LALT To Hold Auditions For Summer Shakespeare In The Park Production Of ‘Julius Caesar’

Los Alamos Little Theatre (LALT) will hold auditions for its summer Shakespeare in the Park production of Julius Caesar, directed by Lindsey Gordon. Auditions are 5:30-7:30 p.m.Thursday, May 29, and 1-3 p.m. Saturday, May 31, in upstairs meeting room 2/3 at Mesa Public Library.

Callbacks will be held Sunday, June 1. If these times do not work, please get in touch to schedule an alternate time at contactlindseycg@gmail.com.

Performances are Aug. 7, 9, 14, 16 (evening) and Aug. 10 and 17 (matinee) outside of the Hans Bethe house (weather permitting).

LALT is looking for a cast of at least 16, of any gender and at minimum high-school aged. Cast members must be mature enough to handle stage combat safely and responsibly. Most of the cast will be playing multiple small roles, and everyone will have lines. Given the gender breakdown of the show (2 F/46 M), all cast members should be prepared to play men. (If this poses a difficulty, please contact the director.)

Auditions will consist of reading a choice of two monologues (Friends, Romans, countrymen or Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world), as well as sides from Act 2. Advance preparation and/or extensive experience with Shakespeare is not expected. It will not be necessary to stay for the entire audition block. The audition form can be filled out in advance here [link].

Audition Sides: Sides 1: 2.2 Caesar, Calpurnia, Servant, Decius Brutus

Thunder and lightning. Enter CAESAR, in his night-gown

CAESAR

Nor heaven nor earth have been at peace to-night:

Thrice hath Calpurnia in her sleep cried out,

‘Help, ho! they murder Caesar!’ Who’s within?

Enter a Servant

Servant

My lord?

CAESAR

Go bid the priests do present sacrifice

And bring me their opinions of success.

Servant

I will, my lord.

Exit

Enter CALPURNIA

CALPURNIA

What mean you, Caesar? think you to walk forth?

You shall not stir out of your house to-day.

CAESAR

Caesar shall forth: the things that threaten’d me

Ne’er look’d but on my back; when they shall see

The face of Caesar, they are vanished.

CALPURNIA

Caesar, I never stood on ceremonies,

Yet now they fright me. There is one within,

Besides the things that we have heard and seen,

Recounts most horrid sights seen by the watch.

A lioness hath whelped in the streets;

And graves have yawn’d, and yielded up their dead;

Fierce fiery warriors fought upon the clouds,

In ranks and squadrons and right form of war,

Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol;

The noise of battle hurtled in the air,

Horses did neigh, and dying men did groan,

And ghosts did shriek and squeal about the streets.

O Caesar! these things are beyond all use,

And I do fear them.

CAESAR

What can be avoided

Whose end is purposed by the mighty gods?

Yet Caesar shall go forth; for these predictions

Are to the world in general as to Caesar.

CALPURNIA

When beggars die, there are no comets seen;

The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.

CAESAR

Cowards die many times before their deaths;

The valiant never taste of death but once.

Of all the wonders that I yet have heard.

It seems to me most strange that men should fear;

Seeing that death, a necessary end,

Will come when it will come.

Re-enter Servant

What say the augurers?

Servant

They would not have you to stir forth to-day.

Plucking the entrails of an offering forth,

They could not find a heart within the beast.

CAESAR

The gods do this in shame of cowardice:

Caesar should be a beast without a heart,

If he should stay at home to-day for fear.

No, Caesar shall not: danger knows full well

That Caesar is more dangerous than he:

We are two lions litter’d in one day,

And I the elder and more terrible:

And Caesar shall go forth.

CALPURNIA

Alas, my lord,

Your wisdom is consumed in confidence.

Do not go forth to-day: call it my fear

That keeps you in the house, and not your own.

We’ll send Mark Antony to the senate-house:

And he shall say you are not well to-day:

Let me, upon my knee, prevail in this.

CAESAR

Mark Antony shall say I am not well,

And, for thy humour, I will stay at home.

Enter DECIUS BRUTUS

Here’s Decius Brutus, he shall tell them so.

DECIUS BRUTUS

Caesar, all hail! good morrow, worthy Caesar:

I come to fetch you to the senate-house.

CAESAR

And you are come in very happy time,

To bear my greeting to the senators

And tell them that I will not come to-day:

Cannot, is false, and that I dare not, falser:

I will not come to-day: tell them so, Decius.

CALPURNIA

Say he is sick.

CAESAR

Shall Caesar send a lie?

