Video Submissions accepted until Thursday, February 15, 2024
Virginia Stage Company, Producing Artistic Director: Tom Quaintance
VSC Resident Casting Director: Emel Ertugrul
Blues for an Alabama Sky Director: Jerrell Henderson
Virginia Stage Company requires, as a condition of employment, documentation of the COVID-19 vaccine or provide a valid religious or medical reason not to be vaccinated.
____________________________________________________________________________
Equity and non-Equity actors will be considered for all roles.
Please prepare the side corresponding to your desired role below.
Video submissions are due by Thursday, February 15.
If you have previously submitted an audition via Equity Principal Actor Auditions, there is no need to resubmit unless you wish to perform a selected side. Your initial audition is under consideration
Blues for an Alabama Sky - Important Dates
1st Day Rehearsal Tuesday – March 26, 2024
Tech Begins Friday – April 12, 2024
First Preview Wednesday – April 17, 2024
Opening Saturday – April 20, 2024
Closing Sunday – May 5, 2024
Blues for an Alabama Sky - Role Descriptions & Sides
Harlem, 1930. The Blues are getting bluer and the gin is running dry. A free-spirited Cotton Club singer has just been fired with nowhere left to go but down. So, she turns to her best friend, an extravagant costume designer with plans to dress Josephine Baker in Paris. Maybe they can run away together? Or maybe the handsome southerner that just came knocking can offer an even better life? But the saxophone dreams of Harlem rarely end as smoothly as they start.
SEEKING:
Angel Allen: Black/African-American, Female Presenting, Age 34. Looks 29. That’s important.
(Back-up) Singer. Currently Un-Employed. That’s Important.
Influenced by: Nina Mae McKinney. Ethel Waters. Bessie Smith.
The ultimate poker player; at her best one never knows just how good a hand Angel is holding. Through the façade of make-up and dress, Angel is used to being able to bluff and flirt her way into some exciting situations. In this world, the audience meets Angel just as this reality is beginning to dissipate. Confidence is still present but the realities of what a free Black woman has to do in order to survive is knocking at her door. The knocking is a call Angel takes quite seriously. (Side: w/Leland)
Guy Jacobs: Black/African-American, Male Presenting, Age 30.
Costume Designer.
Influenced by: Langston Hughes. Geoffrey Holder. Duke Ellington.
Guy knows exactly what he wants and remains diligent throughout the story in his quest to obtain his goals. This is non-negotiable. Angel is a sister to him. Their love was forged as children in the fires of survival. It’s lasting. This is non-negotiable. Guy has never and will never pretend to be someone he is not. Not for anyone (this is important). This is non-negotiable. He does not leave the house without being sure he looks good. This is non-negotiable. Everything else is on the table. (Side: w/Delia)
Delia Patterson: Black/African-American, Female Presenting, Age 25.
Social Worker at the Margaret Sanger Family Planning Clinic.
Influenced by: Cora Catherine Calhoun Horne. Mary Church Terrell. Mary McLeod Bethune.
Delia suffers somewhat from Amos Hart syndrome. With so many large and colorful personalities around, it is easy for her to fade into the background. What most large personalities don’t realize, though, is this is a short falling of theirs. Delia is intelligent, compassionate, and driven. Those elements alone are enough to reset the universe and she’s content to do just that. She speaks warmly, loves deeply, and knows how to be firm. Her sense of humor is evolving. (Side: w/Sam)
Sam Thomas: Black/African-American, Male Presenting, Age Sam, 40.
Doctor (this is important).
Influenced by: Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Charles Drew. Fats Waller.
Sam is simply one of the most skilled, experienced, and kind baby doctors Harlem has ever seen. He loves Black people in general but especially when he gets to guide them, by hand, into our world. Perhaps the privilege which allowed him to successfully pursue medicine at a time filled with so many barriers spills into his professional life and he can get a bit messy in-between work hours. Sam is going to squeeze every drop of life out of this experience and die with no regrets. (Side: w/Delia)
Leland Cunningham: Black/African-American, Male Presenting, Age 28.
Recent Migrant from Alabama (the American South).
Influenced by: Rex Ingram. Robert Johnson. Southern Black Preacher.
The mysterious or dark stranger. Isn’t it interesting that his gait isn’t slow? Isn’t it fascinating that the energy of the blues comes in the form of a young man from the old country with a few psychological and emotional hellhounds on his trail? Trying to heal but mired in the pain of the past and bound within the forced structure of religion; Leland wishes to see the streets of New York as if they are Sodom and Gomorrah and Angel is his salvation. The problem with this is, nothing in Harlem in the early 1930s comes close to being that simple. (Side: w/Angel)
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Virginia Stage Company follows Actor's Equity policy regarding casting for both Equity and non-Equity contracts with regards to diversity: Equity’s contracts prohibit discrimination. Equity is committed to diversity and encourages all its employers to engage in a policy of equal employment opportunity designed to promote a positive model of inclusion. As such, Equity encourages performers of all ethnicities, gender identities, and ages, as well as performers with disabilities, to submit.
