Date: August 2011
Location: The Alderney Landing Theatre
Artistic Director : Tina Gallant
Musical Director: Woody Woods
Choreographer: Karla Hodge

Synopsis

A young female singing trio from Chicago get their big break at an amateur competition and begin singing backup vocals for James "Thunder" Early. However, things begin to spin out of control when their agent, Curtis Taylor, Jr., makes Deena and not Effie, the star of what will become known as "The Dreams."

Auditions will now take place on September 11th & 12th
Audition workshop September 4th


"Dreamgirls"  the musical
We will be looking for volunteers in these various roles:

Artistic Team

Costumes

Costumes help to establish the time and place of a particular scene as well as the mood and atmosphere. They indicate to the audience the status of a particular character and may reflect their lifestyle and personality. Volunteers in Costumes are always needed to help cut material and sew the outfits to be worn by the actors. Once the costumes are done and the show has begun, volunteers are required in wardrobe to assist with changes and fix costumes that may need repair.

Hair & Make-up

Closely coordinated with costumes, hair and make-up add the final touches to the appearance of the characters on stage. Volunteers in this area assist the designer and the actors in preparing them for the stage.

Properties & Set Decoration

Have you ever wondered just where on earth Orpheus got all those phones or pitchforks for a show? This is the job of the Properties Team. They are the individuals who visit garage sales and flea markets in their never-ending search for that perfect prop. They provide all the objects that decorate the sets and the tools that give a characters action meaning. While the period before the curtain opens on a production involves searching for and designing props, volunteers are also needed throughout the production period to make sure the props are on stage when they are required.

Scenic Design

Scenic Design defines the performance space, the area in which the action is taking place. Using flats, drops, curtains, colour and other methods, the scenic design team determines the physical environment that the actors will have available to them. As with costumes, mood and atmosphere are created, and the acting space becomes a character in itself.
Tips and Pointers:


How to Prepare for an audition:

Find out about the audition and auditioners: know where it is and what it's for. Auditioning for a professional musical require different acting styles and therefore different preparation



Choose a song, monologue, scene etc. that you LOVE and that relates somehow to you.

If you choose a piece you are not passionate about, it shows. There is a visible lack luster to your performance and auditioners see it very clearly. It makes it hard to get into or develop character because you don't really want to: you're not that invested.Choose something that you find truth in. If you are a woman/girl, do not choose a male monologue, male song, male anything, and vice versa. If you are of European descent, you should avoid pieces dealing with racial equality and racism because you cannot possibly relate no matter how Latino or African American you are "on the inside".


Choose something in your age range. Don't choose a piece with a 40-70 year old character when you're 23. It makes no sense and majorly distracts from what you are trying to create: the illusion of another person distracting from your own person. Accents are discouraged (unless absolutely necessary). The best thing you can do for yourself is find certain personality traits or experiences that reflect or are true to some of your own.


This also applies to a piece you've already chosen: if you've picked it correctly and for the right reasons, as you explore the character, find things that you can relate to. Maybe it is determined that your character is shy or insecure; if you find any of these things in yourself than bring it to the table. It can even work that maybe the character is insecure about his/her appearance and you're insecure about your voice, you can still bring the same body language and internal monologue just centered around a different physical focal point.

When you choose a monologue, read the play it's from. When you choose a song, read the musical and listen to all the songs. Know the story, what happened before the piece and why you are doing the piece, what do you have to gain, and how is what you are doing going to get you what you want.


Know your monologue, song, scene etc. like it's been a part of your life for years. You will feel so much better knowing that when the pressure's on, the lines will be there for you. Don't have a lot of time? Recite your monologues in the shower or on the way to work or school. Sing your song in the shower and put it on your iPod so that even when it's not appropriate to sing. you're still familiarizing yourself with the lyrics and timing. Preparation allows you to create a character effectively and stay calm and concentrated in the high-stress environment of an audition room.


Relax when you get to the audition. You're already there, there's no amount of last minute preparation that can help you now, you've learned the lines, lyrics, explored the character, all of the things you need to do. Try to take deep breaths and don't worry about what will happen, because what will happen will happen and worrying about it actually makes things worse. Drink some water, think about your lines, walk around a little but don't psyche yourself out


When you enter the room, BE A PERSON. Don't let your nerves get the best of you and force you into a jittery mumbling mess. When you get into the room, take a deep breath and say "Hi, how are you?". Address the audtioners calmly. Be polite and friendly and a really nice person to witness even before you start any performing


Have fun. Enjoy what you do during an audition, because if you don't then acting is not for you. You don't have to love auditioning itself, but you should the work once you get it. Really get into what you're doing because there is no second chance, you have to show them the peak of your talent and your most vibrant side so go all out.






