When: Friday, December 6th, 6-9 PM and Saturday, December 7th, 10:30AM - 12:30PM
Location: Woodbury Old Town Hall, 5 Mountain Rd, Woodbury, CT 06798
Director/Choreographer: Erin Gorski
Music Director: TBD
Stage Manager: TBD
Producer: Caitlin Chuckta
Performance Dates: February 28-March 16, 2025, Fridays at 7:30 & Saturdays and Sundays at 2 PM
Bring/Prepare:
1. 16 -32 bars of a song of your choice. Either bring your piano sheet music for our accompanist or a recording of your music.
2. Prepare one of the monologues from the show (posted below). Not all characters have monologues in the packet. Choose the one you think best demonstrates what you can do.
3. Be prepared to list any rehearsal conflicts. Rehearsals will be from January 2 - February 27. Thursday and Friday evenings and Sunday afternoons.
Note: While this show is not a musical, it is a play with music. Not all actors will be required to sing in the show, but everyone is asked to sing at their audition. Please note that Molly, Black Stache, Mrs Bumbrake and Smee are featured singers.
Seeking: Highly versatile performers. We will be building a diverse ensemble of creative actors who can tell any theatrical story with physical expression, language, a few props, and a ton of imagination. We strongly encourage performers of all identities: races, gender expressions, sizes, physical abilities, and ethnicities to audition.
Overview
As Wicked provides a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, the Story of Peter and the Starcatcher provides a humorous and fantastical backstory for the beloved character of Peter Pan and his arch-nemesis Captain Hook. In this wickedly imaginative play, we meet a poor orphan on the high seas simply called Boy because, in the absence of a mother and a father, he was never given a name. His sad and lonely world is turned upside down when he meets Molly. The daughter of famous Starcatcher Lord Astor, our heroine, is on a mission to save the world and protect a treasure trunk filled with magical star stuff from getting into the hands of evil and greedy pirate Black Stache. As they travel aboard the Neverland ship headed for a faraway land, Molly and Boy learn about love and friendship and forge an unbreakable bond.
Book by Rick Elice Music by Wayne Barker
THIS IS THE VERY DEFINITION OF AN “ENSEMBLE” PIECE. MOST ACTORS WILL BE ON STAGE FOR SEVERAL SCENES AND MANY WILL PLAY MORE THAN ONE DIFFERENT AND UNFORGETTABLE CHARACTER. WHILE CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS SPECIFY A GENDER, ALL ROLES ARE OPEN TO ALL GENDERS.
CHARACTER BREAKDOWN
Black Stache - A notorious pirate, terrorizing the seven seas in search of a worthy adversary. Heartless, hirsute, and suspiciously well-read. Partial to the poetical and theatrical, which causes him to behave quite flamboyantly. Gender: Male, Age: 30+
Molly Aster - A young girl and Starcatcher apprentice who is taken aboard the Neverland as precious cargo. Curious and intelligent, she is only beginning to understand the confusing romantic longings that come with her age. She will risk anything for the sake of what is right. Gender: Female, Age: 14-25
Boy/Peter - A lonely and hardened orphan who doesn't miss much. Nameless, homeless, and friendless at the beginning of the play and a hero by the end. He wants a home and a family more than anything, and dreams of a life of being free. Gender: Male, Age: 14 to 25
Grempkin - The schoolmaster of St. Norbert's Orphanage for Lost Boys. Mean and malodorous, he revels in keeping his boys in the dark and malnourished. Gender: Male, Age: 40+ Optional Doublings include: FIGHTING PRAWN; MACK; SÁNCHEZ.
Mrs. Bumbrake - Molly's nanny, a stereotypical British cad and outfitted with the duty of teaching Molly about womanhood. She still has enough charm at her age to attract a sailor or two. Optional Doubling as TEACHER. Gender: Female Presenting, Age: 40+
Bill Slank - The vicious orphaned captain of the Neverland. Does not possess the capacity to lead anyone but himself, which puts him constantly in disaster. Greedy enough to send boys to their doom for the chance of gaining starstuff. Gender: Male, Age: 35+. Optional Doubling as HAWKING CLAM.
Smee - Black Stache's first mate. He is single-mindedly dedicated to his captain's every whim. Gender: Male, Age: 25+
Prentiss - An orphan, ambitious, hyper-articulate, and logical. He yearns to be a leader, even when he knows in his heart that he'll never be one. A bit of a blowhard with a touch of cowardice. Gender: Male, Age: 14 to 25
Alf - A seafarer, an old sea dog proud of his tenure. His kind heart gives him an appeal to the feminine sensibility. Gender: Male, Age: 50+
Lord Leonard Aster - Molly's father, a loyal subject to the Queen. The very model of a Victorian English gentleman, he is a faithful friend and a secret Starcatcher. Gender: Male, Age: 40+
Captain Robert Falcon Scott - Lord Aster's old school friend, the captain of the Wasp, Britain's fastest frigate. Lives with nautical bravura and heroic patriotism. Gender: Male, Age: 35+
Ted - An orphan obsessed with food. A natural performer with easy wit and quite poetic language. Gender: Male, Age: 14 to 25
Ensemble - Sailors; Seamen; Seafarers; Orphans; Pirates; Mermaids; Mollusks; and Narrators. All genders. Ages 14-99+
AUDITION MONOLOGUES
BOY (Option 1)
BOY: Tell you what: You say ”sorry” so easy, like the rough patch’s smoothed over, no hard feelings and everything’s fixed. Well, no. There’s dark ... a mass of darkness in the world, and if you get trapped in the cave like us, it beats you down. “Sorry” can’t fix it. Better to say nothing than sorry. (Hearing his mother’s song, far away) When it’s night, and I’m too scared to sleep, I look through the cracks - y’know? - between the wood nailed over the window, and I see all those little stars that I can’t reach, and I think that in a hundred years, or two or three hundred maybe, boys’ll be free and life’ll be so beautiful that nobody’ll ever say “sorry” again - ‘cuz nobody’ll have to. I think about that a lot.
