different with this one: We are going to have a small cast of players which will function as something like a Greek chorus: They will sing 19th century christmas carols as mood/commentary on what is going on in the play. When the scenes require it, they will step out of the chorus and act all of the characters in the play (besides Scrooge). It should be fun and challenging ensemble work for actor/singers.
We are looking forward to seeing you at the auditions!
September 12th, 2011
We are going to be having auditions for our upcoming production of “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown” on March 19 and 20. The show is a fun, silly musical based on the Peanuts cartoon. All of the characters are children played by adults. We are looking for singing actors: there is quite a bit of harmony in the group numbers. There is some dance/movement as well. All actors should be fairly fluent in English.
If you are interested, please write to me (brian@pragueplayhouse.com or 608 577 012) for an audition time (please state whether you would like to come Saturday or Sunday). Prepare a 1-2 minute comedic monologue and 32 bars of a song. There will not be a piano at the auditions so please be prepared to sing A-Capella or bring an instrument with you.
The roles are:
Charlie Brown: Baritone
Lucy: Alto
Snoopy: Tenor
Linus: Baritone
Schroeder: Tenor
Patty: Soprano
Rehearsals will begin at the end of March and there will be 6 performances in May (May 13,14,20, and 21).
Thanks and hope to see you at the audition!
Brian
March 11th, 2011
Nancy Bishop is casting a Microsoft commercial and is having an open call on Monday, October 18th at the Prague Film School. Please go if you fit the description for one of the roles below:
CASTING ANNOUNCEMENT
MICROSOFT COMMERCIAL
Shoots in Prague: 24-28 Oct, 2010
Roles:
CLAUDE: Can be any nationality. Comic. Lead Role. 20s or 30s. He is very awkward, and always says or does the wrong thing. He desperately wants to be liked but people avoid him. Need accomplished, funny actor who is physically and comically talented.
DANA. American. Mid 30s, mid- higher lever Executive. Smart, capable, not afraid to speak her mind.
ROB. American. Mid 30s. He works for Dana. Smart, nice, helpful, honest normal guy.
LIZA. American. Early 20s, study-abroad college student. Pretty, sweet, warm. Not modelly
MOM+ DAN. American. Liza’s parents. 50s. Normal wholesome Americans. Conservative types
ANNA. American. Early mid 20s. Cool and funny. Good looking and funny. Mary-Lynne Rajskub type.
DAVE. American. Her friend and also early 20s. Good looking, stylish, social, likeable.
THIEF. Any nationality. Steals laptop computer. Must have driver’s license and be able to ride Vespa.
*Fee Structure:
CLAUDE, 18,000kc/day + 120,000kc buyout
DANA, ROB, LIZE, MOM, DANA, ANNA: 18,000kc/day + 40,000kc buyout
DAVE, THIEF: 6,000kc/day + 20,000kc
*PLEASE NOTE ALL FEES INCLUDE AGENCY FEE!!!
Casting Info:
Where: Prague Film School Annex Building
Pstrossova 15, Prague 1, 4th floor
Near Narodni Divaldo tram stop or Narodni Trida Metro
Time: 10– 18:00
Date: Monday, 18 Oct
For info please call Misa Formanova: 723 704 659
Callbacks will be: Tuesday, 19 Oct.
October 16th, 2010
Two English-langauge theater companies will be having season auditions next Saturday, June 12.
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Blood, Love and Rhetoric have produced Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Memorandum, Chekhov and will be doing the Birthday Party June 9-12. They will be having auditions June 12 at Divadlo Inspirace (Malostranske nam 13) from 12-5pm. For more information email info@bloodloverhetoric.com or visit the facebook event:
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Local theatre company AKANDA is holding auditions on the 12th (Saturday) of June for it’s original production of Cabaret Macabre.
The performances will be held weekly and will begin on the 16th of July.
Looking for both male and female performers who can sing and act (or vice versa).
The performances are paid.
For more information, please contact Melanie Rada via mobile (723 085 650) or email (mellrada@yahoo.ca)
June 6th, 2010
Czech film company, Duracfilm, announces a casting call for a short education film part funded by the Danish Foreign Ministry.
