AUDITION NOTICE – SkirtsAfire – Edmonton, AB
Production name: Mermaid Legs by Beth Graham
Director: Annette Loiselle
Choreographer: Ainsley Hillyard
Rehearsal & Production Dates: January 29 – March 10, 2024
Audition dates: July 18, 19, 20, 2023
Deadline to submit: July 7, 2023
Email applications to: manager@skirtsafire.com
Contact name: Brianne Jang
Contact email: manager@skirtsafire.com
EMAIL SUBMISSIONS ONLY. NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE. Submit a short statement of interest and include the role you are interested in auditioning for, with a headshot and CV attached by July 7, 2023. Put Mermaid Legs in the subject line. Auditions will take place in the evening on July 18 & 20 and during the day on July 19. If you have any scheduling conflicts, please communicate them in the body of the e-mail. Only those granted an audition time will be contacted with further details.
All auditions are in-person. Video submissions can potentially be arranged to accommodate an Actor who is otherwise unable to attend.
Only Edmonton-based Actors will be considered.
Ethno-cultural mandate or ethno-cultural casting statement:
SkirtsAfire is committed to equity, diversity and inclusion and encourages submissions from people of all genders, ethnicities, abilities and cultural backgrounds.
Synopsis of Mermaid Legs
Sisters, Billie, Ava, and Scarlett love each other fiercely, but they are in crisis. When Billie takes off unexpectedly, Ava and Scarlett are at a breaking point. Billie’s secrecy is taking its’ toll on their family and it’s time to take action – the lies must end. A surreal theatre dance fantasia about the difficulty of truth, the complications of family, and the bonds of sisterhood. Mermaid Legs is a play with movement. Three actors and four dancers reveal the inner and outer landscape of the play.
CHARACTERS
Billie – 21 years old. She is the youngest of the sisters by seven years. She is a smart, vibrant, twenty-one-year-old university student with a talent for painting. Billie’s grades have been falling, and she has been placed on academic probation. She is in her first year of a general arts degree (sociology major). Billie gets overwhelmed easily and struggles with her mental health.
Ava – 28 years old. She is the middle sister. She is organized, and caring. She runs a small online business that sells bath products. Ava is the peacemaker and caretaker between the sisters.
Scarlett – is 30 years old. She is the eldest sister. She manages a successful restaurant. She is intense and likes to be in control. Scarlett is divorced and shares custody of her son, Sebastian, with her husband.
Four Dancers – these four dancers inhabit, enhance, and transform the world in which the three sisters exist. Their movement brings subtext to life, heightening the tension between what is being said and what is meant. Their bodies move through time and space. The dancers may speak some text.
This production will be an ITA CAEA contract (We anticipate an F House) with 6 weeks rehearsal and performance (Beginning January 29, 2024). Rehearsals will be full time days following a 5-day rehearsal week for at least the first 3 weeks. The play will run from February 28 to March 10, 2024.