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Auditions

 

The History Boys
by Alan Bennett

Auditions

Audition Dates & Times: March 23 & 24, 2009
Callbacks: March 26

Time: 7:30-9:00pm

Location: Industrial Strength Theatre (269 Sunset Park Dr, Herndon)

Audition Format: Cold readings from the script

Casting:

“The Boys”
Age: look like seniors in high school
Multi-cultural casting

These are intelligent, funny, precocious and often irreverent young men. Hector, their teacher, cultivates this irreverence in the subject matter of his lessons and the experiences he offers them. They push peoples’ buttons, test others’ limits and never hold back on what they think or how they feel. At their age, sex, both the prospect and the reality of it, inspires and motivates them. They appear fearless, but this new challenge to get into Oxbridge reveals their fears and doubts.
Posner – slightly younger than the other boys, Jewish, is questioning his sexuality as he is very attracted to Dakin, somewhat naïve, sings.
Dakin – handsome and knows it, boasts of his sexual prowess, becomes fascinated with Irwin and Irwin’s fascination.
Scripps – devoutly religious but is very open minded, is the balancing person among the boys, often the voice of reason, plays the piano (not a requirement of the actor for the role).
Rudge – athlete, not considered as intelligent as the other boys but can be very sharp and astute, has an easy going approach to all that goes about him.
And four more wisecrackers in their own distinctive way, intuitive of the adults and each other, quick on their feet with what they’ve learned and can use it for their own intentions.
Lockwood
Timms
Crowther
Akthar
 
"The Teachers "
Irwin – (20’s-30’s) Appears very confident about himself and his skills, slightly arrogant but has is somewhat thrown by the mental agility and personality of the boys, has his own secrets and questions his own identity.
Hector – (50’s) Considers himself a renaissance man and a devout follower of his own beliefs about education, passionate about the subjects he teaches, cares about his students and comfortably mocks them, can rationalize any behavior, including his own.
Headmaster – (50’s-60’s) Ambitious, wary of Hector and not a fan of his teaching methods, wants to build the reputation of the school and will do so at most any cost.
Mrs. Lintott (Dorothy) – (40’s-50’s) A history teacher and the sensible one, friend of Hector, wry sense of humor, principled and dedicated to education, passionate about history, sees all sides, compassionate, funny and feminist.

Audition Preparation: Familiarity with the script recommended

About the Show:
Written in 2004, Allan Bennett has crafted a brilliant play filled with antic humor and compelling drama about the choices we make while young to become the type of person we grow up to be. The play is set in the early 1980’s, a period of significant change in the UK and the world – the era of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan – when “new” concepts focusing on the practical and successful replaced “old” ideas of aesthetics and enlightenment. Bennett places the story of a class of young men from middle class families, attending an average private (called “public” in Britain) school. The “boys” have an unorthodox teacher in Hector, who introduces them to poetry, language, art, film and music. He also has a peculiar habit that the boys accept as part of their teacher’s idiosyncrasy and as experience or as Hector describes the eroticism of education. The school’s headmaster, ambitious for his students to get accepted at Oxford or Cambridge Universities or Oxbridge, brings in a new teacher (Irwin) to coach the boys on the entrance exams for Oxbridge. The playwright challenges the boys with competing approaches to education represented by their current teacher Hector (culture and free thinking) and Irwin (style and facts) or presentation over substance. The competition raises doubts in the otherwise confident young men and they sway back and forth between to the two charismatic teachers. Hector’s behavior is discovered by the Headmaster and he is forced to retire further unsettles the boys. Reminiscent of “Dead Poet’s Society”, Bennett captures the anarchy of adolescence, with raging hormones and sexual questioning. The pursuit of Oxbridge pushes the young men and their teachers to grasp with the ultimate question of their identity.

Director - Michael Kharfen
Producer - Rich Klare

Performance Dates: June 5 - 27, 2009

All roles are volunteer positions.

More information/directions may be available by calling 703-481-5930.
 

 

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