We are looking for:
We are open to both Czech or English speaking actors – the decision hasn’t been made on whether the film will be shot in English or Czech. Either way, we are looking for a Danish accent to whichever of the two languages is spoken. An English or Czech speaking Dane, Swede or Norwegian would be ideal.
There is no age limit. Nor is there any particular look we are searching for.
The part:
The role to be auditioned for is Kohl Larsson, a disaffected ex-power station worker who is appealing for asylum in the Czech Republic on Ecological grounds. Kohl is a man who likes his coal. He’s not happy about the changes that have taken place in his country over the last twenty years, wind turbines, solar power stations, passively heated housing and is seeking asylum in the Czech Republic, a country he sees as more in tune with his way of life.
Filming dates:
There will be three days of shooting, two in Denmark and one in the Czech Republic. We will be filming either in the week following the Easter weekend (6th – 11th April) - or the following week (11-18th April).
Pay:
Unfortunately the funding available from the Danish government for this project is very small. All the crew will be working well below industry norms. We can offer 1,500 kc cash a day, plus a delayed payment of an extra 1,500 kc a day should we be successful in selling the film to a commercial television company in this country.
There’s a return flight to Copenhagen and two nights in a hotel there included in the film’s budget. If you’d like to fly out earlier or stay on after the shoot and have an extended stay, we’ve no problem with that (though we can’t cover the extra hotel nights).
The casting will take place at the offices of Duracfilm, Turnovská 365/5, Praha 8, on Monday March 15th. Please contact Pavlina Kalandrova, the producer, 724 328 583 or pavlina@duracfilm.cz to arrange a time for an audition and to receive copies of the texts to be read.
March 9th, 2010
Hi everyone!
I’m Boris Wilke and member of the Prague Playhouse Meisner acting group. I blog about our class activities.
This entry is about how we Meisner students must be ready to invest a lot of time and energy in this work, if we want to succeed as professional actors.
Click on the “CLASSES” button above and then choose “ACTING FOR PROFESSIONALS” to read more about the class itself and where we meet!
I’ve had a “run” of “doors” and “activities” lately. I mean, they worked. And that was due to a large part to the fact that I have been investing roughly one hour per day in this work for about two months now. However, I’ve made the experience that as soon as I quit being serious about it, I encounter difficulties. And the exercise blows up in my face.
You can ask any professional who uses his whole body as an instrument, from sports- and stuntpeople via dancers and pantomimes to us actors that as soon as they take their skills for granted, those very skills are bound to fail them. “Go slack and you’ll crack!”, might be the catch phrase to that. Besides they will tell you, just as musicians would, that one mere hour of work is laughable and will not get you anywhere. Still, in my case, one hour of work each day, made a huge difference.
But what would my progress be, if I dedicated two hours a day to this work? And how much do I have to progress in order to really be able to convey to directors that I have crossed the line and have become professional – that they can rely on me?
If I knew the answer, I’d be a fortune-teller. But one thing is clear: If one wants to be taken seriously in the world of acting, one has to persevere.
I wrote about auditions and how useless they seem to newbies, as they won’t get the role anyway. (I certainly failed to get into “True West”. And I wasn’t even invited to audition for – now I’ll name the stupid title – “A Couple of Poor Polish-Speaking Romanians”! How much does that suck? Huh?!)
I wrote about how Meisner work is to acting only what push-ups are to a tennis player: It’s just one specific kind of exercise, by no means the whole thing!
I alluded to the importance of being known to people and how impossible it is to get known without acting experience. (Why did I not even get invited to the above mentioned play? Am I Robert de Niro? See!!!)
Trying to become a professional actor in Prague has the air of a vicious cycle. It seems futile.
So what is the use of all this?
If I had to seriously ask myself that question, I’d better quit – and yesterday at that!
