All auditions take place at The Sauk (240 E. Chicago St. in Jonesville, MI) unless otherwise noted. ​​​​​​

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Plays-in-Development/PID Jr. 

Auditions will consist of readings from the scripts. No experience necessary. No memorization required.  There are roles for 8 men, 11 women, 1 adult of any gender, 3 teen boys, 1 teen girl, 1 young boy (ages 7-12) and two young girls (ages 7-12). 

​Killing It 

By Rebecca Kane (Astoria, NY)

Directed by Savannah Bruton
Emerging stand-up comedian Jon is set to be featured in local reporter Rachel’s article about the intersection of comedians and trauma. This breakthrough moment would be scary, but at least he has his best friend and roommate, fellow comedian Andy, to lead him through it and work with him on new jokes. Everything seems to be working out… too bad Andy’s been dead for months.

• Jon: 20s to 30s, man, any race. 
  
• Andy: 20s to 30s, man, any race. Dead. 
• Rachel: 20s to early 40s, woman, any race. 
  
• Man: Shadowy figure, age flexible, any race. 
  

The following is based on a true story.

By Meghan Barnes (Hillsdale, MI)

Directed by Jennifer Wagler
Representatives from Dorothy's House, a Wizard of Oz museum a few miles down the road, show up to picket the flashy Oz Museum, which they deem "a den of lies." Why? Because these women are the proprietors, so they say, of the true Wizard of Oz museum. In fact, they are the relatives of the original Dorothy, and though they may have some disagreement as to how the story really went down in their family lore, they know that this fake museum with its movie paraphernalia and wax statue is not only taking money that is rightly theirs, but is propagating the wrong story. Frank L. Baum, they say, got his brilliant idea from their family, on their farm, just 20 miles down the road. When a couple shows up to visit the picketed Oz Museum and runs into this quarrel between picketers and the museum's owner - himself decked out in an Oz costume and adorned by his two adorably costumed daughters - a conflict ensues. Which museum will the couple choose? The descendants of Dorothy and Aunt Em may lose this particular battle, but they have an interesting fact up their sleeves that will leave the audience wondering whether they aren't telling the truth after all.

• DOROTHY – A woman between 45-65, dressed in a more realistic version of a Dorothy costume (i.e., obviously the Wizard of Oz Dorothy but not a movie replica)
  
• AUNT EMILY – A older woman who could be Dorothy’s aunt, dressed in casual farm wear.
  
• OLD AUNT EM – An older woman dressed in a farm dress; she can be older than AUNT EMILY or be the same age, but she should be dressed in older-looking garb like the Aunt Em from the movie.
  
• OZ – A man between 30-45, owner of Oz Museum, dressed in a snazzy Oz-inspired suit.
  
• CHILD DOROTHY – A girl between 7-12, dressed like Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz; she should look more “straight out of the movie” than the adult DOROTHY.
  
• CHILD GLINDA – A girl between 7-12, dressed like Glinda with a tall crown, a wand, and holding a pink (or shiny) hul-a-hoop like it’s the bubble she flies around in.
  
• MAN – A man between 20-45, on a date with WOMAN. The director can decide whether he wears normal clothes or is a super fan and has Oz-inspired clothing/flare on. The director may also make the decision to have the man be a super fan and the woman be dressed in normal clothes.
  
• WOMAN – A woman between 20-45, on a date with MAN. The director can decide whether she is dressed as a fan girl type.
  

Places!

By Eleanor Gray (Jonesville, MI)

Directed by Chris Dube

Mentored by Matthew Weaver
It’s ten minutes to places for the opening night of “The Butler Did It!” and Sophie, a new actress, worries about what could go wrong. Violet, a veteran actress, gives her soothing advice to calm her nerves and put on a great performance.

• ​Quinn - Stage manager focused on making the show happen (male or female, any age)
  
• Sophie - Young, inexperienced, and nervous actress in her first show (female, late teens-early 20s)
  
• Violet - Calm, experienced actress with good advice (female, 40s or 50s) 
  

The Albino Woman of The Kaw River Valley (Dun Dun Daaaaa!)

By Henry Beier (Hillsdale, MI) and Ron Davis

Directed by Tim Ambrose

Mentored by Pearl Moore

Ron and Randy visit an old woman to confront their fear of the legend surrounding her, but she is not what she seems, and it will turn out to be a night they will never forget. Dun dun daaaaa!

