Audition Information Spring 2023

Auditions Instructions

2022-23 Spring Auditions for Seven Guitars. Abduction: A Musical Comedy, and Astronots.

What to prepare:

• Seven Guitars: 1-2 minute monologue in the style of the show

• Abduction: A Musical Comedy is a memorized 32 bar cut from a contemporary comedic musical theater piece. An accompanist will be provided. Bring sheet music. We will not have the facilities to play tracks. If you need sheet music or have any questions, contact Becki Toth. If you aren’t able to find an appropriate cut for auditions, two cuts are provided: one for Sopranos/Altos, one for Tenors/Baritones. Recordings are available.

• Cold readings will also be available on audition days

• Scripts are on Reserve at the Hillman Library, ask for Auditions Material

How to Sign Up:

Audition Forms:

Day of Auditions:

Department of Theatre Arts and U.P. Stages Casting & Production Policy

We are committed to producing stories from multiple cultural perspectives, of diverse styles and structures, from many different time periods and global locales.

In order to tell every story upon our stage, student, faculty and guest artists of all abilities, races, genders, sexualities, nationalities, and religions are needed and welcome for our casts, our crews, and our production teams. As a department and producing organization, we consider our audience to be the Department of Theatre Arts, the University campus and the larger Pittsburgh and regional community.

We are committed to analyzing and understanding a playwright’s intentions for location, time and character. We are equally committed to challenging ourselves and our audiences to think beyond the strictures of given circumstances and historical expectations in production. We are committing to cultivating spaces, theatres and classrooms in which students, faculty, and guest artist can take risks, stretch themselves, and approach each class, audition and production venture as a fresh opportunity for greatness.

Seven Guitars

Written by August Wilson

Directed by KJ Gilmer

Rehearsal Dates: January 10 – February 17, 2023
Performance Dates: February 18 – February 26, 2022

About the Play:

August Wilson's Seven Guitars is the sixth chapter in his continuing theatrical saga that explores the hope, heartbreak, and heritage of the African American experience in Pittsburgh during the twentieth century.

The story follows a small group of friends who gather following the untimely death of Floyd "Schoolboy" Barton, a local blues guitarist on the edge of stardom. Together, they reminisce about his short life and discover the unspoken passions and undying spirit that live within each of them.

Floyd has just returned from a 90-day stretch in the county jail with a recording contract in his pocket and a plan to take his woman and his band to Chicago. But the backyard that serves as his office, social club and romantic getaway seems haunted; and his eccentric neighbor, Hedley, who teeters between wisdom and madness, is destined to bring Floyd’s dreams of success to an end.

Character Breakdown:

FLOYD: 30’s, an aspiring Blues singer and guitar player, Floyd “Schoolboy” Barton returns to Pittsburgh at thirty-five years old with a hit song and an opportunity to record a record back in Chicago. In the time since the recorded the initial song, Floyd has squandered the flat fee he received for recording, left his girlfriend (Vera) for another woman, was then left by the other woman, pawned his guitar, and spent ninety days in jail after being arrested while
walking home from his mother’s funeral. After a year of trials and tribulations, Floyd wants to return to Chicago with Vera, his guitar, and a new sense of self. He is ready to “live with” not “live without” Unfortunately, the lengths he is willing to go to, to make his dreams happen, become his undoing. This role has violence and intimacy.

VERA: Late 20’s-Floyds’s ex-girlfriend and eight years his junior. She is a warm, sensible woman who loves Floyd, but after he left her for another woman, she is slow to trust him again. She has a strong sense of her own self-worth. She may have had a relationship with Canewell in Floyd’s absence. She is good friends with Louise. This role has intimacy.

LOUISE: 40–mid-50s. Black. A beautician and a hearty woman who describes herself as "forty-going on sixty." She has an astringent wit and tamped-down tenderness. She's the independent and lively landlady of the boarding house where the play takes place. Although she claims to have no interest in love, she has an attachment to Hedley. She does not expect much out of life except to have a bit of fun, good friends and a car game. This character is a
smoker.