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Monolgue Examples (Female)


Out of Our Father's House
by Eve Merriam, Paula Wagner, and Jack Hofsiss

ELIZABETH: When I was eleven years old, my only brother, who had just graduated from Union College, came home to die. A young man of great talent and promise, he was the pride of my father's heart. I recall going into the large darkened parlor and finding the casket, mirrors and pictures all draped in white, and my father seated, pale and immovable as he took no notice of me. After standing a long while, I climbed upon his knee, when he mechanically put his arm about me, and with my head resting against his beating heart, we both sat in silence, he thinking of the wreck of all his hopes in the loss of a dear son--and I wondering what could be said or done to fill the void in his breast. At length he heaved a deep sigh and said, "Oh, my daughter, I wish you were a boy!" Throwing my arms about his neck, I replied, "I will try to be all my brother was." All that day, and far into the night I pondered the problems of boyhood. I thought that the chief thing to be done in order to equal boys was to be learned and courageous. So I decided to study Greek and learn to manage a horse. I learned to leap a fence on horseback. I began to study Latin, Greek and mathematics with a class of boys in the Academy, many of whom were much older than I. For thre years one boy kept his place at the head of the class, and I always stood next. Two prizes were offered in Greek. I strove for one and took the second. One thought alone filled my mind. "Now," said I, "my father will be satisfied with me." I rushed into his office, laid the new Greek testament, which was my prize, on his table, and exclaimed: "I got it!" He took up the book, asked me some questions about the class, and evidently pleased, handed it back to me. Then he kissed me on the forehead and exclaimed with a sigh, "You should have been a boy!"

Fanny's First Play
by George Bernard Shaw

MARGARET: I'm not hardened, Mother. But I can't talk nonsense about it. You see, it's all real to me. I've suffered it. I've been shoved and bullied. I've had my arms twisted. I've been made scream with pain in other ways. I've been flung into a filthy cell with a lot of other poor wretches as if I were a sack of coals being emptied into a cellar. And the only difference between me and the others was that I hit back. Yes I did. And I did worse. I wasn't ladylike. I cursed. I called names. I heard words that I didn't even know that I knew, coming out of my mouth just as if somebody else had spoken them. The policeman repeated them in court. The magistrate said he could hardly believe it. the policeman held out his hand with his two teeth in it that I knocked out. I said it was all right; that I had heard myself using those words quite distinctly; and that I had taken the good conduct prize for three years running at school. The poor old gentleman put me back for the missionary to find out who I was, and to ascertain the state of my mind. I wouldn't tell, of course, for your sakes at home here; and I wouldn't say I was sorry, or apologize to the policeman, or compensate him or anything of that sort. I wasn't sorry. The one thing that gave me any satisfaction was getting in that smack on his mouth; and I said so. So the missionary reported that I seemed hardened and that no doubt I would tell who I was after a day in prison. then I was sentenced. So now you see I'm not a bit the sort of girl you thought me. I'm not a bit the sort of girl I thought myself. And I don't know what sort of person you really are, or what sort of person Father really is. I wonder what he should say or do if he had an angry brute of a policeman twisting his arm with one hand and rushing him along by the nape of his neck with the other. He couldn't whirl his leg like a windmill and knock a policeman down by a glorious kick on the helmet. Oh, if they'd all fought as we two fought we'd have beaten them.


Monolgue Examples (Male)

Johnny No-Trump
by Mary Mercier

JOHN: Mother, I never feel special, ever. Not how I look, or dress or sound. But one time a special feeling happened to me, and it never goes away. Ya know how ya have to recite bits and pieces for class? Even if it's all Greek they make ya learn them. Well...out of no-place once, I'm going over and over some lines, and suddenly they made sense. I mean I knew inside me what they meant. Like they were written for me! And it was such a shock, that I raced around the house to let you all in on it. But everybody was out, so I just kept putting down the book, and picking it up agian, and holding it way out...like a sparkler...like it was alive. And I had to tell somebody...but the only person...well, the picture in the front of his old book...I held it under a light...and finally I said to William Shakespeare..."Do you know who you are?" I was just so amazed to find this dead, well, friend really. Dead friend. And after that, I'd read anybody called a poet. I mean, they're better than me, and I wanted in. And if I play around with rhymes and stuff now, it's because, it's the only part of me that's any good. I mean, honestly, Mother, do I look like some swinger, that's gonna wear a suit and schlunk, and I've just been sent down here too late, that's all. Why? WHY? couldn't I have been born tall and brave and brilliantly talented back in the eighteenth centure, when if ya wanted to be a poet, they all said, "Go, man, go, it's the most!" Mother, I'm a short coward in Nassau County, February, 1965, and couldn't you be on my side? (He checks his pulse.) And I hope I don't have high blood pressure because I'll never make the next week, next year, you're so worried about.


The Dark at the Top of the Stairs
by William Inge


SAMMY: I always worry that maybe people aren't going to like me, when I go to a party. Isn't that crazy? Do you ever get kind of a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach when you dread things? Gee, I wouldn't want to miss a party for anything. But every time I go to one, I have to reason with myself to keep from feeling that the whole world's against me. See, I've spent almost my whole life in the military academies. My mother doesn't have a place for me, where she lives. She...she just doesn't know what else to do with me. But you mustn't misunderstand about my mother. She's really a very lovely person. I guess every boy thinks his mother is beautiful, but my mother really is. she tells me in every letter she writes how sorry she is that we can't be together more, but she has to think of her work. One time we were together, though. she met me in San Francisco once, and we were together for two whole days. She let me take her to dinner and to a show and to dance. Just like we were sweethearts. It was the most wonderful time I ever had. And then I had to go back to the old military academy. Every time I walk into the baracks, I get kind of a depressed feeling. It's got hard stone walls. Pictures of generals hanging all over...oh, they're very fine gentlemen, but they all look so kind of hard-boiled and stern...you know what I mean. Well, gee! I guess I've bored you enough, telling you about myself.