AGENCY IN THE AUDITION PROCESS

Hello Actors! 

First of all, thanks for your overwhelming interest in auditioning for Julius Caesar! I'm so jazzed to work on this play, and we're excited that y'all are as well.

The audition process for this project may be a little different than what you're traditionally used to. We have selected six sides from the play, and would like you to prepare the two you are most excited about (though it will certainly help your cause to be familiar with them all). The reason is this: I feel strongly that actors should be seen in the way they want to be seen. 

Rather than assigning you specific sides based on my assumptions about which roles you might be suited for, our team wants to see you share your point of view on the characters you're most excited about. This is a play full of opinionated people, and we're looking for actors who are equally opinionated! We are looking to build a company of individuals who are creative, great with language, flexible, generous, and ready to play. 7 out of 8 actors in this play will have a track that includes about 9 roles over the course of two hours so everyone will have a very full experience of this play!

A little about the world of this play: we're not looking to change the setting per se (we're still looking at Rome, 45 BC), but we are changing one major given -- this is a world in which women and minorities are not only considered citizens, but can be elected to office. It's a period piece, told through a contemporary lens. We intend to view this play through a racial and gender conscious lens. We're not looking to push a specific agenda, but we are hoping to consider differences in race (or age, or gender) as additional givens in the text of our production. 

If I can offer one piece of advice about the audition process from my side of the table, it is this: please do not worry about getting things 'right.' One of my favorite things about the audition process is seeing people make choices I'd never dreamed of, or show me a side of them that I didn't know existed! Our team has some strong ideas about the text; we also have tons of questions about it, and look forward to finding the team that will explore these questions with us over the course of the rehearsal process. Please consider this weekend as a very early first rehearsal -- just bring beautiful, passionate, prepared selves, and we'll get along swimmingly. Hopefully this is the beginning of a long, collaborative conversation!

Thanks in advance for all of your brave work.

Cheers,
Lavina