AUDITION INFO for Two Fall Semester Shows
ONE AUDITION FORM FOR TWO SHOWS: “Chinee, Japanee All Mix Up” & “Memorial Day”
CLICK HERE to fill out the Audition Form in Google Forms. The Google Form also contains a link to the script for Memorial Day. (Please email the Director at rheller@hawaii.edu for a screen-reader friendly version of the script if needed)
UHM students are given priority in casting. This includes incoming students who will be registered for the Fall 2022 semester. Per departmental casting policy, “other UH system students, faculty, and staff are also welcome to audition.” Community members may audition.
Information about Chinee, Japanee, All Mix Up
Performances: September 21-25, 2022
a devised theatre project exploring Asian Identity in Hawaiʻi and America
Directed by Reiko Ho
“What does it mean to be Asian in 2022?” Faced with the rise of Anti-Asian hate crimes and the continuing need for representation and voice, guest director Reiko Ho, leads students on a deep dive into Asian American history in Hawaiʻi and the continent to create a multi-media theatrical performance. The show will feature poems by “da Pidgin Guerrilla”, Lee Tonouchi and may include original student monologues, scenes, spoken word, video, dance, and music.
This audition process will be focused on identity conscious casting. The director recognizes that considerations of race and ethnicity are vital components to this devised piece of work. It is the directorʻs hope that this production will be crafted in ways that honor individuals who identify as Asian, Mixed Asian or Asian American and their respective communities. Performers of all gender identities, sexualities, abilities, and ages, as well as d/Deaf, are welcome to audition.
Initial auditions will be held Saturday April 30 2pm—5 pm, and Sunday May 1 6pm—8 pm in Kennedy Theatre (room TBA). Please plan to come either Saturday April 30 or Sunday May 1. It is not necessary to come both days.
HOW TO PREPARE
- Please fill in the online Audition Form prior to your audition.
- Please prepare a short monologue or other performance piece (1-2 minutes) of your choice. Other performance audition options may include movement, spoken word, singing and/or playing music, or a telling a personal story.
- Because the show may use personal experiences as inspiration for devising, the audition process may include discussions about race, ethnicity, or memories.
If you want to audition but cannot attend in person on the initial audition dates, please email the director (reiko@htyweb.org). If you also want to audition for Memorial Day, directed by Ron Heller: The auditions are being held on the same dates. You may audition for both shows, but you can only be cast in one of the two. If you choose to audition for only one, that’s fine.
Regular rehearsals will start on August 15, 2022, and will generally be Monday through Friday evenings. Actors should be available all day for tech on Saturday September 18 and Sunday September 19.
Performances: Sept. 21-25, 2022 (7:30 pm Wednesday through Saturday, and 2:00 pm Sunday)
Reiko Ho is Artistic Associate for Honolulu Theatre for Youth and part of the Emmy® Award winning team creating HTYʻs hit TV show, The HI Way. She is an accomplished theatre artist (and a UHM Theatre alum!) who loves creating works that speak to the diverse communities of her island home. Much of her directorial focus has been on showcasing original plays by Hawai’i artists and creating space for local representation. Reiko is currently directing the Hawaiʻi premiere of Cambodian Rock Band for Manoa Valley Theater. Other directorial projects for the 2021-22 season include The Joy Luck Club (MVT), Lee Catalunaʻs Musubi Man (HTY), and The Carp Who Would Not Quit (HTY) that she also wrote, which will tour nationally this April. Upcoming projects for next fall include a pre-school show, Step by Step, which she is writing and directing for Honolulu Theatre for Youth and Lloyd Suhʻs The Chinese Lady for Theatre Tierra del Sol in Florida. Reiko also serves as the coach for Civil Beatʻs Hawaiʻi Storytellers Series and is the owner/sensei of Red Lotus Hawai’i, a martial arts and fitness school.
Please contact director Reiko Ho for more information about the auditions reiko@htyweb.org
Audition Information for Memorial Day
Performances: October 19-23, 2022
Initial auditions will be held Saturday, April 30, 2 to 5 pm, and Sunday, May 1, 6 to 8 pm, in Room 101.
Please plan to come either Saturday April 30 or Sunday May 1. It is not necessary to come both days. It is recommended (but not absolutely required) that you email the director, Ron Heller (rheller@hawaii.edu) in advance to set a specific time. (See signup link and instructions below.)
If you want to audition but cannot attend in person on the initial audition dates, please email the director.
Scroll down for schedule information and character descriptions. Note that all characters are male, but actors of all genders are welcome to audition.
It is not required for initial auditions, but you can access a read-only version of the entire play by clicking below or copy and paste it into your browser:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/15bko5hzKijBQ7ZjIBxpFOWrSWYIQNjkl/view?usp=sharing
Callbacks – Sunday afternoon, May 8, exact call time TBD.
Play Description
It’s 1992. AIDS and anti-gay hysteria are rampant. George is a doctor who has been watching his patients die. As a gay man himself, he understands the stigma and discrimination they face. How does he deal with the cold hard fact that he cannot offer them any effective treatment? When Evelyn, a drag queen who died years earlier, appears, is it a hallucination or is she an angel of mercy? Playwright Paul Donnelly mixes empathy with unsettling humor to deal with a difficult question – when a generation of young men are dying, and there is nothing you can do to stop it, how do you deal with that pain?
If you also want to audition for Chinese, Japanese, All Mix Up, directed by Reiko Ho: The auditions are being held on the same dates. You may audition for both shows, but you can only be cast in one of the two. Please note that if you want to audition for both, you should set a specific time with each of the two directors. If you choose to audition for only one, that’s fine.
