Audition sign up lists for our Fall productions will be posted in the theatre office by September 1, 2018.  Questions – email michele.miner@pomona.edu.

Water by the Spoonful and The Government Inspector are available to be read in the theater office as of August 25, 2018.

Office Hours are Monday – Friday  8:30 – 4:30.

Water by the Spoonful

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2012, Water by the Spoonful takes us on a journey that begins in suburban Philadelphia, and includes San Diego, Puerto Rico, and Japan.  The play asks us to consider how families are formed, what causes them to fall apart, and whether shattered people and relationships can ever successfully be remade.  Returning home from a hellish active tour of duty, Elliot Ortiz and his cousin Yazmin, an adjunct professor of Music, try to survive in Philadelphia amidst crazy work schedules, financial stress, marital discord, and Elliot’s haunting nightmares of battlefield trauma. At the same time, Elliot’s mother, Odessa, a recovering crack addict, is supervising and playing mother hen to an eclectic online support group, where an IRS bureaucrat, a community college graduate, and a computer programmer share their recovery experiences and form a tightly-knit support group. When tragedy strikes the Ortiz family, the “real” and online worlds intersect and collide, forcing Elliot and Odessa to confront their pasts, their inner demons and their sense of community.

Written by Quiara Alegría Hudes
Allen Theatre
10/11 – 10/14

Audition Requirements

  • Prepare a 60 second contemporary monologue (comic or dramatic).
  • Please bring a resume with your photo attached.

Water by the Spoonful Character Breakdown

Odessa Ortiz, 39: a.k.a. Haikumom, founder of www.recovertogether.com, works odd janitorial jobs, lives one notch above squalor.

Elliot Ortiz, 24: an Iraq vet with a slight limp, works at Subway Hoagies, scores an occasional job as a model or actor, Yazmin’s cousin, Odessa’s birth son.

Yazmin Ortiz, 31: adjunct professor of music, Odessa’s niece and Elliot’s cousin.

Fountainhead, 38: a.k.a. John, a computer programmer and entrepreneur, lives on Philadelphia’s Main Line, white.

Chutes & Ladders, 56: lives in San Diego, has worked a low-level job at the IRS since the Reagan ears, African-American, a.k.a. Clayton “Buddy” Wilkie.

Orangutan, 31: a recent community college graduate, Japanese by birth, a.k.a. Madeleine Mays and prior to that as Yoshiko Sakai.

A Ghost: also plays Professor Aman (Arabic professor at Swarthmore), also plays A Policeman (in Japan).

The Government Inspector

When locals in a small town learn that an undercover government inspector is coming for a surprise visit, an unfortunate case of mistaken identity sends the village spiraling into a world of panic and greed. Fearing such a visit will expose the extent of the town’s corruption, the mayor and other local government officials set off in a hilarious flurry of activity to cover up their various misdeeds and prepare for the inspector’s arrival. In The Government Inspector, bribery is used to cover up the leaderships’ failings. Is there such a thing as a non- corrupt politician? Are politicians ever able to detach their own beliefs or their agenda to make decisions for the good of the people and not themselves? Is Nikolai Gogol pointing the finger solely at the Russian government? Or is the idea of government corruption universal?

Written by Nikolai Gogol, adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher
Seaver Theatre
11/15 - 11/18

Audition Requirements

  • Prepare a 1-2 minute monologue-preferably classical (Standard American Pronunciation-comic or dramatic).
  • Please bring a resume with your photo attached.

The Government Inspector Character Breakdown

Anna Andreyevna: The wife

Marya Antonovna: The daughter

Grusha: maid, female

Luka Lukich Khlopov: The School Principal, male

Ammos Fiodorovich Liapkin-Tiapkin: The Judge, open gender

Artemy Filippovich Zemlianika: Hospital Director, open gender

Ivan Kuzmich Shpekin: The Postmaster, male

Piotr Ivanovich Dobchinsky: Country Squire, open gender

Piotr Ivanovich Bobchinsky: Country Squire, open gender

Christiàn Hübner: The Doctor, female

Innkeeper's Wife/Imperial Messenger: male

Fevronya Petrova Poshliopkina: Locksmith's wife / Waitress: female

Svetsunov: Police Chief, female

Corporal's Widow / Townsfolk: female

Abdullin: a Merchant, male

Pentelaeyev / Constable: female

Chernaeyev / Constable: male

(The roles of Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov, Osip, and Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky have been cast as senior major thesis projects.)