BOY (Option 2)
PETER: (PETER is alone with the trunk and blinded by the glare of the sun after waking up washed ashore.) So...bright. Holy - Know what that is? That must be the sun! I am feeling you, sun! (realizing how much he can see) And check-it-out!! Space. Light. Air. I’m finally FREE! (echo of FREE, FREE, FREE. This delights him.) And I’m gonna have .. freedoms! Whatever I want. (A yellow bird enters suddenly and alights on his shoulder!) Whoa. Hey bird, wassup? Me? Well, let’s see...Saved the world. Got a name. Not too shabby. I just - I wonder if Teddy and Prentiss made it off the ship before it sank. I mean, how weird would it be if they - (a chill up his spine, looks up) Please let them be okay. (scared now, a lost boy) Bird, we should make a pact. I don’t leave you, you don’t leave me. Deal? (The bird flies off.) No! Come back! I don’t wanna be alone! COME BACK! (Echo of BACK, BACK, BACK. This leaves him desolate, but he tries to rally.) Hey, fine. No Molly, no Teddy, no Prentiss...so what? This is perfect. Nobody’s after me with a stick. Nothing between me and the sky. I can just be a boy for a while. It’s all I want anyway. (giving in to the lost feeling) I gotta get outta here!
STACHE
STACHE: I’m a romantic! There’s a poet in these pirate veins, and so I plug into the muse. (holds his hand out to Smee for a manicure) But what to do? Which style to use? Iambic? Box office poison. Haiku? Over my dead granny. (Suddenly vicious to Smee) Mind the cuticle, Smee! (Eureka!) Hoopah! Got it! (a steely glare at Aster) A pirate with scads of panache Wants the key to the trunk with the cash. Now, here’s some advice: Tho’ I seem to be nice – I’LL CUT YOU!!! Slit you up one side ‘n’ down the other so ye can watch yer own stomach flop around on the deck. (Aster doesn’t flinch) I say, Smee-you did explain to my lord that I’m a bloodthirsty outlaw?
MOLLY
MOLLY: You stop that right now. I won’t answer any such question. You’re leaning toward the sentimental and that’s all well and good for a boy, but the fact is we girls can’t afford to be sentimental. We must instead be strong. And when I marry, I shall make it very clear to this person – that sentimentality is not on the calendar. He will have to lump it or leave it. And if he should leave, I’ll stay a spinster and pin my hair back and volunteer weekends at the hospital. And I will love words for their own sake, like “hyacinth” and “Piccadilly” and “onyx.” And I’ll have a good old dog, and think what I like, and be a part of a different sort of family, with friends, you know? – who understand that things are only worth what you’re willing to give up for them.
SMEE
SMEE: (to Stache) Rest yerself a while. Smee’ll track yer treasure solo. Hmm. We could lure‘em Cap’n! Lure ‘em yes, down here to the beach. In which case, we shall need — A magnet! A really big one. That’ll attract ‘em! (Smacks himself on the head) Stupid idea, Smee. Stupid, stupid! (A distant ROAR. Smee looks down at his stomach) Tweren’t I, Cap’n. (See giant Croc) Oh Captain? Captain Stache!?!?! Aghhh! He’s chewing all the scenery, sir. Abandon Scene! Abandon Scene!
PRENTISS
PRENTISS: Wait a minute, wait a minute, I’m the leader, and I say we got some things. The leader has to be, boy. It doesn’t matter how old you are! This is Ted, but I call him Tubby, ‘cuz he’s food obsessed. (to Ted) Yeah, you are! D’you write poems about pie? Hide beans in your blanket? Faint at the merest whisper of — (to Molly) get this — (back to Ted) sticky pudding? (watches Ted faint at the sound) Like I said, food obsessed. I’m Prentiss. I’m in charge here. Don’t take him (about Boy) personally. He’s rude to everybody. It’s why he gets beatings and why he’s got no friends. He doesn’t have a name - been orphan’d too long to remember. Grempkin calls him. . . mule! (laughs cruelly then grabs his stomach in hunger) (to Molly) Ok, You can be like temporary leader — but only ‘til we eat.
MRS. BUMBRAKE
MRS. BUMBRAKE: First class ain’t what it used to be. ’Course, back in my salad days, I was a green girl bringing up brats in a big, breezy brownstone in Brighton. That was a tight spot, too, and hell on the household help. Especially the kitchen boy-a lovely island lad who worked wonders with a cannelloni, plus a pasta fazool to make you drool. But oh, it made the master mad how the mistress moaned fer’is manicotti. He beat the boy something brutal, but the boy didn’t say boo. Point is- we must button our beaks and be brave like that boy, or my name’s not Betty Bumbrake. Now, you might well be afraid you’ll never clap eyes on your father again, and it cuts me to the core, but never show that sorry Slank the slightest sniff of fear. There are men who can smell it on you, Molly, and they make you pay…(breaks down blubbering).