Cleveland Public Theatre/ Teatro Público de Cleveland announces Auditions for

ALTER

By Tania Benites

Directed by Kari Barclay

Looking to cast the following roles…

• Narrator: (any race, female, any age); Narrator for the book “Hypnosis for Self-Confidence”.
• Maria: (Latinx, female, 20s-30s); A customer service representative who struggles with her sense of self. A quiet person in a loud world who feels pressure as only a daughter-of-immigrants could. Devours self-help books as a hobby.
• Trisha: (any race, female, any age); Maria’s co-worker and top seller at Kapow. The office “mean girl”. She is aggressive and knows how to make friends with the right people.
• Craig: (non-Latinx, male, 30s+); Customer service supervisor at Kapow whose main concern is driving sales numbers and meeting quotas.
• Figure: (Latinx, female, 20s-30s); Maria’s manifestation. She is the change that Maria thinks she needs. She is hungry for what she does not have and feels that she could do things better if given the opportunity.
• Steve: (any race, male, 20s-30s); IT technician at Kapow. Grounded and kind, perhaps a little nerdy. A good friend.
• Mom: (Latinx, female, 40s+); Maria’s mom. An immigrant. No stranger to sacrifice and hard work. While she expects a lot from her daughter, she loves just as fiercely.

We are open to seeing both AEA and non-AEA actors for these auditions.

About The Play…

Maria is a customer service representative, working and failing in a fast-paced, highly competitive, and often ridiculous environment. Feeling the pressures from co-workers and family to “never stop running” and to “be aggressive”, Maria, a long-time self-help enthusiast discovers that the key to total transformation comes at a cost. Alter explores the difficulties of being a quiet person in a loud world, toxic self-help culture, and the myth that you must always be leveling up to be successful.

About The Process…

This rehearsal process will be conventional in nature and based in script analysis, character analysis, and emotional arc. Actors will be asked to make strong proposals, be generous, and meet deadlines given. Parts of this script are written in Spanish, and sections of rehearsals will be in Spanish at times. However, you do not need to be fluent to audition for this play.

The rehearsal room will be run with attention being placed on trauma-informed practices. This production will adhere to the CLEan House Standards.

Rehearsals will begin on or around January 2, 2024. Rehearsals are 5-6 times a week, with evening weekday rehearsals and some daytime weekend rehearsals. This is a paid opportunity.

Important Dates…

• 1/2/24 – First rehearsal
• 2/3/24 – Tech Starts
• 2/8/24 – First Preview
• 2/10/24 – Opening Night
• 2/24/24 – Closing Performance

ALTER runs February 8 – February 24 Thu/Fri/Sat/Mon at 7:00pm, with 1 Sunday matinee in the James Levin Theatre.

Auditions…

Friday, November 3^rd, 7:00pm – 9:00pm

Sunday, November 5^th, 5:00pm – 7:00pm

Auditions are by appointment only and will be scheduled in one-hour slots. Actors should plan to stay at the audition for up to 75 minutes, though you may be released sooner. The director and playwright will be watching the auditions.

For the Audition…

• There’s no need to prepare anything in advance. Actors will read excerpts from the script which will be sent to you when you email us for an audition slot.
• Auditions will be held in groups in one-hour slots.
• Please send a headshot and resume, if you have one.

To schedule an audition appointment, please email auditions@cptonline.org. Please include Alter Auditions] in your subject line. Be sure to include your name, email address, phone number, preferred audition time slot, and role you are auditioning for in your email. Send a copy of your headshot and resume as an attachment to your email. No phone calls please.

About the Playwright:

Tania Benites is a Peruvian-born and Cleveland-raised theatre artist. She received her BA in Theatre from CSU in 2012 with a focus in performance. As an actress, Tania has worked at many theatres in Northeast Ohio including Cleveland Public Theatre, Teatro Público de Cleveland, Talespinner Children’s Theatre, Ensemble Theatre, LatinUs, Clague Playhouse, and Rubber City Theatre. As a playwright, Tania’s work has been featured in ¡Obras en Evolución! a festival of new play readings by Teatro Público de Cleveland in 2017 and 2018 where the beginnings of Alter were formed. She is also a proud member of the Young Playwrights Collective. When she is not creating theatre, Tania serves as the Adult Programming Assistant for the Cuyahoga County Public Library.

About the Director:

Kari Barclay (they/them or he/him) is a writer, director, and researcher who serves as Assistant Professor of Theater at Oberlin College. They have created productions regionally and in New York at venues including Ars Nova, the San Francisco Mime Troupe, MirrorBox Theater, and Cleveland Public Theatre. Their original play Can I Hold You? was one of the first full-length pieces about asexual identity performed in the U.S. and enjoyed a sold-out run in San Francisco and workshop in New York. Their play Stonewallin' was winner of the So.Queer Playwriting Festival and premiered in Richmond, VA in winter 2022. As a scholar and educator, Kari writes about consent-based and trauma-informed approaches to performance, known as intimacy choreography. Their book Directing Desire was published through Palgrave Macmillan in October 2023. kari-barclay.com.