2023/2024 Season 19 Plays, Dates, and Available Roles

Little Women

By Kate Hamill
Director: Darren Sextro
Run: May 24th to June 11th, 2023
First Rehearsal: May 2nd, 2023

Named one of the most produced playwrights by the American Theatre Wing for the fifth year in a row, Kate Hamill has made a name for herself across the nation for her feminist, female-centered adaptations of classic novels. In Kate Hamill’s Little Women you get all the touchstones of the original novel, while adapting it for a 21st century audience, as Jo March and the rest of the March sisters grow up during the Civil War and strive to be brave, intelligent, and imaginative young women. “An ingenious compassion of Alcott’s novel that is by turns funny and painfully poignant, it touched me to the heart.” (The Wall Street Journal)

MARMEE/AUNT MARCH – Female. 50+. THIS ROLE IS CAST.
MEG MARCH – Female. 30-40. THIS ROLE IS CAST.
JO MARCH – Female. 30-40. THIS ROLE IS CAST.
BETH MARCH – Female. 30-40. THIS ROLE IS CAST.
AMY MARCH – Female. 20s-30s. THIS ROLE IS CAST.
HANNAH/MRS. MINGOTT/MESSENGER – Female. 40+. THIS ROLE IS CAST.
LAURIE – Male. 20s-30s. THIS ROLE IS CAST.
MR. LAURENCE/ROBERT MARCH/DOCTOR – Male. 50+. THIS ROLE IS CAST.
BROOKS/MR. DASHWOOD/PARROT – Male. 40s. Brooks is a sometimes stiff and awkward tutor, a well-educated and sensitive rule-follower. Dashwood is a publisher, a businessman in a man’s world, fancies himself a nice guy (and isn’t). The Parrot is a musty and disgusting bird, a demon in parrot form.

All roles in LITTLE WOMEN can be played by actors of any ethnicity.

 

Grand Horizons

by Bess Wohl
Director: TBA
Run: August 16th to September 3rd, 2023
First Rehearsal: July 25th, 2023

“Grand Horizons is a sweet, sweet delight. It’s extremely funny, while also asking a few tart questions about comedy itself.” (New York Magazine) This 2020 Tony Award nominee for Best Play depicts the surprisingly amicable, and hilarious, end of Nancy and Bill’s 50-year marriage, and the fallout it causes within their family, and their retirement community. “Playwright Bess Wohl nails the family genre beautifully which provides two hours of solid laughs, while quizzically pondering issues of love and marriage.” (Broadway World)

BILL – Male. 70s. THIS ROLE IS CAST.
NANCY – Female. 70s. Retired librarian. Bright, kind, frustrated, yearning to be a “full person.”
BEN – Male. 35-45. Their elder son. An attorney, husband, and expectant father. Responsible and resents it.
BRIAN – Male. 30-35. Their younger son. A high-school drama teacher. Charming, needy, a pleaser.
JESS – Female. 25-35. A newly-credentialed family therapist. Smart, strong-willed, observant. Pregnant. Afraid of losing herself in the roles of Wife and Mom.
TOMMY – Male. 25-35. Flirty, attractive, adventurous, not interested in personal drama.
CARLA – Female. 50+. THIS ROLE IS CAST.

All roles in GRAND HORIZONS can be played by actors of any ethnicity.

Skeleton Crew

By Dominique Morisseau
Director: TBA
Run: September 13th to October 1st, 2023
First Rehearsal: August 22nd, 2023

From 2018 MacArthur Fellow Dominique Morisseau comes Skeleton Crew, a powerful drama “squarely in the tradition of Arthur Miller… A deeply moral and deeply American play.” (The New York Times). At the start of the 2008 recession workers at one of the last remaining Detroit auto plants must decide how to move forward if, and when, the plant goes under. “Like Lorraine Hansberry and August Wilson before her, Morisseau creates characters who don’t merely speak, they sing with the vernacular of their community. Rarely has dialogue ever felt so much like eavesdropping on an actual conversation.” (Theatre Mania)

FAYE – Female. 55-60. Black. Working-class woman. Tough and a lifetime of dirt beneath her nails. Somewhere, deep compassion.
DEZ – Male. 25-30. Black. Working-class young man. A hustler, playful, street-savvy, and flirtatious. Somewhere, deeply sensitive.
SHANITA – Female. 25-30. Black. Working-class young woman. Pretty but not ruled by it. Hard-working. By-the-books. Believes in the work she does. Also, pregnant. Somewhere, a beautiful dreamer.
REGGIE – Male. 35-40. Black. White-collar man. Studious. Dedicated. Compassionate. The Foreman. Somewhere, a fire brims.

Gaslight (Angel Street)

By Patrick Hamilton
Director: Cinnamon Schultz
Run: January 17th to February 4th, 2024

This incredible 1938 Victorian thriller, famous for its Academy Award winning adaptation to the big screen, details the dark tale of a marriage based on deceit, and a husband committed to driving his wife to the brink of insanity. “Gaslight (Angel Street) is a roller coaster ride of emotions and second guessing, as we peel back the onion to uncover the layers of deception and twists.” (Theatre Guide) Fans of Agatha Christie won’t want to miss this edge of your seat drama!

MRS. MANNINGHAM – Female. 34. Once a beauty, now has a haggard, wan, frightened air, with rings under her eyes that tell of sleepless nights and worse.
MR. MANNINGHAM – Male. 45. Good-looking and perhaps a little too well-dressed. Suave and authoritative, with a touch of mystery and bitterness.
NANCY – Female. 18-25. A self-conscious, pretty, cheeky girl.
ELIZABETH – Female. 50. Stout, amiable, subservient.
DETECTIVE ROUGH – Male. 50+. THIS ROLE IS CAST.

All roles in GASLIGHT can be played by actors of any ethnicity, and will require British dialects.

Audition Information

Season 19 GENERALS – AEA and Non-Equity Auditions

Audition Location:
City Stage at Union Station (30 W. Pershing Rd. Kansas City, MO 64108 – Lower Level)

In- Person Audition Dates:
January 21, 10:00AM – 3:00PM (by appointment)
January 22, 5:00PM – 10:00PM (by appointment)
January 24th, 2:00 PM (by appointment)

Materials:
Two contrasting monologues, no more than four minutes total.

In-person audition appointments may be scheduled here:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0E4AAEA62BA3FEC34-kcat

Actors who cannot or do not wish to audition in person may submit a link to a video audition via this form:
https://forms.gle/mRf7V6CVNDsp1LSN7

Videos must be provided as a link (e.g. YouTube, Vimeo), not a file. The deadline for video submissions is January 21, 2023.

Audition Information:
Please arrive no more than 30 minutes before your scheduled in-person appointment. A face mask must be worn in all theatre spaces except during your audition. Auditors and monitors will be masked and fully vaccinated.

Please do not attend an in-person audition if you are sick! Notify us at auditions@kcactors.org as soon as possible if you need to cancel your appointment. You will be able to submit a video audition instead.

Please be aware that KCAT is promoting a fully vaccinated workplace. All employees must be fully vaccinated prior to first day of employment, and productions will follow CDC and AEA recommended protocols for testing, masking, and sanitation during rehearsals and performances.

Kansas City Actors Theatre is committed to equity, diversity, and inclusion and conscious casting, and we encourage performers of all races and ethnicities, gender identities, sexualities, abilities, and ages to audition for our productions. Please let us know if you require special services, assistance, or disability-specific modifications to fully participate.