OUR SEASON

AUDITIONS FOR THE RIVER & RAIL 2021-2022 SEASON ARE OFFICIALLY OPEN!

Actors please upload a ONE MINUTE contemporary monologue to YouTube as an “unlisted” video and submit your headshot/resume/information and video link here no later than AUGUST 1st, 2021.

If you are auditioning for The Unusual Tale of Mary & Joseph’s Baby please include 16 bars of a song in your audition video – you do not need to record a separate video – Deaf/deaf/HOH actors are especially encouraged to audition – audition material can be performed in ASL or your preferred language.

Stage Managers and Designers please attach your resumes/portfolios here.

Instructions for uploading and sharing an unlisted link to YouTube can be found here.

Should this submission process not meet your accessibility needs please contact chris@riverandrailtheatre.com and we will work with you to make accommodations

SEASON INFO/AVAILABLE ROLES BELOW

PASS OVER – Moses and Kitch stand around on the corner – talking shit, passing the time, and hoping that maybe today will be different. As they dream of their promised land, a stranger wanders into their space with his own agenda and derails their plans. Emotional and lyrical, Pass Over crafts everyday profanities into poetic and humorous riffs, exposing the unquestionable human spirit of young men stuck in a cycle just looking for a way out. – Concord Theatricals

First Rehearsal: Sep. 3, 2021

Previews: Sep. 29-30

Performances: Oct. 1-3; Oct. 6-10

ROLES AVAILABLE:

MOSES – black, male, late teens/early twenties, a young man from the ghetto. brokenhearted. courageous. angry. sad. but also a slave driver/ but also the prophesied leader of God’s chosen people

KITCH – black, male, late teens/early twenties, a young man from the ghetto and Moses’ best friend. jovial. loyal. kind. naïve. a lovely friend to have/ but also a slave/ but also one of God’s chosen

CREATIVE/PRODUCTION NEEDS:

STAGE MANAGER

ALL DESIGNERS

THE UNUSUAL TALE OF MARY & JOSEPH’S BABY – meant for the virgin-believing and non-virgin-believing alike, this musical dares to take the nativity story at its word with whimsy, humor, and humanity. There really was a pregnant virgin. There really are shepherds and angels and foreign dignitaries (a.k.a. wise men). There’s a ratty extra room/stable at the inn, and a maniacal, bloodthirsty dictator whose menacing shadow hangs over everything. And obviously, it’s a comedy. When people engage this over-told story on a sincere human level, it bursts with imagination and wonder.

*Deaf/deaf/HOH actors are encouraged to submit.

First Rehearsal: Nov. 1, 2021

Previews: Dec. 8-9

Performances: Dec. 10-12; Dec. 15-19; Dec. 21-23

ROLES AVAILABLE:

MARY/ANGEL – teens or 20s, any race, impulsive, high energy

JOSEPH/ANGEL – 20s or 30s, any race, the opposite of impulsive

BENJAMIN/ANGEL/ROMAN SOLDIER 2/RABBI/ISAAC/MICHA/NAPHTALI/SIMEON – any age, any race

ELIZABETH/ANGEL/ROMAN SOLDIER 1/SARAH/AVIGAIL/MIDWIFE/CIRCUMSISOR/MAGUS – any age, any race

CREATIVE/PRODUCTION NEEDS:

STAGE MANAGER

ALL DESIGNERS

IN THE NEXT ROOM, or The Vibrator Play – Set in the 1880s at the dawn of the age of electricity and based on the bizarre historical fact that doctors used vibrators to treat ‘hysterical’ women (and some men), the play centers on a doctor and his wife and how his new therapy affects their entire household. – Concord Theatricals

First Rehearsal: Jan. 10, 2021

Previews: Feb. 9-10

Performances: Feb. 11-13; Feb. 16-20

ROLES AVAILABLE:

CATHERINE GIVINGS – his wife, a woman in her late twenties

SABRINA DALDRY – His patient, a woman in her early thirties

ANNIE – a woman in her late thirties, Dr. Giving’s midwife assistant

LEO IRVING – Dr. Giving’s other patient, an Englishman in his late twenties or thirties

ELIZABETH – an African-American woman in her early thirties. A wet-nurse by default

MR. DALDRY – Sabrina Daldry’s husband, a man in his forties or fifties

CREATIVE/PRODUCTION NEEDS:

STAGE MANAGER

ALL DESIGNERS

SWEAT – winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Lynn Nottage’s SWEAT centers on a group of friends at their go-to bar in Reading, Pennsylvania. In the year 2000, layoffs and lockouts threaten their factory floor jobs, thrusting them into a bitter fight for survival. Produced across the country to critical and popular acclaim, SWEAT considers the effects of America’s economic decline and deindustrialization alongside a heart-wrenching examination of friendship, race, class, and trust within this community of family and friends.

First Rehearsal: Mar. 21, 2021

Previews: Apr. 20-21

Performances: Apr. 22-24; Apr. 27 – May 1

ROLES AVAILABLE:

EVAN – African-American, forties

JASON – white American of German descent, twenty-one/twenty-nine

CHRIS – African-American, twenty-one/twenty-nine

OSCAR – Colombian-American, twenty-two/thirty

TRACEY – white American of German descent, forty-five/fifty-three

CYNTHIA – African-American, forty-five/fifty-three

JESSIE – Italian-American, forties

BRUCIE – African-American, forties

CREATIVE/PRODUCTION NEEDS:

STAGE MANAGER

ALL DESIGNERS

COVID-19 UPDATE

In the first few months of COVID-19 and the corresponding quarantine, the River & Rail team took a moment to step back and ask, “What does it mean to be a theatre-maker in this season of drastic change and isolation?”

We have always believed that theatre is the unique interaction that happens between storytellers and audience members who are present and breathing in a room together. That’s pretty hard to make happen right now. We love and deeply respect all of the exploration that we see other theatre-makers taking on right now in the world of Zoom and video conference, but we recognize how weary we can all become after sitting in front of a screen day after day.

So what do we do? How can we create? How do we best connect with our audience, our community?

We are excited to share our responses to these questions with you in the coming weeks and months. With compelling combinations of digital media and live experiences, we will seek to connect, encourage, grow and learn with you, our audience and community, as we all examine our own humanity in this time of change and uncertainty.

COMING SOON

THE NINETEEN

A story about the people who tell us stories, The Nineteen follows a group of nineteen artists and their families as they navigate the upheaval of their lives and livelihoods in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

R&R SHOWS

Explore past River & Rail Theatre Co. performances and the talented teams that helped make them happen.