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"Men On Boats" 

by Jaclyn Backhaus

Directed by Caitlin A. Kane

Audition Information 

Please read it in its entirety.

About "Men On Boats" 

Ten explorers. Four boats. One Grand Canyon. "Men On Boats" is the true(ish) story of John Wesley Powell’s 1869 expedition down the Grand and Colorado Rivers with nine amateur explorers. This feminist satirical retelling of the explorers’ death-defying adventure raises urgent questions about whose histories are told, whose perspectives are left out, and how historical narratives shape contemporary understandings of belonging.

You can read and the revised version of that we will be using at these links.

Rehearsals: 

Rehearsals:

Feb. 16 – April 9: Rehearsals Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 6-10 p.m., Sunday 1-6 p.m.

Except for Spring Break (March 8 – 15: No Rehearsals)

April 11 – 18: Tech/Dress Rehearsals Daily, full day on Saturday, April 12

Performances:

Friday, April 18 at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, April 19 at 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, April 20 at 2:00 p.m.

Wednesday, April 23 at 10:00 a.m. (Student Matinee)

Wednesday, April 23 at 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, April 24 at 7:30 p.m.

Friday, April 25 at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, April 26 at 7:30 pm.

Sunday, April 27 at 2:00 p.m.

QUESTIONS OR ACCESSIBILITY NEEDS:

Please email the director Caitlin Kane (ckane18@kent.edu) and production stage manager Eva Clements (eclemen6@kent.edu) with any questions or requests for accommodations.

Auditions

Auditions: 
November 12 and 13 – 6:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m., Center for Performing Arts, Room D205

• Auditions are open to all Kent State students
• Please prepare a 60-90 second monologue from a play written after 1850
• Monologues can be comedic or dramatic, but we recommend choosing a character you connect with whose gender identity differs from your own.
• If the monologue isn’t memorized, that is fine. Please audition anyway.
• If you are new to auditioning and do not have a monologue, please select a monologue from the play; several options can be found

1. Audition Signup: 
   Auditions will be scheduled in 3-minute slots.
   
   More slots will be added in the 9-10 p.m. hour when previous slots fill up.
    
2. Fill out and submit this audition form by Monday, November 11 at 5:00 p.m.. Please be prepared to upload a headshot and performance resume through this form.
   

Callbacks: 

November 18 – beginning at 6:00 p.m.

• Callbacks will include a movement call; please dress in comfortable clothing
• Sides (excerpts from scenes of the play) will be circulated when the callback list is announced; please review them in advance of the callback

Auditions will be held in conjunction with auditions for other spring productions, including "The Wiz" and "Trial By Fire." Directors and stage managers from all three production teams will be in present for your audition – you may audition for all three productions (presenting a monologue and song) or choose to only audition for the plays or musical (presenting either a monologue or a song accordingly).

What to Prepare: 

1. 60-90 second monologue from a play written after 1850. 
   1. Monologues can be comedic or dramatic. If you are auditioning for "Men on Boats" and "Trial By Fire," we recommend choosing a character you connect with whose gender identity differs from your own. If you are only auditioning for "Trial by Fire", feel free to prepare a monologue/character that aligns with your gender identity.
   2. If the monologue isn't memorized, that is fine, please audition anyway.
2. For "The Wiz," prepare a cut of a song that is 60 seconds or less in the style of the show. Bring sheet music in the correct key, accompanist provided. We understand all BFA MT majors are required to audition with a song. "The Wiz" will cast from the BIPOC Kent State community.

A Note on Casting:

Although the characters are based on historical figures who were white men, the playwright has asked/required that only women, trans, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming performers fill the roles.

Content Disclosures:

This play is set in the 19th century and (critically /satirically) represents frontiersmen, some of whom promoted Manifest Destiny and anti-Native / anti-Indigenous ideologies, including forced assimilation. It also includes ableist language, expletives/profanity, gunshots, rattlesnakes, loud sound effects (river, rapids, waterfalls and other natural elements), alcohol consumption, smoking and vomiting.

Intimacy Disclosures:

While this play does not call for any staged intimacy, there may be moments of physical contact between performers. These moments will be choreographed around actors’ boundaries.

Character Breakdown 

All roles are open to women, trans, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming actors of any race or ethnicity with or without disabilities and who have any level of experience.

The Men on Boats:

• John Wesley Powell – leader of the expedition; a Civil War veteran and self-taught geologist who loves adventure
• William Dunn – a hunter, trapper, and innovator who wants to name everything after himself
• John Colton Sumner –a former soldier and current explorer, a risk-taker, the Bear Grylls of the 1860s
• Old Shady – John Wesley Powell’s older brother, also a Civil War veteran from Boone, WI; Detail- and task-oriented, careful, quiet
• Bradley – a young lieutenant on his first expedition, an enthusiastic chatterbox
• O.G. (Oramel) Howland – a printer and hunter who claims to have no friends; he and his brother (Seneca) lost their father in a tragic manner
• Seneca Howland – OG's quiet little brother; gets mistaken for OG’s twin; he and his brother (OG) lost their father in a tragic manner
• Frank Goodman – British (British accent required), SO excited (to be exploring the American West)
• Andrew Hall – a map maker, only nineteen years old and the youngest of the crew, but an old soul
• William Robert Hawkins – the cook, makes eggs of all styles and is in charge of inventory

The Men NOT on Boats (likely doubled with other characters) –

• Just Jim – farmer/tradesman on the ridge just out of the canyon, disarmingly calm/wry
• Johnson – farmer/tradesman on the ridge just out of the canyon, disarmingly calm/wry
• Mr. Asa – a desert Mormon settler

AUDITION REQUIREMENTS FOR BFA MUSICAL THEATRE AND MFA STUDENTS 

B.F.A. Musical Theatre candidates are required to audition for all theatre division main stage productions and accept roles if cast. Exemptions to the audition requirement may be granted under certain circumstances. Circumstances include but are not limited to religious beliefs, moral objections, psychological triggers with the play and physical concerns. In order to be exempted from the audition requirement, students must submit a written petition to the performance faculty prior to the beginning of the casting process for the production in question. The performance faculty will make a good-faith effort to deliberate and come to a decision on the petition at the first performance area meeting after the receipt of the petition. At no point will a student be asked to disclose sensitive personal information.” 

For information on all the B.F.A. Musical Theatre requirements please go to the following. /theatredance/revised-requirements-bfa-musical-theatre-program