Production

UNDERGROUND presents

THE INDIAN WANTS THE BRONX
by Israel Horovitz

and

QUENTIN
an original piece by Heckathorn and Carrillo

Friday, June 25th at 8pm
Saturday, June 26th at 8pm

Tickets $5.00

Performances hosted by Antelope Valley Thespians
in the AVT Blackbox (cross streets 65th W. and L-8)

Address and parking sent to all ticket holders.

Online ticket via secure PayPal / credit card below.  To hold seats for cash payment or for more information please contact jill_ryan@hotmail.com.

This play contains profanity and depictions of violence.

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Winner of the Obie and Vernon Rice Awards. A resounding Off-Broadway success (in tandem with IT’S CALLED THE SUGAR PLUM), this powerful and disturbing study of the mindless cruelty of two teenage toughs towards a helpless stranger earned its author unqualified critical praise, and established him as one of our theatre’s most important young playwrights. “The best Off-Broadway play of the season.”
—NY Times

THE INDIAN WANTS THE BRONX presented by special arrangement
with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York.

While these plays are hosted by AVT’s blackbox space, they are not AVT productions. Because they are independently produced, we unfortunately cannot except subscriber credits or any other AVT promotion for these special showings.

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.

I really love first readthroughs.  The cast meets each other, some for the first time and with others there’s an old familiarity.  We talk about the work, explore it at a very conceptual level.  We get to play with ideas as hearing the words makes it something suddenly very real; even having read the script several times, as director, that readthrough is a major turning point.  It seems so fresh.  Oh yeah, and the cast doesn’t hate me yet.

It is said that at least half of the director’s job is solely in the casting… “If you have a good script and you cast it well, it’ll be good on stage,” remarked directing great Alan Schneider.  ”If you don’t, it won’t.”  After tonight, I know this is going to be a great ride.  Thank you Cam, Derric, Joe, and Karen for your work tonight.  The real work is just beginning, and some parts of it are going to strain us – but the result is going to be electrifying, on an audience barely a few feet away.

Do not miss this production.

Congratulations to Derric Neal (Kenneth Hayes), Courtney Marietta (Ruth Ballard), and Joe Gruca (Guard) for earning spots in “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt”! A big THANK YOU to all who auditioned; we were in the enviable but tough spot of having a 4:1 ratio of candidates to available roles. We were impressed with the quantity and variety of talent out there.

We will be diving right in; rehearsals will start Wednesday.

There have been a few requests for more information pertaining to auditions for “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt”.  I am happy to oblige with some interpretation of the work and characters.

Basics: there are two main roles, Ruth Ballard and Kenneth Hayes, both early to mid-thirties.  A smaller male role for a Guard is also available.  The setting will be the interview room of a women’s prison in the mid-1980’s.  There are 2 acts of about 45-50 min each.  Ruth and Ken are onstage almost 100% of the time, so the line load is heavy. There are no roles suitable for youth.

Rehearsals will be determined after casting by agreement, as we have a small cast to work with.  Expect 2-4 hours total per week in rehearsal, not including memorization and character work expected of every actor on their own time.

Synopsis: Two dynamic lawyers are locked in a clash of wills and morality. Ruth Ballard is an embittered radical, now in jail, accused of participating in a bank robbery and the subsequent killing of a police officer.  She chooses to represent herself as attorney. Kenneth Hayes is the assistant district attorney assigned to prosecute her. Once, they were classmates, and more,  in law school—now they are two lawyers with very different views on the nature of justice. Their conflicts, legal and personal, probe the nature of our criminal justice system and the  dichotomy between logic and compassion.

Kenneth Hayes: Born into a poor family, Ken has pulled himself up by his bootstraps to get where he is today.  He is searingly intelligent and methodical, and has been taught by a life of hard work and study that there is no excuse for cheating the system or opposing law and order.  Ken would believe that there is no fundamental difference between stealing because one has need and stealing with criminal intent. The law is the law.  He is not a malicious person; rather he simply believes strongly that one must draw a hard line and have an equal standard, or society simply cannot practically function.

Ruth Ballard: Ruth is an in-your-face, assertive woman and a strong activist for social justice.  She is easily as intelligent as Ken, but much less calculating.  Her strength lies instead in her indomitable passion for what she believes is right.  In contrast to Ken’s carefully constructed and sometimes subtle methods, Ruth makes no apologies for her intentions and prefers to argue on principle, rather than via procedure.  Her view on the law is that ignoring the human element inherent in each and every case coldy avoids what is essentially pertinent to every case – intent and motivation.  These, in her view, are what determines ethical culpability – not an action in and of itself.  Ruth has a criminal record of minor offenses associated with her various advocacy movements.

Note: At one point in the play, the script does call for Ruth to briefly strip down to bra and panties (in a non-sexual context).  The actual blocking may be somewhat more conservative than this, but if the concept bothers you, you are advised not to audition for the role of Ruth.

Guard: While having far fewer lines than Ruth and Ken, Marty the prison guard is by no means a two-dimensional character.  He knows of what this woman is accused… she is a cop-killer.   Ruth and Ken were personally involved with each other in law school.  But this case is personal to Marty too; he likely knew the officer killed in the crime under trial, and the struggle between his emotional anger and his sense of duty to the rules of his profession is apparent in every scene.

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Open auditions will be held Saturday, March 20th.  The format will be cold reading.  Please contact the Stage Manager (karen@avthespians.org) if you intend to audition or if you have further questions regarding audtions.

It is in AVT’s charter to publish a final report, open to all, at the end of each production.  The report includes a summary of the production run, personnel involved, detailed financials, and a compilation of lessons learned.

You can download the Crime and Punishment Production Final Report in pdf form for your reading pleasure.  The production’s close-out blog post also contains basic show information and a link to photos on our Facebook Page.

And if THAT weren’t enough for you, then we have an additional offering: thanks to Cam, we have a podcast recording of some closing thoughts and future speculations by the AVT Strategic Team.  Listen below as the Producer/Director, Stage Manager, Technical Director, and Operations Director interview each other after the “Crime and Punishment” post-production meeting.

 

 Podcast #6: The Strategic Team discusses "Crime and Punishment" and what lies ahead. [15:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (213)

AVT is on an ongoing mission to post spontaneous interviews with cast, crew, fans, and innocent bystanders.  This episode continues our series of (what we hope are) interesting podcasts, focused on personal experiences with the project.

Want to hear more? View all posts with embedded podcasts, or search for “Antelope Valley Thespians” on the iTunes podcast directory to subscribe for automatic updates.  Enjoy!

Open auditions for “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt” will be Saturday, March 20th. The format will be cold-reading. There are two male roles and one female role. Please inform the stage manager at karen@avthespians.org if you would like to audition. We will send out address and times closer to the audition date.