Submission Instructions

Please submit the following to the Google Form linked here:

• Headshot and resume

• Select ONE character and side of your choosing to tape. The sides and full script can be found here.

Audition Date & Time

• All submissions are due by Friday, September 18 @ 11:59pm

• In-person callbacks will be held Thursday, September 24, Friday, September 25, & Saturday, September 26.

Pay Rate

• $600 for actors + $200 workshop stipend

• $200 for understudies + $50/on-call performance (guaranteed performance)

Time Commitment

• Workshop: November 30 - December 4, 2026

• Rehearsals: April 26 - June 13, 2027 (Monday - Thursday evenings + Sundays)

• Tech: June 14 - June 23, 2027

• Previews: June 25 - July 1, 2027

• Opening: Friday, July 2, 2027 @ 7:30pm

• Run: July 2 - August 7, 2027 (Thurs - Sat & Mon @ 7:30pm, Sun @ 3pm)

Production Locations

• Callbacks and rehearsals will take place at the Edgewater Presbyterian Church, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr Ave.

• Performances will take place at City Lit Theater, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr Ave.

Please Note

• Red Theater and City Lit Theater do not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status, in any of its activities or productions.

  This is a non-union production.

Character Description

A note on intimacy: Memo and Daniel have sex in one scene, though there is no nudity. Chase and Memo may be shirtless or partially dressed at some point in the play briefly, but no full nudity.

Actors should be comfortable playing terrible people – and ideally have a lot of fun doing it. Think Search Party. Think Succession. Think Hereditary. But in a world where everyone has read The Body Keeps the Score.

• OONA – she/her, Asian, 31, bi – An emerging playwright. The new girl on campus. Fish out of water. Brilliant, talented, knows her worth but not arrogant. Learning how to play the game. She just moved here from Chicago.

  • This role has been cast. We are accepting auditions for its understudy only.

• MEMO – him/him, Latino, 28, gay – An emerging playwright. A veteran. Not from privilege like some of his classmates. Hilarious, ruthless, two steps ahead. He’s read more books than you. Can turn on a dime from bitchy repartee to a very male in-your-face energy.

  • The ethnicity of this role can be adjusted to fit the performer, though this character is not White or Black.

• CHASE – he/him (but probably briefly tried out he/they), White, 29, straight – An emerging playwright. An upperclassman. Well off. A “nice” guy. Knows the key to winning in this hypercompetitive academic setting is to always appear to be passing the mic while secretly keeping the mic in his death grip.

• GUSSIE – she/her, White, 30, maybe realizing she’s bi? – Chase’s wife. A former actress who gave it all up because it made her really miserable, and anyway she’s a mom now! The life of the party. Magnetic. Fun. Loves The Origins of Totalitarianism.

• DANIEL – he/him, Any Race, 23, gay – Memo’s boyfriend. An undergrad: younger than the other characters. He’s not in the arts and doesn’t want to be. Very smart (pre-med) but doesn’t need to prove it and doesn’t really get why everyone in Memo’s MFA program is so competitive and miserable.

• GRAFFITI OF ANNE FRANK – she/her, appears 15 (willing to cast actors 18+ to play 15), of European descent – not actually Anne Frank but made in her image. She’s a Banksy-esque work of art that comes off the wall and haunts or befriends the graduate students. Loves writing. Loves popcorn. Hates academia.

• FOUNDER – he/him, White, noticeably older than the other characters – a 300-year-old evil undead ghoul that haunts this fictional Ivy League School. He loves what he does: terrorizing, lurking, entrapping. Would do anything to protect this university and his legacy. Also plays THE CHAIR’S VOICE – the head of this graduate program, think J.K. Simmons in Whiplash.