Auditions | Chatsworth Players

Play Readings and Auditions

Chatsworth-Players Into The Woods-2022-5

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Social Readings, Workshops, and Auditions for the 2024 Season

Our Country's Good -- directed by Maggie Ford

This gritty comedy-drama is a 1988 play written by Timberlake Wertenbaker. Set in the first penal colony in Australia, it follows a group of marines and convicts as they attempt to stage a Restoration Comedy, The Recruiting Officer. The play shows the class system in the convict camp and discusses themes such as sexuality, punishment, the Georgian judicial system, and the idea that it is possible for "theatre to be a humanising force". Our Country's Good is covered in accolades, including the 1988 Laurence Olivier award for Play of the Year, a 1991 Tony Nomination for Best Play, and a 1991 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Foreign Play.

KEY DATES

Performance dates:

Fri/Sat/Sun 15/16/17 November Medway Centre, Bakewell

Thurs/Fri/Sat 21/22/23 November Wirksworth Town Hall

Workshops:

Sunday 12th May afternoon 2.30pm at Over Haddon Village Hall

Monday 13th May evening 7.00pm at Friends Meeting House Bakewell

Audition dates:

Saturday 18th of May 2.00pm at Friends Meeting House, Bakewell

Monday 20th May 7.30pm at Over Haddon Village Hall

Rehearsals:

Beginning in September. Days and Times TBC

The workshops will take the script as a base, and through improvisation, explore the issues of power in Our Country’s Good that underpin the whole journey of the play. A lot of the proposed dual casting will allow actors to experience what it feels like to control others as well as to be the victims of that control. We will search for the possibilities of comedy in this ‘power battle’ - so hopefully the workshops will be both fun and enlightening.

Expect to rapidly change your male/female identity; you may start an improvisation as male then find you have changed to female!

While the workshops are not a pre-requisite for auditioning for the show, they are recommended. They will be a chance for actors to get to know the director better, delve into the characters a bit, and get a sense of what the rehearsal process will be like.

In order to help us plan we ask that you please fill in our expression of interest form so that we know how many people to expect. There is a space on the form for you to let us know about any access needs.