Website CityLitTheater City Lit Theater Company
City Lit Theatre is pleased to announce auditions for King Hedley II by August Wilson and directed by Manny Buckley. The director is looking for collaborative actors who have a strong facility with language and incorporate their body into storytelling. This is a non-union production.
SHOW DESCRIPTION: Revisiting characters established in August Wilson’s Seven Guitars, this play returns to Pittsburgh’s Hill District in 1985. King Hedley, a man recently released from prison, attempts to rebuild his life by selling stolen refrigerators so he can buy a video store. Despite decades of generational trauma, can King break free from the crippling socio-economic struggles that have held him down? Amid the realities of rampant crime and drug use in the neighborhood community, he tries to carve out his own destiny.
City Lit Theater does not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status, in any of its activities or productions.
Material to Prepare:
To request an audition, please email your headshot and resume and the role(s) you’d like to be considered for with subject line “Hedley Audition Request” to Becca Holloway at: auditions@citylit.org.
If selected for an audition, you will be asked to prepare sides from the script, play harmonica (Stool Pigeon) or sing a couple of bars of a torch song (Ruby) for an in-person appointment.
Time Commitment:
First rehearsal - Sept. 1 - Oct. 8 (Sat. 1-5pm, M-Th 7-10pm)
Tech - Oct. 10 -15 (Sat 10-6, Sun 12:30-6. Monday OFF. Tues -Thurs 6:30-11pm)
(No rehearsal conflicts past this point)
Previews - Oct. 16-18, 23 (Fri + Sat 7:30pm, Sun 3pm)
Opening - Oct. 24th
Run: Oct. 24 - Nov. 29th (Fri + Sat 7:30pm, Sun 3pm)
Monday performances: Nov. 16th
Character Type/Restrictions:
CHARACTERS:
Seeking all roles and understudies. Please note that gender listed is that of the character, but does not need to match the actor. Submit for the role(s) you feel most comfortable.
KING (30’s) AA man. Formerly incarcerated, ambitious, temperamental. Marked with a long scar running down the side of his face given to him by the man he was convicted of killing. Has lofty dreams to be an honest businessman, but selling stolen refrigerators to accomplish it.
RUBY (60’s) AA woman. King’s mostly estranged mother. Toured as a torch song singer, leaving her son, King, to be raised by her aunt, Louise. Caring mother, strong provider, but not the traditional maternal type. Has a romantic past with Elmore. Has never revealed to King the identity of his biological father.
STOOL PIGEON (55 - 65) AA man. A prophet in his own right. Rugged, eccentric neighbor to King. He plays harmonica, warns of the coming of God, sees spirits, quotes the Bible wrong and obsessively collects newspapers and hoards them.
MISTER (30’s) AA man. King’s best friend. Street smart, sharp dresser, charming. A bad influence for King.
ELMORE (60’s) AA man. Formerly incarcerated. A player, a hustler, a baller, if not semi-retired from “the game.” His conman-like abilities endow him with the charm to coax the birds out of the trees. Shows up to rekindle the flames of his romance with Ruby. Turns out the romantic rival to Ruby that he killed decades ago is King’s biological father, but King has never known.
TANYA (35) AA woman. King’s wife. Pregnant. Already a grandmother at 35 years old. Equivocates about keeping this baby, given the quality of her current living conditions.
To apply for this job email your details to auditions@citylit.org