AVT announces auditions for THE INTERROGATION OF NATHAN HALE, by David Stanley Ford, on Saturday, June 19th from 9am to 1230pm.  The format will be cold reading.

There will be 6 shows during the run (Sept 17-26, 2010).  Two rehearsals per week of 2-3 hours each will be scheduled starting in July, time which does not include memorization and character work expected of all actors.

You must contact the stage manager in advance with your phone number and email if you intend to audition: juliana@avthespians.org.

It is the morning of September 22, 1776. Nathan Hale is waiting to be hanged as a spy. A British captain, John Montresor, invites him to spend his remaining time in the captain’s tent.  Hale, a rifleman and spy for the American Revolution, was captured and executed by the British almost exactly 233 years before our opening night.  What is freedom? What is courage? What is the value of a life? This is a play that seeks to understand the values of our nation—their flaws, as well as their wondrous virtues.  Mr. Ford has taken the circumstances of Hale’s last hours and used them to probe our country, using both points of view -that of cynic and idealist – to try to understand who we are.

There are two male roles available:

Captain John Montresor.  A character in his forties or fifties, Montresor is a jaded, darkly humorous, disillusioned officer in His Royal Majesty’s Expeditionary Forces.  He uses cynical sarcasm and needling wit to “play with his food” – simultaneously interrogating and taunting American rebel prisoners before their imminent hangings.  Montresor personifies the counter-argument to the romanticized ideal of our county’s birth.

Nathan Hale. A young and idealistic rifleman in his twenties.  Hale is full of fire and passion for the revolution, and embodies the traditionally American characteristics of daring, can-do spirit, and determined optimism, even in the face of execution.  His spirit is inspirational, despite a glaring streak of naiveté that makes him prime fodder for Montresor’s mind games.

Producing Director: Nalin A. Ratnayake
Artistic Director: Kara McCollum
Stage Manager: Juliana Katzman

Produced by special arrangement with THE DRAMATIC PUBLISHING COMPANY of Woodstock, Illinois.