The Meisner technique is a powerful means to get connected to your partner and to live truthfully under imaginary circumstances. Both are paramount to acting. None of the two are acting, though. Acting happens on stage. Acting happens after one wins an audition. Acting happens when one gets a script in hand, a whole script, not just a scene! Acting is (going to be) awesome!
How can one make sure to get a chance one day? How can one push for success?
My answer is: I don’t know.
“Nobody knows anything!”, is a famous saying in the art world. So how could I know?
And now what?
I say: Get to work! Get someone to rehearse with you – quick! Double-check the next exercise for Meisner class to make sure it’s good and strong! If you’re “only” repeating still, get out there, in a tram or park: Look at people, animals, trees, houses, objects, weather formations – what have you – and practice having an opinion about everything! Sharpen your senses by looking closely and paying attention to minute details! Watch movies! Go to the theater! Get inspired by books! Start a journal! Do pottery! Walk barefoot, even in winter! Do whatever it takes to nurture your inner child!
What it is, only you will be able to tell. But do it! Do it every day! Do it for its own sake! I gave enough reasons why we are all likely to fail at becoming rich and famous. But we may. And one thing is sure: If we don’t try it, over and over again and claw to it with the resolve of a chess master and the energy of a supernova, we will most probably fail.
What if it were all about doing the Meisner work and just the Meisner work? What if we just stopped worrying about it? What if looking out for the next step and taking it, would be enough?
Seen from that angle perseverance is feasible. It’s the keeping at it that counts. And I believe with all my heart that good will come of that perseverance. What good it’ll be, only time will tell. And father temps keeps us in the dark about his plans.
So let’s just keep on keeping on! All else will follow suit.
**********************
General stuff:
Our acting class consists of some fifteen new and not so new active members, who meet every Monday and Wednesday from 6.30 pm to about 8.30. We do Meisner. And the Meisner-technique really rocks!
If you want to connect with your inmost feelings, expressing them freely in an acting environment and thus getting to know yourself better and better, feel free to join us! If you do, be prepared for some serious thrills!
+++
About the author:
I am Boris Wilke, a German expat in Prague.
I am a writer at large and have been studying Meisner since January 2008. If any of you know of any kind of acting work that befits a laddish, tall 40-year-old, please leave a note!
November 24th, 2009
The Prague Playhouse will be having auditions for True West, the dark comedy by Sam Sheppard, this coming Tuesday, November 10th, from 6-9pm at the Prague Film School, Pstrossova 15, Prague 1 (kind of across the street from the Globe Bookstore). We are asking for a 2 minute monologue for the audition.
The show will start rehearsals now and be performed at the end of January. Jeff Beck will direct the show. Actors will be paid 300 Kc per performance. We are planning 6-10 performances.
We are looking for the following roles (ages are approximate):
Austin – late twenties/early thirties – screenwriter
Lee – His older brother – late thirties/early forties
Saul Kimmer – Hollywood producer
Mom – mother of the boys.
Please write to brian@pragueplayhouse.com to schedule an audition.
Thanks!
Brian
608 577 012
November 5th, 2009
Hi everyone!
I’m Boris Wilke and member of the Prague Playhouse Meisner acting group. I blog about our class activities.
This entry is about how the Meisner technique can help you win auditions or at least make them a fun experience.
Click on the “CLASSES” button above and then choose “ACTING FOR PROFESSIONALS” to read more about the class itself and where we meet!
Brian just put up a new post here about auditions for a play. I won’t tell you what it is: It has too foolish a title. Anyway, they are looking for English-speaking actors of all ages and types and of both sexes. Click here to read for yourself!
Since there are very few opportunities for acting work for English-speakers in Prague in general, and this year, due to the financial crisis, in particular, all of a sudden, all of the Prague-based actors and actresses will swoop down on this like vultures – me included. They will most likely be way more experienced than you and me, of course more beautiful. And they will be ready to do almost anything to get on the ticket. After all it will be a paid job. They will probably even resort to showing off various body parts or bribe the jury with innuendo, cigarettes and/or Hašlerky (Czech cough drops).
Surely the roles really have already been distributed informally to hand-picked folk well-acquainted with the director. This audition might be just a must-do event to cover the scam.
