LGBT Casting Call!!

The casting team for the third annual Corkscrew Theatre Festival are currently casting 3 plays for our festival, and are strongly committed to the principle of inclusivity. Gender non-conforming, genderqueer, transgender and non-binary performers are encouraged to submit for the roles they most identify with. Performers with disabilities are strongly encouraged to submit as well for the roles they most identify with. We would deeply appreciate if you could distribute this email within your community and have anyone interested follow the directions below to submit for these new and empowering productions. ABOUT THE FESTIVAL Corkscrew Theater Festival presents the work of early-career theater artists creating through innovative and robust collaborations. Through our four-week summer festival, Corkscrew advocates for underrepresented artists and viewpoints, offers audiences a unique mix of work at various stages of development, promotes dialogue among artists, and builds community around a curated season of theater. The New York Times called Corkscrew “packed with young talent,” concluding, “in the risk-taking venture that is summer festival-going, encountering talent you want to see more of is a worthy payoff.”

ABOUT THE PRODUCTIONS CORKSCREW THEATER FESTIVAL Producers: Julia Balefsky (Pre-existing Conditions), Brandon Smithey (A Play Titled), Madeleine Goldsmith (Six Years Old) Directors: Alexis Wilcock (Pre-existing Conditions), Lauren Z. Adelman (A Play Titled), Helen Handelman (Six Years Old) Playwrights: Elyse Pitock (Pre-existing Conditions), Haleh Roshan (A Play Titled), Sam Silbiger (Six Years Old) Casting Directors: Juliet Axon, Ari Rudess Casting Associate: Shannon Corey Audition Date: April 13th, 2019 Rehearsal Dates: 6/6/19 (Pre-existing Conditions), 6/17/19 (A Play Titled), 6/11/19 (Six Years Old) - *Shows will abide by AEA regulations for all aspects of the rehearsal process, and rehearsal schedules will be created to accomodate the performers involved. Opening Date: 7/11/19 Closing Date: 8/3/19 Contract: Equity Showcase Code; $500-$750 stipends provided PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS SYNOPSIS: In Elyse Pitock's dark comedy Pre-Existing Conditions, Ophira is working a dead-end paralegal job with no benefits and an undiagnosed illness when she is referred to Artemis, a "multicultural intersectional feminist match-making start-up" that connects wealthy, attractive professionals to young women looking for love (and health insurance). As she reluctantly participates in the process under the guidance of Artemis CEO and young lifestyle influencer Aubrey Gimmel, Ophira wonders how far she's willing to go for a decent deductible. A PLAY TITLED... SYNOPSIS: Shirin is working on a book about post-Occupy Wall Street grassroots movements, while trying not to succumb to anxiety attacks. CJ is a public defender navigating NYC’s fucked up judicial system, while trying to make time for a meaningful personal life. Elizabeth needs to finish college and figure out what to do next. Oh, also, there's a mysterious bug infestation in the kitchen. Hashtag millennials, amirite? COLLECTIVE NOUN is an urgent spin on shows about “girls” in any medium, a love letter to an unsung history of collective action, and a battle cry for radically re-envisioning what it means to fight for change. SIX YEARS OLD SYNOPSIS: “Six Years Old” addresses queer and trans identity issues through the lens of a young girl testing the bounds of gender on her self-proclaimed journey to become her hero, Han Solo. After becoming tired of merely dressing up as the swaggering spaceship captain at home, six-year-old Adalaide confronts the limitations of her body and environment when a plan to “reincarnate” herself leads her and her younger brother, Dewey, into a life-threatening brush with danger.




