Audition for Public Works

The audition and callback schedule is as follows: 
Saturday, April 23 – Location TBA – 10am-noon 
Sunday, April 24 – Location TBA – 10am-noon 
Monday, April 25 – SEATTLE CENTRAL COLLEGE – 2pm-4pm 
Tuesday, April 26 – BALLARD SENIOR CENTER – 2:30pm-4:30pm 
Thursday April 28 – RENTON VETERANS CENTER – 6pm-8pm 
 
May 14 & 15 – CALL BACKS – Location and Time TBA 

Prepare one minute of anything that brings you joy and showcases you as a performer! This can be a monologue, song, dance, joke, poem, story. If you’d like to be considered specifically for a speaking role, you might choose an audition piece that showcases your talent with language. If you are more of a singer, sing us your favorite song.   

We encourage everyone to attend the whole block of an audition to be an audience and cheering section for each other. We will do intros and warm up, then begin watching each other’s work. When it’s your turn, we’ll watch what you’ve prepared, celebrate your success, and move on to the next auditionee. 

Some folks who might be present include Braden Abraham, director of Emerald City, Kaytlin McIntyre and Shawna Grajek, our casting team, other members of the EC creative team, and members of the Public Works team.

Follow this link to the online audition form. There are 4 sections – picking an audition time slot, sharing personal information, confirming any conflicts with the calendar, and telling us about you and what type of role you’re interested in. If you have any issues while filling out the form, contact publicworks@seattlerep.org and we’ll make sure to get all your information.

We are not holding any virtual auditions this year. Since the entirety of the rehearsal process and staged reading will be held in-person, it is important for us to meet you and see you perform face-to-face. If you are unable to attend any of the scheduled audition times, please indicate that on the sign-up form and we will contact you about alternatives.  

There is a section in the audition form to let us know what types of roles you are interested in. Because this year’s summer project is a workshop of Emerald City, we will only be casting speaking and singing roles this time around.

Auditions introduce us to your talent. We’ll let you know about callbacks after we have held all auditions – If we do call you back, it means we want to see you do something different or specific – for callbacks, you will be given materials to perform. If you’re not called back, don’t worry! You did great, we have a clear sense of your talent and skills, we don’t need to see anything else. We will let you know about casting decisions approximately a week after callbacks.

Please indicate that on your audition form and we will get in touch to discuss options! 

We will follow the most up-to-date guidelines set by the CDC and the theatrical unions we’re in partnership with. To help keep each other safe, our protocols tend to be a bit stricter than the minimum the CDC recommends. This includes masking, social distancing, and regular screenings. We’re happy to talk to you about our specific COVID protocols if that’s the only reason you’re on the fence. If you just don’t feel right, no harm done, we’ll keep you in the loop and maybe you can join us next year! All participants auditioning and cast in this year’s project must be vaccinated and proof will be required upon entry to the audition. 

Emerald City is our first Public Works Seattle commission, an adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, written by Cheryl L. West with music by Paris Ray Dozier.

Emerald City follows a similar structure to Wizard of Oz: a young woman named Dorothy goes on an adventure with three companions she meets along the way. The world, however, is reimagined to reflect present-day Seattle and the issues our local communities face. The script is not yet available to read in full, though you may be given some pages from the script to read for callbacks.

A workshop is part of the development process for a new play: it is a chance for the playwright and other creative team members to hear the play out loud and learn what is successful and what changes may be made. For a number of logistical reasons we can’t yet stage a full production, so we decided to take advantage of this opportunity to share the story with our community and make space for community feedback in the process of our first-ever commission.

Like all Public Works projects, we will be guided by the values of equity, imagination, and joy. We will prioritize the process in equal value to the final product. We will have a smaller cast size than we are accustomed to, which means that we will not be able to cast everyone from our classes as we have in the past. We will learn music and read the lines, but will not have significant choreography, blocking, or design elements. 

The first day of rehearsal is scheduled for Wednesday, August 10. Rehearsals will take place Wednesday-Friday evenings, Saturday and Sunday mornings and afternoons. The semi-public readings will be held Saturday, August 27 at 2pm followed by a celebration and feedback event. Cast members must be able to attend most if not all rehearsals and must be able to attend the performance to participate.  

Yes! This workshop is a distinct process from next summer’s production. Being cast in a particular role this year does not guarantee that you will be cast in that same role in the full production in the summer of 2023.