Free Casting Calls and Auditions

“FENCEROW TO FENCEROW” WORKSHOP
Theatre
AEA (Lort D Experimental Theatre Contract - $444.00/ week)
Music Center Annex
A Son of Semele Ensemble and Center Theatre Group LA Company Partnership
Playwright & Director: Matt McCray
1st Rehearsal April 22nd, 2008
Presentation May 3rd, 2008

STORY: Set against the agricultural policies of the 1970s and ’80s, Fencerow features three interwoven stories that co-exist amongst a field of cornstalks (played by the ensemble cast) over the course of 4 decades. A fourth-generation Iowan corn farmer faces a crisis of conscience when he sees the environmental and nutritional damage that industrialized corn production has wreaked on America and its people, while a young food scientist working against politically- driven agribusiness attempts to provide a sustainable food system for an ever-increasing population. Through it all, an everyman named Joe suffers the unavoidable consequences of a changing diet as his fresh food is gradually replaced with industrialized products infused and sweetened with corn. Inspired by the best-seller The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan.

MATT McCRAY (Playwright & Director) The Founding Artistic Director of Son of Semele Ensemble. Most recently, his 2006 production of Iphigenia A Rave Fable received six LA Weekly Award nominations and Matthew received an award for his work as the Video Deisgner. Other directing work includes his own original plays A Few Moments Behind The Mask, Earthlings and Amended which premiered in REDCAT’s Studio Festival, as well as Animal Farm, the west coast premiere of Back Story, a workshop production of What The Moon Saw by Stephanie Fleischmann and most recently a workshop production at CalArts of Lear’s Wild Rose by Sibyl OMalley. Matthew is currently collaborating with Center Theatre Group to assist in producing the yearlong festival of work by Suzan-Lori Parks called 365 Days / 365 Plays.

Matthew has authored three plays: Amended which premiered at REDCAT’s Studio Festival in 2004; Earthlings which Son of Semele Ensemble premiered in Los Angeles in 2001; and, A Few Moments Behind The Mask which premiered in 1998 at Chapman University. His musical writing includes choral work, musical scores and incidental music for the theatre. His two published choral works for voice and piano are When We Two Parted, published in 1995 with Twin Elm Publishing, and The Paper Reeds By The Brooks, published in 1998 with National Music Publishing. When We Two Parted was performed by The Choral Project in Santa Cruz and San Jose in 2004. In 1996 his musical anthology of Lewis Carroll poetry was added into a theatre work about Alice Liddell, subsequently performed at Chapman University. Additionally, in 1998 he directed a complete evening of his choral compositions, also at Chapman.

OPEN to all types, all ethnicities, and actors with disabilities unless otherwise noted. Local LA actors only.

SEEKING-

SALLY/ WIFE: Late 40s/ 50s. Sally is a mother of 2 kids (one of them 17 & the other 15). She has lived in small towns in Iowa all her life. A family woman and fairly conservative. The wear/tear of life on the farm has aged her. Also plays ‘Farmer’s Wife’ in the Prologue (which is the woman from the famous painting ‘American Gothic’). This actress should be a warm heart and very emotionally available. She’s the kind of woman you might just want to go hug for no apparent reason. Women with movement/dance experience, a plus. SUBMIT ALL ETHNICITIES.

JAPANESE FOOD SCIENTIST: Mid-30s. An extremely intelligent man of science. While his co-worker is skeptical about the safety of work they are doing, he believes 100% that their work with High Fructose Corn Syrup will be of benefit to the American food supply, the American consumer and the all-American dollar. Men with movement experience a plus. Please indicate whether actors know any Japanese.

Send h/r asap to:

CTG CASTING
601 W TEMPLE ST.
LOS ANGELES, CA 90012
ATTN: (”FENCEROW TO FENCEROW”)