• ADULT RON.....Like normal Ron, but an adult. Mourning Randy’s death.
• TAMMY.....A working class woman, very kind, yet a touch blunt.
• RANDY.....A teen boy, reckless, a showoff. Fond of utilizing erudite verbosity to elucidate himself.
  
• RON.....A young boy, curious but cautious. Randy’s cousin.
• DON.....An older boy who loves scaring younger children.
• THE ALBINO WOMAN.....Nobody knows what or who she is.
• GRANDFATHER....Strict. That’s it. Period.
• LIBRARIAN.....Just some lady.

Discards

By Robert Weibezahl (Westlake Village, CA)

Directed by Sarah Gray
Mari and Lloyd, two widowed retirees, volunteer at a charity thrift shop. Everything is humming along without incident until two new volunteers arrive. Spark is a smart but troubled teenager who has been sentenced to community service for a crime he says he didn’t commit. Cherry is a recent divorcee looking to fill some time. The dynamics in the shop shift, with Mari resenting the intrusion on her territory (and her designs on Lloyd). Tension is not far from the surface, and then something goes missing and things turn ugly. A lighthearted romantic dramedy about aging, friendship, trust ... and love.

• MARI, F, sixties. Free-spirited, New Age-ish, in control except when she’s not. Thrice-married widow.
  
• LLOYD, M, early seventies. Attractive, if buttoned up and clueless, retired astrophysicist. Recently widowed.
  
• SPARK, M, 16. Rebellious, curious, a bit troubled. Wise beyond his years.
  
• CHERRY, F, sixties. Sophisticated, yet sometimes girlish. Recently divorced. Slightly younger than Mari. 
  

​

Girls' Weekend

Audition requirements to be announced at a later date. Chris Dube will direct.  

About the Play

​In this lightning-quick farce, four women travel to Dot’s Northwoods cabin to consume copious amounts of wine, laugh at their lives, trade stories and chat about their book club’s latest selection. However, after the third case of wine comes through the door, it becomes clear there will be more stewing than reviewing. Carol, who is monitoring her temperature for the best “window of opportunity” to get pregnant, gets a ride to the cabin from her husband, Rick, who is hoping the “time is right” for a quick tryst. She sends him home, frustrated, in a snowstorm, only to discover that her temperature shows she IS ready, and calls him to drive back and hide out in a shed until she can sneak him in with a special porchlight signal. Meg, recently widowed, is having a secret affair with Dot’s son, only to find he has shown up at the cabin unexpectedly and wants to further their relationship in stealth. Meg sends him to hide in a boathouse until he sees her special porchlight signal and the coast is clear to rejoin her in the cabin. Ellie, the youngest and Meg’s daughter, would rather not be a part of the weekend with her “elders” and meets a young townie, inviting him to hide out in a barn. When he sees her special porchlight signal, he climbs into her bedroom window and sneaks her out to a local bar after the other ladies retire. The only obstacle to each of the ladies’ secret endeavors is Dot, who wants to stay up all night and party with the girls. So they make sure they ply her with plenty of party favors, and Dot proceeds to pass out. The ladies move Dot’s lifeless body from floor to closet to room, as the bottles tip up, the secrets spill out and the men sneak in. The madcap, door-slamming chaos comes to a head when Dot wakes up and discovers her girls’ weekend is full of men!

Available Roles

• DOT: 50- to 6-something. Orchestrates the weekend. Has a 30-something-year-old son, Stephen. 
  
• MEG: 40s. Dating Stephen. Has a 20-something-year-old daughter, Ellie
  
• CAROL: 30s. Trying to have a baby with her husband, Rick. 
  
• ELLIE: 20s. Single. Free spirit. Doesn't really want to be there.
  
• STEPHEN: 30s. Dot's son. In a relationship with Meg.
  
• RICK: 30s. Carol's husband.
  
• SHERIFF TOM LANE: 40s. Divorced. Newly elected. 
  
• BUBBA: 20s. Townie. Went to college with Ellie. Currently working for his dad. 

The Outsiders

Auditions will consist of readings from the script. No preparation necessary. No experience necessary. Trinity Bird will direct this production. Mandee Leigh Howard will stage manage. 