HEDLEY: 50’s-60’s, Black. This role has been cast.

CANEWELL: 30s. Black. A man from the country with traditional values. He had to learn street smarts. He is an edgy, quick-tempered harmonica player, who is tired of playing back-up in life for Floyd. He made the trip with Floyd to Chicago for the first time and regrets it. Wary, and dissatisfied, thinks he knows best. He loves Vera. He and Red Carter are Floyd’s closest friends.

RED CARTER: 30s, Black. Floyd’s drummer migrating from Alabama. A slick and citified heartbreaker who is also laid-back, practical, steady, and balanced. He and Canewell are Floyd’s closest friends. This character is a smoker.

RUBY: mid-20s. Black. Good looking, sexy, free-spirited niece of Louise who comes to Pittsburgh from Alabama. Stubborn, young, and fatally attractive, will not belong to anyone, but needs someone to help care for her unborn child. This role has intimacy.

LANGUAGE AND/OR CONTENT THAT MAY BE GRAPHIC/CHALLENGING/OFFENSIVE

***NOTE: Most, if not all language that may be considered insensitive enough to need addressing (by, say, a high school production) has alternative text provided. All such suggestions will be considered and decided on by the director (and/or producers) in consultation with the cast and rehearsal team.

• Some content may be considered blasphemous regarding views of God and Death/After life/Hell
• There may be some content that may be offense to religious beliefs
• Content may be disturbing to a performer who had a recent death in their lives
• There are some dated racial, gender and sexual slurs and comments
• Simulated poultry slaughter
• Cigarette smoking-Louise, Red Carter
• Cigar smoking-Floyd, Red Carter, Hedley, Canewell
• Gun possession-Floyd .38, Red Carter snub-nose 32

Profanity, strong language by character

Pg. 41-Floyd-“White folks gonna have a fit with a nigger named Mister”.
Pg. 44-Floyd-There are a lot of niggers running around with Canewell’s scars.
Pg. 54-Floyd-You can’t dance nigger. Lucky you can walk
Pg. 60 Red Carter-There ain’t nothing but niggers in from Mississippi in Chicago
Pg. 62-Hedley-Soon you mark my words when God ain’t making no more niggers.

Choreographed violence-Fight Chorographer

Pg. 62- Hedley cut a roosters throat and spreads the blood in the yard.
Pg. 68-Hedley and Floyd- Hedley grabs Floyds arm with a great sense of urgency
Pg. 96-Floyd and Canewell wrestle over a handkerchief of money
Pg. 98-Floyd pushes Hedley down to the ground
Pg. 98-Hedley severs Floyd’s windpipe with a machete

Choreographed Intimacy-Intimacy Chorographer

Pg.12- Floyd and Vera-(SD) Floyd pushes his pelvis into hers
           Floyd and Vera-(SD)-Vera tries to break away, Floyd holds her close
           Floyd and Vera (SD)-Floyd tries to kiss Vera, Vera breaks away
           Floyd and Vera (SD) Floyd pulls her to him
Pg.16-Floyd and Vera-Floyd tries to slide his arm around Vera, she slides away
Pg.20-Floyd and Vera-Floyd puts his arm around Vera
Pg. 31-Floyd puts his arm around Vera.
Pg. 55-Vera and Red Carter-suggestive pelvic dancing
Pg. 85-Hedley grabs Ruby and kisses her with aggression and passion
85. Ruby and Hedley-Ruby consenting lifts her dress and gives herself to Hedley-simulated sex, costume and lights out to mask the act, ends the scene

Appearance in Undergarments or revealing clothes

Pg 94. Ruby backless red dress and seamed stockings

Abduction: A Musical Comedy

Book by T.J. Pieffer
Music by Brad Kemp and Becki Toth
Lyrics by T.J. Pieffer and Becki Toth

Directed by Becki Toth

Note from director:

Synopsis:

Character Breakdown: