09/23/2024
My Television Production class is holding auditions soon, here is the information:
Auditions For Soap Opera - Wednesday, October 2nd from 10 am to 1 pm
Behind the Curtains
A soap opera comedy
Created by
Lisa Moore & Sherry White
PREMISE:
On the set of a long-standing soap opera, there’s far more drama behind the scenes than in front of the camera. Four episodes are being produced as part of several Memorial University courses.
Non-Union, Non-Paying, Student Production
Actors Must Be Available On All of the Following Dates and Times:
Monday, October 7; Wednesday, October 9; Monday, October 21; Wednesday, October 23; Monday, October 28; Wednesday, October 30; Monday, November 4; Wednesday, November 6; Monday, November 18; Wednesday, November 21; Monday, November 25; and Wednesday, November 27, all from 10 am to 1 pm. Some shoots may be necessary outside of class time.
Please send headshot and CV to Jamie Skidmore at [email protected]. Only actors being offered audition times will be contacted.
CHARACTERS:
VELMA DU MAURIER (50s, glamorous, an industry maven; think magnificent mane of teased hair, and big rings on almost every finger) is visiting the set to break the news to the aging creator it’s “curtains” for this long-running soap opera. She’s catty, strident and power hungry…not just power peckish, she’s power ravenous. She wants to keep the budget on a shoestring and the ratings through the roof.
WALDORF RANDALL (60s, auteur, maniacal, pompous, high-art minded), the director of the soap opera from the get-go is about to be dismissed! He has a stronghold on the creative side and has been writing the show into the ground. He insists on still shooting the show in black and white, simply because that’s how it started 40 years ago, hanging onto gender normative ideas of romance.
VINAY ABAR (brilliant, but easily frazzled) is the young director poised to take over after Waldorf’s demise. He is atremble with first-time directing jitters. The pressure is making him screw up all over the place. Can he overcome his butterflies in time to make meaningful soap moments? Can he put Waldorf Randall to shame? He’s being bullied by Lana Strong, the ingenue superstar of daytime television. Wardorf Randall made Strong shine on the screen. How can Vinay Abar win her trust with his new-fangled ideas, such as leaving her out of most of the scenes?
LANA STRONG, a once-upon-a-time child actress who grew up in the business and on sets and is now the ingenue lead in the middle of a tense breakup with her co-star. Lana is hot on the tail of a lipstick trail smeared all over the shirt collar of her lover, Bradly Butt. Woe is the wearer of this lipstick. Lana is not to be tangled with. She has a secret - an evil twin sister, named Alana who looks exactly like her, except, somehow not as radiantly beautiful as Lana, according to Lana, go figure.
BRADLY BUTT (chiselled, but aging and wanting to be free from the shackles of his good looks, yet glued to every mirror he passes by). Bradly’s been in a longstanding romantic relationship with Lana in real life as well on screen, except lately he’s started sleeping with the producer, Irina. He’s not overflowing with brains, but when the camera hits him, he’s a thousand watts of mega-talent and the lens can’t tear itself away. On camera he and Lana are magnetic, think the two biggest magnets on earth.
IRINA PRINGLE producer, is fighting hard to keep her affair with Bradly a secret, at least long enough to get this episode in the can before they’re shut down. She’s working to keep network-producer Velma convinced that the show’s drama exists entirely in front of the camera. Think pencil skirt and cat-eye glasses, sensible shoes, uber-savvy when it comes to keeping everyone happy until it’s time to call cut! Good at her job, but addled by her love affair, and terrified of the potential fallout when Lana discovers the depths of her betrayal … and let’s face it, how unprofesh she’s become.
JAE WALKER (non-binary, brilliant) Irina’s innocent intern might actually have ulterior motives for working here. Jae is working behind the scenes that are behind other scenes, to make sure everybody has coffee and to remind them when their mics are on, and they might be disclosing damning secrets. Flushing toilets, stolen kisses? Murder? What does Jae accidentally overhear in the sound booth, while dropping off donuts for the techs who are out having a smoke break? Does someone reveal a clue concerning the unfolding murder mystery? Sweet and stoic, how does Jae activate the age-old trope of the innocent, underpaid and under appreciated hardworking intern, who suddenly stumbles upon clues that could solve several mysteries, including why everyone is making this soap opera when they could be making something far more radical????
DAISY PAYNE When Waldorf Randall goes missing, his young writing assistant DAISY PAYNE fills the show runner gap, and her story ideas impress Velma so much, she could actually save the show. She blazes with creativity, a visionary wolf in sheep’s clothing. Or at least a lamb’s wool cardigan? Temperamentally timid and accommodating, she is thrust into the position that could make her career in television. Does she have the talent to haul the show out of its slump? Right away Daisy comes up with the idea of introducing twins to the plot, one evil, one good. Star Ingenue Lana, grows pale when she hears the idea, shivers in her boots. Velma demands, What’s wrong? This is your chance to show your acting chops. It’s every actor’s dream to play both twins, show your range. This could be your big break. And with Daisy writing the show, this could save the soap. What none of them realize is Lana has a secret twin of her own. Life is imitating art is imitating life is imitating art as things go sideways, moments before they call wrap, when a dead body is found shoved in the props room and Daisy is the number one suspect.
DETECTIVE GREG HYNES Think trench coat, think twirled moustache, think cigar, think expensive car. Greg Hynes has what it takes to crack the case. Rough as a five o’clock shadow and smooth as butter. The wild love child of Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon and Hercules Poirot in Death on the Nile, or wild love child of Columbo and Miss Marple. Nothing escapes his notice. And if anybody can find the missing body, Hynes can!