HOW TO PREPARE
- Please fill in the online Audition Form prior to your audition, and email the director at rheller@hawaii.edu to request a specific time slot.
- For first auditions, you will do readings (no need to memorize anything) of selected scenes from the play.
- As time permits, you may also be asked to re-read a scene with a change, or read another scene or a different character.
- You are encouraged to read the play prior to auditions. Please see link above for the script.
Time Commitments:
We will try to have the full cast meet (using Zoom if necessary) for one read-through in mid-May 2022. Subject to actors’ availability, some character/scene work might occur over the summer. Regular rehearsals will start on September 1, 2022, and will generally be Monday through Friday evenings. Actors should be available all day for tech on Saturday October 15 and Sunday October 16.
Performances: October 19-23, 2022 (7:30 pm Wednesday through Saturday, and 2:00 pm Sunday)
Notes on content:
This play includes adult language and references to sex. The play addresses a variety of difficult topics, such as suicide, anti-gay discrimination and bigotry. At least one scene requires the simulation of sexual foreplay. The director will use up-to-date methods of intimacy direction, probably including a consultant with specific training in that area.
Please contact director Ron Heller for more information about the auditions: rheller@hawaii.edu
CAST OF CHARACTERS
George Harris – male, mid 40s, white. The doctor. In a long-term relationship with Martin. Scooter’s son. In college, he was the guy who stayed in the dorm studying Organic Chemistry when everyone else went out drinking on Friday night. Not because he was a nerd, but because he was focused on the goal: medical school.
Martin Kiernan – male, mid 40s, any race/ethnicity. George’s lover. Always ready with a quip – uses humor to avoid showing his feelings. Actually a romantic, emotional guy, but he doesn’t often show it.
Joe Morrisey – male, mid 40s, any race/ethnicity. An old friend of George and Martin. With Nate but that’s a recent thing. Still on the emotional roller coaster after losing Ray. Truly having fun being with Nate, but overcompensating, trying just a little too hard.
Nate Goldman – male, late 20s, any race/ethnicity. Joe’s lover. HIV positive. A realist. Knows what he needs. Truly likes Joe, even believes that he could someday be in love with Joe, but right now it’s a combination of like/respect and identifying what he needs
Terrence “Evelyn” O’Brien – male, mid 20s, any race/ethnicity. George’s first lover. Visible only to George (Terrence/Evelyn died years earlier). Appears mostly in drag as Evelyn, then appears in one scene as Terrence. Three personalities in one body: (1) Evelyn the performer, a bigger-than-life stage persona, an absolutely over-the-top diva drag queen; (2) Evelyn the person, much more vulnerable and real; and (3) Terrence, honest, straightforward, simple (in the uncomplicated sense, as opposed to the not-very-bright sense). Calmly aware of his own beauty, but not proud or showy.
George “Scooter” Harris – male, late 60s, white. Sixth-term North Carolina state senator. George’s father. White, straight, and strongly prejudiced against anyone who isn’t. Not a racist, sexist, or homophobe in his own mind – he just knows the “facts” about “those people” and wants to protect his community.
PLAYWRIGHT BIO – PAUL DONNELLY (in his own words):
My life as a “trailing spouse” has included stops in Washington DC, Atlanta, Honolulu, and now Tallahassee. My work has won the Source Theatre Company National 10-Minute Play Contest, the Larry Neal Writers Award for Drama, the Virginia Playwriting Prize, and twice been nominated for a Helen Hayes Award. I had pieces in the 2015-2017 Atlanta One-Minute Play Festivals and my romantic comedy, Falling Off the Edge, was produced in Atlanta in January 2018. My 10-minute play, The New Client, was recently published in Best Ten Minute Plays of 2019 (Smith & Kraus). My full-length play, Memorial Day, was read in Kumu Kahua Theatre’s Dark Nights series in Honolulu and was named a Finalist (one of eight out of 1,243 entries) in the first Moss and Kitty Carlisle Hart New Play Initiative. My 10-minute play, Family Visitation, will be produced in Theatre Odyssey’s Ten-Minute Play Festival May 9-12 in the Cook Theatre at the Asolo/FSU Center for Performing Arts in Sarasota, FL. I am a member of the Dramatist Guild, Klunch, New Play Exchange, Playwrights’ Center, Tallahassee Writers Association, and Working Title Playwrights. I am proud to serve as the Dramatist Guild Ambassador for the Florida Panhandle Region.
Ron Heller – (Director, Memorial Day) is currently one of the oldest grad students in the Theatre program at UH Manoa, working on an MFA in Directing. Ron has received two Po’okela awards as Director of a Play, for The Mountaintop at TAG in 2020, and Disgraced at TAG in 2017. Other credits include acting in shows at UHM, Manoa Valley Theatre, Diamond Head Theatre, Hawaii Pacific University, and the Hawaii Shakespeare Festival, and directing at UHM and Kailua Onstage Arts. In his day job, he is an attorney concentrating on tax and business matters.
Departmental GPA Policy
All students who participate in departmental productions are required to keep a minimum GPA of 2.0. If the situation arises where a student drops below a 2.0, that student will be considered on probation. These are the same guidelines as provided by the university for academic probation. More information about academic probation rules can be found here:
https://manoa.hawaii.edu/undergrad/oavcue/academic-action/
During a probation period the student may only participate in one departmental production during the course of the semester and is not allowed to be involved in Late Night productions.
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