Have I in conquest stretch’d mine arm so far,

To be afraid to tell graybeards the truth?

Decius, go tell them Caesar will not come.

DECIUS BRUTUS

Most mighty Caesar, let me know some cause,

Lest I be laugh’d at when I tell them so.

CAESAR

The cause is in my will: I will not come;

That is enough to satisfy the senate.

But for your private satisfaction,

Because I love you, I will let you know:

Calpurnia here, my wife, stays me at home:

She dreamt to-night she saw my statua,

Which, like a fountain with an hundred spouts,

Did run pure blood: and many lusty Romans

Came smiling, and did bathe their hands in it:

And these does she apply for warnings, and portents,

And evils imminent; and on her knee

Hath begg’d that I will stay at home to-day.

Audition Sides: Sides 2: Portia, Lucius, Soothsayer in 2.4

PORTIA

I prithee, boy, run to the senate-house;

Stay not to answer me, but get thee gone:

Why dost thou stay?

LUCIUS

To know my errand, madam.

PORTIA

I would have had thee there, and here again,

Ere I can tell thee what thou shouldst do there.

O constancy, be strong upon my side,

Set a huge mountain ‘tween my heart and tongue!

I have a man’s mind, but a woman’s might.

How hard it is for women to keep counsel!

Art thou here yet?

LUCIUS

Madam, what should I do?

Run to the Capitol, and nothing else?

And so return to you, and nothing else?

PORTIA

Yes, bring me word, boy, if thy lord look well,

For he went sickly forth: and take good note

What Caesar doth, what suitors press to him.

Hark, boy! what noise is that?

LUCIUS

I hear none, madam.

PORTIA

Prithee, listen well;

I heard a bustling rumour, like a fray,

And the wind brings it from the Capitol.

LUCIUS

Sooth, madam, I hear nothing.

Enter the Soothsayer

PORTIA

Come hither, fellow: which way hast thou been?

Soothsayer

At mine own house, good lady.

PORTIA

What is’t o’clock?

Soothsayer

About the ninth hour, lady.

PORTIA

Is Caesar yet gone to the Capitol?

Soothsayer

Madam, not yet: I go to take my stand,

To see him pass on to the Capitol.

PORTIA

Thou hast some suit to Caesar, hast thou not?

Soothsayer

That I have, lady: if it will please Caesar

To be so good to Caesar as to hear me,

I shall beseech him to befriend himself.

PORTIA

Why, know’st thou any harm’s intended towards him?

Soothsayer

None that I know will be, much that I fear may chance.

Good morrow to you. Here the street is narrow:

The throng that follows Caesar at the heels,

Of senators, of praetors, common suitors,

Will crowd a feeble man almost to death:

I’ll get me to a place more void, and there

Speak to great Caesar as he comes along.

Exit

PORTIA

I must go in. Ay me, how weak a thing

The heart of woman is! O Brutus,

The heavens speed thee in thine enterprise!

Sure, the boy heard me: Brutus hath a suit

That Caesar will not grant. O, I grow faint.

Run, Lucius, and commend me to my lord;

Say I am merry: come to me again,

And bring me word what he doth say to thee.

Exeunt severally

Audition Sides: Sides 3: 2.1 Conspirators [cut down] – Lucius, Brutus, CASSIUS, CASCA, DECIUS BRUTUS, CINNA, METELLUS CIMBER, and TREBONIUS

LUCIUS

Sir, ’tis your brother Cassius at the door,

Who doth desire to see you.

BRUTUS

Is he alone?

LUCIUS

No, sir, there are more with him.

BRUTUS

Do you know them?

LUCIUS

No, sir; their hats are pluck’d about their ears,

And half their faces buried in their cloaks,

That by no means I may discover them

By any mark of favour.

BRUTUS

Let ’em enter.

Exit LUCIUS

They are the faction. O conspiracy,

Shamest thou to show thy dangerous brow by night,

When evils are most free? O, then by day

Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough

To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, conspiracy;

Hide it in smiles and affability:

For if thou path, thy native semblance on,

Not Erebus itself were dim enough

To hide thee from prevention.

Enter the conspirators, CASSIUS, CASCA, DECIUS BRUTUS, CINNA, METELLUS CIMBER, and TREBONIUS

CASSIUS

I think we are too bold upon your rest:

Good morrow, Brutus; do we trouble you?

BRUTUS

I have been up this hour, awake all night.

Know I these men that come along with you?

CASSIUS

Yes, every man of them, and no man here

But honours you; and every one doth wish

You had but that opinion of yourself