SEEKING: PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS OPHIRA – Mid-late 20s. Female. Particularly interested in actors of color for this role. Always in a bit of a daze, with a dry self-deprecating sense of humor and a bitter outlook on life. Her chronic pain puts her in a foul mood most of the time, but she's learned to pull it together when she really needs to. Spends most of her time in the office, judging people and slacking off. She doesn't make enough money and she's furious about it. Spends too much time alone with her thoughts. Is consumed with simultaneous feelings of worthlessness and superiority. Seeking an actress who is excellent with text. Strong comedic abilities a must. LEAD CASEY - Late 50s-mid 60s to play 63. Female. Particularly interested in actors of color for this role. Very, very earnest and relentlessly cheerful. Confident, stubborn, chatty, and opinionated. Lives alone but tries not to dwell on it. A creature of habit: coffee with cream and sugar in the morning, medical soap opera at night. Interested in astrology. Uninterested in politics to the point of hostility; doesn't understand why everybody is so rude. If she betrays a negative emotions, it's usually irritation at people who don't share her cheerfulness. Strong comedic abilities a must. SUPPORTING NICO - Late 20s-early 30s. Male. Seeking actors of all ethnicities for this role. Ill-fitting clothes and terrible posture betray low self-esteem and anxiety. Very passionate, but it's all under the surface; it's not easy to tell what he's thinking. As Aubrey's assistant, he spends most of his professional time being a wallflower, and he's excellent at it. Strong comedic abilities a must. SUPPORTING A PLAY TITLED SHIRIN, Female, mid 20s to early 30s, female-identifying, Iranian-American. A PhD labor journalist/historian living in Brooklyn and writing her first book. Extraordinarily intelligent, anxious, self-depricatingly funny, and ridiculously ardent (sometimes to a fault). She’s exasperated yet impassioned by her life on the left (#contradictionsofcapitalism). This role requires an extremely smart actor who is highly skilled with text. Must have strong comedic chops. Ability to speak Farsi a strong plus. *Performers with life experience as Iranian-Americans preferred, but performers with life experience as Egyptian, Turkish, Syrian, Iraqi, Armenian, or Northern Indian-Americans also encouraged to submit. LEAD CJ, Female. Late 20s. Black American or Afro-Latinx. Level-headed, mature, independent. An indigent criminal defense attorney with BXD (the Bronx Defenders). As brilliant as Shirin, but her intelligence lies in the nuances of particular 21st century systems, i.e. the law and existing governing bodies. CJ lives to interrogate political structures and the state apparatus. She went to NYU Law with the plan to be a public defender, which set her at odds with most of her highly privileged classmates.This role requires an extremely smart actor who is highly skilled with text. Must have strong comedic chops. Ability to speak Spanish a strong plus. LEAD ELIZABETH, Female. 18-25 to play 21. An ethnicity that would now be considered White but has not always been privileged as such in America (IE Jewish, Irish, Italian, Armenian, white-passing Latinx, to name a few). Quietly confident, naive, innocent, hearty and fundamentally comfortable with herself. A senior in undergrad and deeply uncertain if she's prepared to graduate and begin what adults have always called "real life." She moved to NYC from Colorado to study feminism/cultural studies. Being 8 years younger than Shirin and CJ, she has much more facility in the language of "identity politics." She is a hard worker that is currently searching for a more sophisticated analysis of her personal position and politics within our current society. This role requires an extremely smart actor who is highly skilled with text. Must have strong comedic chops. SUPPORTING THE EXTERMINATOR, 20s-40. Male, non-binary, or masc presenting. Sublimely beautiful (this can manifest physically or through a unique and incredible charisma) They have a mystical and calming aura, and portray a muted intelligence with deeply considered ideologies of the world. A corporeal manifestation of the archangel Michael, grounded and a thoughtful listener. Or a figment of Shirin's imagination. Or just a regular person. Who knows? This role requires an extremely smart actor who is highly skilled with text. Must have strong comedic chops. SUPPORTING SIX YEARS OLD ADALAIDE - White. Female, Non-Binary, or Trans Masc. Performer should be 20’s-45, to play a six year old girl. Endowed with a sense of maturity, emotional depth, and self-knowledge. Dangerously over-confident, sassy, vulnerable. Already feeling the friction between who she is and who the world wants her to be. On the precipice of having her innocence shattered. She is devoted to the idea that she could someday become a fictional male role model (Han Solo). Though performer will be playing a child, we are not looking for performers to adopt childlike affectations. Rather, the role should be played as an adult who lacks autonomy, and who hasn’t yet developed a filter. Must have a strong movement background, and strong comedic timing, and feel comfortable playing a character who is identified by she/her pronouns. LEAD. DEWEY - White. Cisgender Male. 20’s-30’s to play four years old. Happy-go-lucky, impressionable, at ease, self-centered. Full of love and affection for his sister. Understands that he is destined to be a hero. Is troubled by the fact that he feels subordinate to Adalaide. Already being indoctrinated by the cult of masculine privilege. Though performer will be playing a child, we are not looking for performers to adopt childlike affectations. Rather, the role should be played as an adult who lacks autonomy, and who hasn’t yet developed a filter. Must have a strong movement background, and strong comedic timing. LEAD KIM - 20’s-early 30’s, female identifying, person of color. A visual artist who is a part of the “Millennial working class.” Queer. She babysits for cash and probably lives in a loft in bushwick with like, eight roommates. Well-intentioned, grounded, caring, supportive. Unsettled by the way her financial situation has brought her into the middle of a family’s personal life. Uncertain of how much responsibility she has to Adalaide and Dewey as a sometimes-caretaker - caught between treating babysitting like a job, and investing in shaping and impacting young people’s lives. Deeply skeptical of Adalaide’s parents. Particularly interested in queer-identifying performers for this role. LEAD. RACHEL - White. 30’s-40’s. Cisgender Female. Conventionally straight-laced woman, very much a MOM. Very well put-together, image conscious, career-focused, decidedly un-woke. Makes an honest effort to understand her daughter, and genuinely wants the best for her, but is struggling to find the energy to give her the support she needs. Really late Gen X/Elder millennial. Visibly stressed by the friction between raising a family and maintaining the life she led in her early 30’s. Loves her kids, but on a very secret levels kind of resents them. Has lost the spark with her husband, who is pretty absent.




SUPPORTING. HOW TO SUBMIT Please have anyone interested in this project email their headshot & resume to shannoncoreycasting@gmail.com and randaschu@gmail.com.