Casting for Bike Odyssey LA
Thread started by
jojolae at 03.10.14 - 10:33 pm
recieved via email, reposting here:
CASTING roles for a new devised play inspired by Mike Davis’ City of Quartz, a history of Los Angeles, and Homer’s The Odyssey, the original epic adventure. The play is site-specific and processional, created for community bike rides with actors leading audiences through the city on bikes through the course of the play. Think taco-truck Cirque, Neo-Classical Mardi Gras, Grotowski on a bike.
AUDITIONS: E-mail bikeodysseyLA@gmail.com to submit headshot/resume and reserve an audition time. Text will be provided at the audition to devise from, no preparation is necessary. Audition open to performers of all ages, ethnicities, and genders - Latino, African American, and Asian descent actors are particularly encouraged to submit. Actors must be comfortable riding a bicycle, additional circus and music talents a bonus.
ON: Thursday March 13, 7-10pm
Friday March 14, 3-6pm
AT: Schkapf (formerly ArtWorks Theatre)
6569 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, 90038.
Tel. 310-906-8345
THE SHOW: It’s about beautiful monsters. It’s about Los Angeles, using the Odyssey as a sweeping metaphor for the journey. The play doubles as a bike tour of LA, stopping at street corners, in parks and businesses along the way to see fragments of the epic played out as Angelino stories, with expressive physical acting, masks, puppetry, grandiose costumes and songs fit for an outdoor production. The audience becomes sailors, revelers, and sheep as needed, and actors change parts with the flick of a mask or wig. The story is The Odyssey. The stage is Los Angeles. The atmosphere is Carnival.
MISSION: Our target emotions are surprise and delight – constantly bringing the audience new and unexpected ways of seeing their city. That can be through myth or clowning or playing bikes like musical instruments. At the same time, we want to have a social justice focus, to use this as the platform it is to talk about our city and where we want to see it go. Cycling has a progressive, activist history, and we plan to fit firmly into that – partnering with existing groups and promoting good causes.
RUN: This casting is for the development phase of the show, with a small cast, and will conclude with at least three showings for small audiences in theatres and public spaces at the beginning of April. Rehearsals will be 4x/week through the month of March, with additional training and work-in-progress sharing opportunities. All material is generated by the group, using Homer’s epic for reference. I ask everyone in the cast to be solidly available in March (afternoons or evenings, depending on majority availability) and have no other creative conflicts (ready performances can be OK, depending on dates, but no rehearsals). Additional phases will expand to tour community rides throughout LA and possibly CicLAvia – actors are invited but not required to continue in later phases.
CREATIVE INSPIRATIONS: Pina Bausch, Theatre of the Oppressed, Butoh, Cirque du Soleil, Grotowski, Lucha Libre, Mardi Gras, Burning Man, Opera, parades, haunted houses, street vendors, Milan Kundera, Jorge Louis Borges, David Foster Wallace.
TO SEE PRIOR WORK:
1984: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA_zWY8PScA
Gabriel Garcia Marquez Project: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhREa-BVOYM
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