Description of the play
An incessantly ringing cell phone in a quiet café. A stranger at the next table who has had enough. And a dead man – with a lot of loose ends. So begins "Dead Man’s Cell Phone", a quirky imaginative comic adventure by MacArthur “Genius” Grant recipient and Pulitzer Prize finalist Sarah Ruhl. A play about how we memorialize the dead and how that remembering changes us; an odyssey of a woman forced to confront her own assumptions about morality, redemption, and the need to connect in a technologically obsessed world.
Important Dates
- Audition Dates: Wednesday April 9; Thursday, April 10 3:30-6:30PM in Center Stage Theater, RCA 131.
- Auditions will consist of cold readings from the script available at the auditions.
- Production Dates: May 30, 31, June 5, 7 at 7:30PM, June 1 at 2PM and June 6 at 11AM.
- Rehearsals will be Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, (and some Wednesdays), 3:15-7:00PM
beginning
4/14. Friday Rehearsals begin during tech week. - No Friday Rehearsals until Tech Week (starting 5/23) when rehearsals will end at 9:30PM as we add in costumes, lights, etc.
- There will be technical rehearsals on Saturday and Sunday, 5/24 and 5/25 (10AM-6PM).
- Bios for the program are due on April 28th.
- Actors are off book with prompting on May 7th; off book with NO prompting on May 12th.
Characters
(Whenever possible, flexibility with casting will be considered; everyone is encouraged to audition.)
Begins as being timid, but as curiosity develops initiative by the character is revealed. On stage for all but a small section of the play and has two monologues. Kisses Gordon and Dwight.
Seems respectable at first but is ruthless and self-important. Has a very lengthy monologue. Kisses Jean.
Loud, forthright and outspoken with flashes of anger; heartbroken after Gordon’s death.
Down to earth, slightly abrasive, a former world class dramatic ice skater.
Gordon’s younger sibling. More sensitive and considerate with a romantic inclination. Kisses Jean.
Enigmatic characters. The Other Woman is charming and sophisticated. The Stranger has an Eastern European accent, an ominous air, and is reminiscent of the film noir genre.
Play calls for several additional non-speaking characters who appear in several scenes as well as “The Cell Phone Ballet”; no dance experience needed, this “ballet” is not so much dance as choreographed natural movement.
We welcome everyone to auditions! Transparency and open communication are values that are extremely important to us; if you have any questions or need more information, please email the director: Betsy Richard, Drama Faculty: brichard@lowercolumbia.edu