The Hairy Ape auditions
PENSACOLA - Pensacola Junior College invites members of the community to try out for “The Hairy Ape.”
Auditions are 7 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, Jan. 14-15, at the Ashmore Fine Arts Auditorium, Building 8, on the Pensacola campus.
Production of the Eugene O’Neill play calls for 10 men and 10 women - all ages and physical types are needed. Actors may play multiple roles, including animals. Be ready for cold readings.
“The concept behind the show involves combining aspects of ‘STOMP!’ with classic American literature,” says PJC Director of Theatre Rodney Whatley. “Come prepared to play! While a percussion performance background is unnecessary, people interested in movement and percussion as well as theatre are highly encouraged to audition.”
When O’Neill penned “The Hairy Ape” in the 1920s, he intended the play to be the opposite of stage realism - a response to the psychological realism emanating from the pens of Ibsen and Chekhov and the stage of the Moscow Art Theatre. It is a study of class wars in the United States, what happens when the poor decide to strike out at the rich in a capitalist society.
“While the subject matter has grim undertones, O'Neill describes it as a ‘comedy,’ and this is the approach we are going to take,” Whatley says.
“The Hairy Ape” runs Feb. 22-24 and Feb. 29-March 2. For more information, contact Whatley at (850) 484-1807, rwhatley@pjc.edu.