So why should I go and make a complete fool of myself in the first place? I have no fuddling chance!
Or do I? This is, when Meisner comes in:
First of all, even in the most jaded of worlds there sometimes is a need for types that the pool of cronies a director has at their disposal just fails to cover. They might be deliberately hunting for someone ugly, lanky, overweight or sickly – in short: you – or me at that! Who knows?
Then you need to take into account that despite the fact that one always seems to see the same faces, over and over again, in productions in Prague, even the most pushy and well-connected actors and actresses don’t manage to get into everything. It is because even the most jaded of directors might actually want to grab hold of some new talent they can boss around and impose their will upon. Do you know for sure, if the game is really set already? Maybe the director is sick and tired of the same faces that make it into his or her plays. A cynic would say: “Maybe they want someone new to shag with.” No matter, how you look at it: Variety is a real option here and your chance to get in! Strut your stuff! Show you are different! That might get you the part!
Thirdly and most importantly one should go to auditions for the auditions’ sake. Meisner teaches to be in the moment. An audition is a string of very scary and exciting moments, moments one usually doesn’t have in one’s everyday tedious life of routines and rut. Auditions can be fun, if you choose to look at them that way. I, for my part, love them. I revel in the challenge they present. I love to put my courage to test. I love to see how I fare.
And while doing auditions, rare as they might be after all, one starts to progress, i.e. to get better.
Meisner wants us to take in everything, the environment as well as the partner in front of you. If your partner is the scary director him- or herself, who reads a part from the script with a yawn and a stutter – and you struggle to connect with them while reading your own part, it is very hard to take in the environment: the smell and the lights of the place and the people who share it with you. But how can you shine and thus wow the director when you are all concentrated on the text before you, a mere pent-up focal point rather than an amazing multi-dimensional fluid entity? I recognized that I free more and more resources for being in the moment and available to the director’s needs on the spot, the more I go to auditions. Many non-Meisner-trained actors resort to acting-routine such as shouting, miming and gesturing in exaggerated ways. If the director gets excited about these tricks, you are not his or her candidate, anyway. Then again, if you are exactly the type she or he is craving for, you might get the role despite your lack of mechanical stagecraft. And then it is up to you to incorporate as much Meisner-work into your role as possible. But that’s a different story…
As with Meisner exercises it’s the work you do before an audition that gets you into the target zone. Since it is part of the set-up that you very often just cannot prepare for an audition, it is all the more important to bring acting experience of all sorts. And that is, why more experienced actors and actresses have a better chance to get the role.
I know that is a paradox. You as a fledgling actor or actress can only work through that paradox by getting experience. Going to auditions – against all odds – is one way to gain it.
I can only say: Do it! And do it over and over again! It will pay off eventually!
**********************
General stuff:
Our acting class consists of some fifteen new and not so new active members, who meet every Monday and Wednesday from 6.30 pm to about 8.30. We do Meisner. And the Meisner-technique really rocks!
If you want to connect with your inmost feelings, expressing them freely in an acting environment and thus getting to know yourself better and better, feel free to join us! If you do, be prepared for some serious thrills!
+++
About the author:
I am Boris Wilke, a German expat in Prague.
I am a writer at large and have been studying Meisner since January 2008. If any of you know of any kind of acting work that befits a laddish, tall 40-year-old, please leave a note!
November 3rd, 2009
The Black Snow theater company is overseeing a production in English of Dorta Maslowska’s play A Couple of Poor Polish-Speaking Romanians for Divadlo na Zabradli.
They are having auditions Sunday November 15 from 11am-5pm at the theater: Anenske namesti 5.
Callbacks are November 22nd. Rehearsals begin March 15, 2010. The show will run in repre3tory at Divadlo na Zabradli starting May 15, 2010.
This is a paid production commissioned and supported by the theater.
They are looking for male and female actors of all ages and types.
To schedule an audition, please contact Nicole Grisco at blacksnow.elt@gmail.com
November 2nd, 2009
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