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10-minute play festival
City Theater is a relatively new theater in Delaware. They perform in the
new Baby Grand, The Grand Opera House's new theater. City Theater has a
reputation for doing new cutting-edge theater. It's truly not your usual
formula of comedy, mystery and musical. They are a professional company
but not a union theater. The 10-minute Play Festival is a good shot at
getting on stage.
Every year City
Theater has a 10-Minute Play Festival in July. The idea is to do five
10-minute plays a day for five days in a row. As
they are only 10 minutes long most will have only a minimal rehearsal time.
The tech rehearsal is only one hour long so it's not a large time
commitment. This is without a doubt the best chance new actors have of
getting on stage in a show with a great audience, as the 10-minute plays
usually sell out. The plays have a variety of styles. Comedy,
drama, absurd etc...
They
can have the feeling of skit comedy to the feel of a full play and can
go from a monologue to a cast of thousands. (well maybe not thousands)
2001 will mark the first time the festival will be held at the Baby Grand.
Each year City Theater selects twenty-five new plays so there's no way
of knowing how many actors they will need each year but there are always
many roles to fill. The big question is how do you get cast in one of the
plays. The first way is to let City Theater know you are interested.
Because there are so many roles the first thing they do is start casting
from the list of actors who have worked with them in the past. Some theaters
tell you in their casting policies that all roles are open, City Theater
makes no such promise. With over fifty parts to cast the people who are
known best are the ones who get cast first, so if you have never worked
for city Theater, you have to let them see you on stage.
OK, how
do you do that?
They have an audition for the 10-minute plays where you get to read from
some of the Scripts. If you are just starting out in theater you might
want to take a audition
class. The problem is, by the time they hold the audition most of the
roles have been filled so you may or may not get cast, and if you do get
cast it may be in a small role. The good news is, once you have been cast
in one you are now on the list and will be thought about earlier next time.
Some people think that working
backstage is a good way to get known. I think actors should do this anyway.
The more you work in a theater the more you understand just how the whole
thing works, but remember, just because a director knows you as a stage
hand, it does not mean they know how you will do on stage, and it will
not help your audition much. At best it will help to make sure that the
director looks at you .
If you fancy
yourself a writer, City Theater will take submissions for new plays for
the festival.
Mail submissions to:
City Theater Company
PO Box 387
Wilmington, DE 19899
Deadline for submission is March
15, 2001.
Here is the 10-minute play that
I'm submitting this year:
Why
God Made People
Auditions for the 10-minute play festival are held in May; the show itself
runs in July. If you are looking to volunteer in a theater to get experience,
City Theater is always looking for people to work backstage or with props
and costumes.
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