Audition Notice: Peter and the Starcatcher
MVLCT is thrilled to announce auditions for Peter and the Starcatcher directed by Courtenay Baker.
Tony-winning Peter and the Starcatcher upends the century-old story of how a miserable orphan comes to be The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up (a.k.a. Peter Pan). A wildly theatrical adaptation of Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson’s best-selling novels, the play was conceived for the stage by directors, Roger Rees and Alex Timbers, and written by Rick Elice, with music by Wayne Barker. From marauding pirates and jungle tyrants to unwilling comrades and unlikely heroes, Peter and the Starcatcher playfully explores the depths of greed and despair... and the bonds of friendship, duty and love.
Auditions will be held May 22 and 23 at 7:00 p.m. at the First Street Community Center in Mount Vernon.
While we would prefer to see you in person, you may also submit a video audition to mvlcommunitytheatre@gmail.com before midnight on May 23rd.
You may fill out an in-person audition form the night of your audition, or you may complete our online audition form ahead of time.
Performance dates are July 14, 15, 16 and 21, 22.
Cast of Characters
The Orphans:
Boy (Peter): A boy who doesn’t miss much. Nameless, homeless, and friendless at the beginning of the play and a hero by the end. A survivor. More than anything in the world, he wants a home and a family. If he could grow up, he’d fall for Molly in a big way. But it’ll never happen.
Prentiss: Ambitious, hyper-articulate, logical; yearns to be a leader, even as he knows in his heart that he never shall be one. A bit of a blowhard with just the teeny-tiniest touch of cowardice.
Ted: Obsessed with food: the eating of, the fighting over, the dreaming about. A natural actor, an easy wit, perhaps a future poet. Called “Tubby” by Prentiss, though not due to girth, of which orphans, given their meager diets, have very little indeed.
The British Subjects:
Lord Leonard Aster: The very model of a Victorian English gentleman, loyal subject to the Queen, devoted father, faithful friend. Also, and not irrelevant to our story, Lord Aster is a Starcatcher – dedicated to protecting the Earth and all who dwell thereon from the awesome power of starstuff.
Molly Aster: a true leader at a time when girls are mostly followers. Will risk everything for the sake of Doing Right. Curious, intelligent, beginning to feel things she doesn’t understand – romantic longings that revert to childish tantrums under pressure – because, after all, she’s a thirteen-year-old kid. She’ll be a great woman one day.
Mrs. Bumbrake: Molly’s nanny. British to the bone. Still has enough of her girlish charm to turn a sailor’s head and leaven his dreams. Stiff in the lip, loose in the hip, fun on a ship.
Captain Robert Falcon Scott: Captain of Britain’s fastest frigate, the Wasp. Years later, he will lead an expeditionary team to the South Pole, freeze to death, and become the iconic British hero, Scott of the Antarctic.
Grempkin: The mean and malodorous schoolmaster of St. Norbert’s Orphanage for Lost Boys. Likes to keep his boys in the dark, as sunlight is known to feed rebellious notions, and on account of the preference in certain quarters for lads that are white and pasty.
The Seafarers:
Bill Slank: The Neverland’s vicious captain. Without the skill or quality to lead anyone but himself, and always into disaster. A greedy bastard who’d sell his own mother for a ship to command and send boys to their doom for the favor of those who would use starstuff for personal gain, global domination, or worse. An orphan, too.
Alf: An old sea dog. Something about him appeals to the feminine sensibility – might be his bowlegs, his saucy gait, or his kind heart.
Mack: A very bad sailor who wants to be anywhere but under the thumb of Bill Slank.
Black Stache: Long after everyone else got out of the pirate business, Black Stache continues to terrorize the seven seas in search of a hero worthy of his villainy. Famous for his face foliage, he started shaving at age ten, had a bushy handlebar by eleven, and the blood of twenty crews on his hands by twelve. Heartless and hirsute, suspiciously well read, partial to the poetical and theatrical, and given to a ferocity from which no good shall ever spring.
Smee: First mate to Black Stache. Single-mindedly dedicated to his captain’s every whim. His motto: “’Tis good to be busy.”
Sánchez: A hardworking Spanish pirate with an identity crisis.
The Natives:
Fighting Prawn: King of the Mollusks, son of Jumbo Prawn and Littleneck Clam. Kidnapped by British sailors and brought in chains to England, he served as sous-chef in a country estate in Derbyshire, where, for no good reason, he learned Italian wines and mastered Italian cuisine. Since returning to his island kingdom, he vengefully murders any English with the temerity to land on his Mollusk Isle domain.
Hawking Clam: Son of Fighting Prawn and Sweet’n’Sour Shrimp. One day, he will ascend the Clam throne as head of the Royal Clam Clan.
Teacher: Formerly a salmon, now an ancient, knowledgeable mermaid