Announcing virtual auditions for Theatre Pro Rata’s production Top Girls, by Caryl Churchill. Directed by Carin Bratlie Wethern.

Audition Dates:

Pre­lim­i­nary Vir­tu­al Audi­tions – sub­mit audi­tion mate­ri­als by Sat, August 8, 2020 11:59 PM CST

Invit­ed Vir­tu­al Call­backs – Sat, August 15, 2020, 12:00–5:00 pm CST

Audition Location:

Your liv­ing room

Audition Details:

Please indi­cate your inter­est here and then email the fol­low­ing items to nissa.nordland@gmail.com: 

• a com­plet­ed copy of the Audi­tion Form
• a headshot/resume 
• a 60–90 sec­ond con­tem­po­rary mono­logue video

Instruc­tions for video sub­mis­sion here.

We will email you with­in 24 hours to con­firm receipt of your audi­tion pack­et, and be con­tact­ing actors invit­ed to our vir­tu­al call­back by Aug 12 with addi­tion­al instructions.

Ques­tions can be direct­ed to Nissa.Nordland@gmail.com.

About Top Girls:

If you could invite any­one from his­to­ry to a din­ner par­ty, who would you invite? It’s the 80s, Mar­lene has just tak­en over the Top Girls Employ­ment Agency, and she is cel­e­brat­ing. Set against Mar­garet Thatcher’s Britain in the ear­ly 1980s and the evolv­ing com­plex­i­ties of mod­ern fem­i­nism, this all-female cast tack­les the ques­tion of what it takes to suc­ceed. Times change, or do they?

Performance Dates:

Sat­ur­day, Nov 7- Sun­day, Nov 22, 2020. 9 performances

If we need to post­pone due to Covid-19 the pro­duc­tion will run in the fall slot of our 21/22 sea­son (spe­cif­ic dates TBD.)

Performing at

The Crane The­atre
2303 Kennedy St. NE #120
Min­neapo­lis, MN 55413

Rehearsal Dates:

Sept 28-Nov 6, 2020. Nights and week­ends, 6 days a week

Read our COVID-19 Action Plan for Rehearsals and Per­for­mances HERE.

Cast:

Char­ac­ters: 7 W; five white, one black, one Japan­ese.

Actors: We will con­sid­er gen­der-flu­id, female, and female-pre­sent­ing actors for all roles. Note that pow­er and priv­i­lege are expressed through racism in the first scene, specif­i­cal­ly with the char­ac­ters of Mar­lene and Isabel­la, and because of this we believe it is impor­tant to cast white actors in those roles. 

non-AEA

$500 stipend paid

Two under­stud­ies will be cast as part of our COVID-19 Action Plan.

Character Breakdown and descriptions:

• Mar­lene (white) 
• Wait­ress / Kit / Shona (black)
• Isabel­la Bird  / Joyce / Mrs Kidd (white)
• Lady Nijo / Win (Asian)
• Dull Gret  / Ang­ie (col­or-inclu­sive)
• Pope Joan / Louise (col­or-inclu­sive) 
• Patient Grisel­da / Nell / Jea­nine (col­or-inclu­sive)
• Under­study 1: Mar­lene, Waitress/Kit/Shona, Joan/Louise
• Under­study 2: Bird/Joyce/Kidd, Nijo/Win, Gret/Angie, Griselda/Nell/Jeanine

*note that under­study group­ings are based on char­ac­ter appear­ances in scenes and over­all dis­tri­b­u­tion of stage time.

ISABELLA BIRD (1831–1904) lived in Edin­burgh, trav­elled exten­sive­ly between the ages of 40 and 70.

LADY NIJO (b.1258) Japan­ese, was an Emper­or’s cour­te­san and lat­er a Bud­dhist nun who trav­elled on foot through Japan.

DULL GRET is the sub­ject of the Brueghel paint­ing Dulle Gri­et, in which a woman in an apron and armour leads a crowd of women charg­ing through hell and fight­ing the devils.

POPE JOAN, dis­guised as a man, is thought to have been Pope between 854–856.

PATIENT GRISELDA is the obe­di­ent wife whose sto­ry is told by Chaucer in ‘The Clerk’s Tale’ of The Can­ter­bury Tales.

Mar­lene: recent­ly pro­mot­ed man­ag­ing direc­tor of the Top Girl’s Employ­ment Agency, 33

Joyce: Marlene’s old­er sister

Ang­ie: Marlene’s daugh­ter, 16

Kit: Angie/Joyce’s next door neigh­bor, 12

Jea­nine: appli­cant for Top Girls, 20s

Louise: appli­cant for Top Girls, 46

Win: employ­ee at Top Girls, much younger than Louise

Nell: employ­ee at Top Girls

Mrs. Kidd: the wife of Howard Kidd, Marlene’s co-worker

Shona: appli­cant for Top Girls, 21

Related Policies and Procedures:

Here is our COVID-19 Action Plan for Rehearsals and Per­for­mances.

Here is our Diver­si­ty, Equi­ty, and Inclu­sion State­ment.

Here is our Harass­ment Pol­i­cy and its sup­ple­ment, our Fight/Intimacy Pro­ce­dure.

Please note: we wel­come and encour­age artists to take these doc­u­ments and share them with oth­er orga­ni­za­tions who may be look­ing to adopt sim­i­lar poli­cies and pro­ce­dures, we’re hap­py to share with our community!