About the Play

S.E. Hinton, who wrote this modern classic when she was 16 years old, comments: "The Outsiders, like most things I write, is written from a boy's point of view. That's why I'm listed as S.E. Hinton rather than Susan. (I figured most boys would look at the book and think 'What can a chick know about stuff like that!') None of the events are taken from life, but the rest—how kids think and live and feel—is for real. The characters—Dallas, who wasn't tough enough; Sodapop, the happy-go-lucky dropout; Bob, the rich kid whose arrogance cost him his life; Ponyboy, the sensitive, green-eyed Greaser who didn't want to be a hood—they're all real to me. Many of my friends are Greasers, but I'm not. I have friends who are rich, too, but nobody will ever call me a Soc—I've seen what money and too much idle time and parental approval can do to people. Cool people mean nothing to me—they're living behind masks and I'm always wondering "Is there a real person underneath?" This entirely practical stage adaptation deals with real people, seen through the eyes of young Ponyboy, a Greaser on the wrong side of life, caught up in territorial battles between the have-it-made rich kids—the Socs—and his tough, underprivileged "greaser" family and friends. In the midst of urban warfare, somehow Ponyboy can't forget a short poem that speaks of their fragile young lives:

          Nature's first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold.
          Her early leaf's a flower; But only so an hour.
          Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief,
          so dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay.

"Robert Frost wrote it," Ponyboy tells Johnny. "I always remembered it because I never quite got what he meant by it." Cherry, a beautiful Soc, comes to share a special sensitivity with Ponyboy as she discovers that he remembers poems and needs to watch sunsets. At the same time, Cherry's attracted to the older, tougher Dallas, and in a sense she's caught in the violent space between the Greasers and the Socs. While the Socs appear to have everything, the only thing a Greaser has is his friends. As these young people try to find themselves and each other, as the sadness of sophistication begins to reach them and their battles and relationships reach a resolution, Ponyboy's dying friend, Johnny, sends him a last message … I've been thinking about the poem that guy wrote. He meant you're gold when you're a kid, like green. When you're a kid everything's new, dawn. It's just when you get used to everything that it's day. Like the way you dig sunsets, Pony. That's gold. Keep it that way. It's a good way to be. This is a play about young people who are not yet hopeless about latent decency in the midst of struggle.

Available Roles

• PONYBOY - in his early teens, a greaser
• JOHNNY - Ponyboy's friend, in his early teens
• BOB - a Soc
• RANDY - a Soc
• DALLAS - early 20s, a greaser
• TWO-BIT - early 20s, a greaser
• DARRY - Ponyboy's oldest brother, 20-years-old
• SODAPOP - Ponyboy's second oldest brother, mid teens
• SANDY - Sodapop' girlfriend
• CHERRY - a Soc
• MARCIA - Cherry's friend
• MRS. O'BRIANT - a parent
• JERRY - a parent
• DOCTOR - at the hospital
• NURSE - at the hospital
• MR. SYME - an English teacher
• PAUL - early 20s, a Soc

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

Audition requirements to be announced at a later date. Tim Ambrose will direct. 

About the Play
This dramatization of C.S. Lewis' classic work faithfully recreates the magic and mystery of Aslan, the great lion, his struggle with the White Witch, and the adventures of four children who inadvertently wander from an old wardrobe into the exciting, never-to-be-forgotten Narnia. The intense action features chases, duels and escapes as the witch is determined to keep Narnia in her possession and to end the reign of Aslan. All the memorable episodes from the story are represented in this exciting dramatization: the temptation of Edmund by the witch, the slaying of the evil wolf by Peter, the witnessing of Aslan's resurrection by Susan and Lucy, the crowing of the four new rulers of Narnia, and more. The supporting characters are also here: the unicorn, the centaur and other forest animals, along with Father Christmas, Mr. and Mrs. Beaver and Tumnus the Faun. This story of love, faith, courage and giving, with its triumph of good over evil, is a true celebration of life. 

Available Roles

• ASLAN - a great lion
  
• WHITE WITCH - an evil queen
  
• LUCY
  
• EDMUND
  
• SUSAN
  
• PETER
  
• MR. BEAVER
  
• MRS. BEAVER
  
• UNICORN
  
• CENTAUR
  
• TUMNUS - a faun
  
• FENRIS ULF - a wolf, head of the Witch's secret police
  
• DWARF - a servant to the Witch
  
• FATHER CHRISTMAS - a bringer of gifts
  
• ELF - Father Christmas' helper
  
• WHITE STAG - an elusive omen of good fortune. 
  
• ENSEMBLE consisting of Aslan's followers, the Witch's Army and Wood Nymphs. ​