Ghostlight Ensemble is seeking actors for a workshop staged reading of Drink the Past Dry with an invited audience. This is the final step in the development process for the play, which is scheduled for production in spring 2025. Actors participating in the stage reading will receive preferential treatment in casting for the full production.
Drink the Past Dry is a vignette-style, site-specific production set in a nondescript neighborhood bar in the middle of Chicago. It looks like every other bar in every other neighborhood in the city with a few regulars sipping drinks, making small talk, doing the things people always do in bars. But this bar has a secret. It can take you anywhere in time, but only once and only within the walls of the bar (so it turns out it’s not as popular a place as one might think). But there are some souls who still need to reach out to the past – or to the future – and this is where they come when they do.
Please note: Auditions for this staged reading will be held simultaneously with auditions for our February production of Invaders of Mathmatica. Please indicate in your submission if you’d like to be considered for this production as well. More information is available here.
Character Type:
Ghostlight will be casting for 8 actors. Roles range in age and genders, though we are particularly seeking non-binary/gender non-conforming actors to play the Bartender – an ageless figure who is present throughout the play, as well as Greek-American actors to play a mother who has just been diagnosed with dementia and her child. A few actors will play multiple roles.
Time Commitment:
There will be 1 to 2 Zoom readings/rehearsals and 1 in-person rehearsal in the evening on either January 20 or 21.
The reading will take play on Wednesday, January 22 at 7 p.m.
The reading and in-person rehearsal will take place at Black Eagle Club in the NorthCenter neighborhood of Chicago (1938 W Irving Park Rd, Chicago, IL 60613).
Materials To Prepare:
Please submit your headshot and resume to Jean Mueller-Burr, Casting Director, at casting@ghostlightensemble.com. Please clearly indicate if you have any conflicts during indicated audition times on Dec 14. There will be no callbacks for this reading. Please also indicate if you’d like to be considered for the production of Invaders of Mathmatica.
Sides will be provided.
Pay:
There is no pay, but a $25 stipend will be provided to actors to help defray the cost of transportation. Actors will also be able to invite people to the staged reading, which will be free.
Audition Time & Location:
General: Saturday, Dec. 14: 10:30 to 1:30 p.m. at City Lit Theater (1020 W Bryn Mawr Ave, Chicago, IL 60660)
Video submissions will also be accepted for this reading, if you are not available for auditions.
Contact:
Jean Mueller-Burr
Email: casting@ghostlightensemble.com