Children Auditions For TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
AUDITIONS ARE BY APPOINTMENT ONLY
Wednesday, June 2, 2010, 2:30 PM–7:30 PM
Friday, June 4, 2010, 1 PM–7 PM
Auditions are being held at our office and rehearsal facility at
Nashville Public Television
161 Rains Ave., 37203
(one block from the Tennessee State Fairgrounds)
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD DATES:
Rehearsals: Sept. 13–Oct. 1, 2010.
Performances: Oct. 2–23, 2010
Available Roles:
2 boys, 1 girl, all between 9 and 15 years old.
- Jem: (boy) a budding athlete, protective
- Dill: (boy) socially awkward, oddball, mischievous
- Scout: (girl) tomboyish, tough cookie, inquisitive
TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT
PLEASE EMAIL tennesseerepauditions@gmail.com
Please make sure your email contains the following information:
- Your name and the name of the adult who will be accompanying you to the audition. If the accompanying adult is NOT your parent/guardian, please include your parent/guardian’s name as well.
- The role you are auditioning for. Your choices: Scout, Jem or Dill.
- A contact phone number. This should be the contact phone number for your parent/guardian. If something comes up that necessitates our changing your appointment and we do not have a number to call, you may lose your audition slot.
- Indicate any time during the posted audition times (see above) that you would be UNAVAILABLE. For example, “We can’t be there to audition before 3pm” or “We need to be done by 6pm” etc. You may indicate a day and time preference, and we will attempt to accommodate you, however all audition slots will be filled in the order in which the requests were received, so your preference may not be available.
- You will receive a confirmation email with your audition time. If you do not have email access, you may request an audition time by leaving a message at (615) 349-3217. However, please note that you will receive your audition slot more quickly if you send your request via email.
PLEASE NOTE BEFORE REQUESTING AN APPOINTMENT
Tennessee Rep is a professional company—PLEASE consider the time commitment carefully. Rehearsals for which you are called and performances are not optional.
- Rehearsals are typically during daytime hours, Monday through Saturday.
- Rehearsal time for the children will be negotiated around school-time hours, and will require being available on the weekend (Saturday is a regular rehearsal day), and possibly some early evenings. It will be necessary, however, to miss some school during tech week (the week leading up to the show’s opening).
- You must be available for all performance dates to be considered for a role. However, it is possible that one or more roles may be double-cast, in which case your performance commitment may be shared with another actor. This option won’t be determined until after auditions are complete, so you still need to carefully examine the performance dates and make sure you are available.
PREPARING FOR THE AUDITION
- When you come to the open call, you will be expected to present ONE of the monologues below, depending on which role you are auditioning for. Please MEMORIZE your presentation.
- The play is an adaptation of the novel, so the novel is your best source for further information about the characters.
- Remember this: the director is looking for young actors who can be very natural and believable. So just relax and be yourself!
ON THE DAY OF YOUR AUDITION
- You will receive detailed information at the time your appointment is confirmed on where to come and how to sign-in for the audition.
- You must be accompanied by an adult.
- Please plan on arriving at least 15 minutes prior to your scheduled time.
- Please bring 2 current headshots and resumés if you have them. If you don’t, please bring 2 prints of a current photo of yourself (the larger the better) in which your face is easily seen and recognizable, and write out a short paragraph on the back describing any performing you’ve done so far anywhere (church, school, etc.). Be sure to include name, parent/guardian’s name and contact information on the photo.
- Dress comfortably and casually.
AUDITION MONOLOGUES for Mockingbird Children Auditionees
If you are auditioning for SCOUT, please memorize this:
Catching Walter Cunningham in the schoolyard gave me some pleasure, but when I was rubbing his nose in the dirt Jem came by and told me to stop. “You’re bigger’n he is,” he said. I said, “He’s as old as you, nearly. He made me start off on the wrong foot.” And Jem said, “Let him go, Scout. Why?” So I told him: “He didn’t have any lunch. He said he forgot it and Miss Caroline tried to make him take a quarter to buy lunch downtown, sayin’ he could pay her back tomorrow. So I said, ‘Miss Caroline, he’s a Cunningham.’ But she didn’t understand that Walter was sitting there lying his head off. He didn’t forget his lunch, he didn’t have any. So I tried again and told her that Walter’s one of the Cunninghams, and the Cunninghams never took anything they can’t pay back. They never took anything off of anybody, they get along on what they have. I said, ‘You’re shamin’ him, Miss Caroline. Walter hasn’t got a quarter at home to bring you.’ Then she grabbed me by the collar and said, ‘Jean Louise, I’ve had about enough of you this morning. You’re starting off on the wrong foot in every way, my dear.’ Then she told me to stand in the corner!”
If you are auditioning for JEM, please memorize this:
The more we told Dill about Boo Radley, the more he wanted to know, the longer he would stand hugging the light-pole on the corner, the more he would wonder. He’d say, “Wonder what he does in there. Looks like he’d just stick his head out the door.” So I told him: “He goes out, all right, when it’s pitch dark. Miss Stephanie Crawford said she woke up in the middle of the night one time and saw him looking straight through the window at her…said his head was like a skull lookin’ at her. Ain’t you ever waked up at night and heard him, Dill? He walks like this—(a scraping, scarey walk). Why do you think Miss Rachel locks up so tight at night? I’ve seen his track in our back yard many a mornin’, and one night I heard him scratching on the back screen, but he was gone time Atticus got there. He’s about six and a half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dines on raw squirrels and any cats he can catch, that’s why his hands are blood-stained—if you eat an animal raw, you can never wash the blood off. There is a long jagged scar that runs across his face; what teeth he has are yellow and rotten; his eyes pop, and he drools most of the time. If you want to get yourself killed, Dill Harris, all you have to do is go up and knock on the front door.
If you are auditioning for DILL, please memorize this:
It was a tight fit under Scout’s bed where I had been hiding. I was able to emerge by degrees. Finally I stood up, eased my shoulders, and rubbed the back of my neck. My circulation restored, I finally said, “Hey!” “God Almighty!,” said Jem. So I said, “I’m ‘bout to perish. Got anything to eat?” Scout said, “How’d you get here?” So I told her how I had been bound in chains and left to die in the basement by my new father, who dislikes me, and I was secretly kept alive on raw field peas by a passing farmer who heard my cries for help. “I worked myself free by pulling the chains from the wall and wandered two miles out of Meridian where I discovered a small animal show and was immediately engaged to wash the camel. I traveled with the show all over Mississippi until my infallible sense of direction told me I was just across the river from Maycomb. I walked the rest of the way.” But then Jem asked, “How’d you really get here?” So I told him, “Well…..I took thirteen dollars from my mother’s purse, caught the nine o’clock from Meridian and got off at Maycomb Junction. I walked to Maycomb, off the highway in the scrub bushes lest the authorities be seeking me. I have been under the bed for two hours! I thought you and Scout would never come to bed!”
