romeo & juliet | community theatre event

[catsudon]

If you pay attention to various haunts around the city, including your local area schools, you might just have seen the following flier the last two weeks...

Welcome to the Community Theatre presentation of Romeo and Juliet! This production is a fundraiser for the Community Arts Program through the Recollé Community Center, and as such, while participants are not being paid, they are helping fund-raise for other community arts projects around the city. Recollé's Community Arts Program is helping bring the arts into every community member's life. Now's your chance to contribute to the cause!

Auditions will be held March 15th at the Recollé Community Center. Those interested in backstage, stagehand, or production positions are invited to attend the audition to speak with the director. We hope to see you there!

That's right, Recollé! We're about to get Shakespearean in here. As for how this is all going to shake out...

The Who, What, Where, When, and Why's:

1. What's going on?
   
   The high school drama instructor is directing a Community Theatre production of the classic tragedy (or comedy, depending on who you ask) Romeo and Juliet, and you're all invited to participate!
   
   
2. Where is this happening?
   
   Initially? In the auditorium of the Community Center, located around the border of Tribunal Terrace and Apprassage.
   
   
3. Why is this happening?
   
   Rule of funny? ICly, this is a fundraising event for the Community Arts Program, where all participants are unpaid outside of the sheer joy of working for the community (or the sweet extra credit if they're a high school student — more on that below).
   
   
4. When is the play being performed?
   
   Officially? Opening night is April 6th, and performances roll through that Friday and the weekend. There's going to be one log posted for the performances, and that will go live on April 5th! A catch-all rehearsal log will be posted on March 22nd.
   
   
5. What characters can participate in this play?
   
   Any and all characters in the game! As this is a community theatre production, it's open to all levels of talent of all ages.
   
   
6. What are different ways my character can participate?
   
   As an actor, of course, but the play will need stagehands, set designers, costume designers, production members, community sponsors, choreographers, photographers, videographers, people working on sound and lighting, and the list goes on... any possible associated support role will definitely be needed.
   
   
7. My character needs to be bribed to participate. Can you help?
   
   Only if you play a high school aged student! The director is the high school drama teacher, and he has permission from the humanities teachers & principal to offer any high school student participating (either as an actor, a stagehand, or in other areas of production) extra credit for their participation. Struggling in one of your humanities classes? This might be the boost you need!
   
   College students are encouraged to ask if they can turn this into a special project for extra credit with their professors. People within the community may choose to participate for the charity aspect, as this is a fundraiser production.
   
   
8. My character is going to audition for XYZ role! How will acting roles be determined?
   
   The short answer is each role will be randomly rolled for between everyone who signs up for that role. (Once your character has won a role, they're taking out of future rolls for roles!) For a complete list of speaking parts in Romeo and Juliet, please see here. Note! There will be understudies for all the main speaking roles! As the production requests people to be on stage as both chorus and extras for crowd scenes, those who are not assigned a major role will be assigned as an understudy Just In Case.
   
   Which will be relevant, as all understudies will actually be performing as those main roles for the very first showing of the play, as the main acting crew will be Unfortunately Detained due to traffic considerations and Good Intentions going a bit wonky. Everyone will be fine! This is an excuse and reason for more than one character to be given a role, and allow maximum capacity for people to participate in the play in all ways.
   
   
9. Wait, so the understudies will be doing the first performance?
   
   Yes! Subsequent performances will be by the main cast, but due to Unforeseen Circumstances, the main cast will not be performing at the first production on opening night.
   
   
10. Are there any limitations to what roles my character can audition for?
    
    No! There are no restrictions. People are invited to state they're formally auditioning for whichever part(s) they like; the director will be making all final calls.
    
    
11. How do I sign my character up to audition for the play?
    
    Fill out the form here and leave it as a reply to that comment! Please note, you're asked for a link to a comment by you on the audition log. This can be added in at any point before I RNG the roles this weekend! This does not need to be a top level comment, it just needs to be any kind of reply by you to the audition log.
    
    Characters who do not get RNG'd (Random Number Generated, essentially randomized) for a speaking role in the main production will be part of the chorus/background cast. Characters who are RNG'd for a speaking role as an understudy will still primarily be part of the chorus/background cast for the main production.
    
    Any roles not assigned to PCs, whether due to a lack of interest or otherwise, will be assigned to NPCs.
    
    
12. How do I sign my character and/or their business up to help with the play?
    
    Fill out the form here and leave it as a reply to that comment! Once you've signed up, you're good to go. Thank you for helping with this production!
    
    
13. Will characters need a partner for paired line reading at the audition?
    
    This is not required! But for threading fun, any characters who are willing to help read lines, or willing to be drafted into reading lines from the script because they happened to be in the area, are free to do so. People can help any number of others with pair-read lines for the audition. You do not need to have a character who is willingly auditioning for the play in order to participate with the line-reading; characters can be flat out conned into doing this part.
    
    For the sake of us as players, the director will make requests for people to read certain scenes in pairs. You, the player, can then decide what scenes these are, though I'll provide a few examples on the audition log going up on March 15th. The director can also be the reason why characters not planning to actually audition for a role are pulled in to help read lines: he's a very demanding, persuasive man, and he needs your assistance, now!

Please feel free to ask questions in this post here, and otherwise use this post to plot shenanigans for auditions, the play, and perhaps even infinity if that's your jam these days.

The auditions log is now live, the catch-all Rehearsal log is also live, and the final performance log can be found live here!