Auditions in Austin: Two Neo-Nazi ingenues for Am I White by Adrienne Dawes, Salvage Vanguard, December 3, 2013

Salvage Vanguard Theatre is holding open auditions for the world premiere of Am I White, an original play by Adrienne Dawes to be directed by Jenny Larson in October 2014.

When Neo-Nazi terrorist Wesley Connor returns to prison after a failed bomb plot, he is confronted with the two identities that most threaten his position within the White Order of Thule: fatherhood and his own mixed race heritage. Inspired by the true story of Leo Felton and Erica Chase, Am I White travels between linear narrative, recurring dreams and minstrel show nightmare to discover if a singular self exists in post-modern, “post-racial” America.

Casting two non-AEA actors for the roles of POLLY and RYAN:

Polly (19-25) - White, Female - member of White Order of Thule; Wesley's teenage girlfriend. {This role sings one song - please prepare 16-32 bars of a "lover's lament" to sing}

Ryan (21-31) - White, Male - Wesley's cell mate, member of the Aryan Brotherhood, also plays Interlocuter in minstrel show scenes.

AUDITIONS: TUESDAY DEC 3RD 7:30-10:30PM at Salvage Vanguard Theater 2803 E Manor Rd. - click for map

To request an audition appointment: please email headshot/resume in Word or PDF format to Adrienne at adrienne@salvagevanguard.org. Auditions will consist of 1 minute monologues and prepared sides from the script. Callbacks are scheduled for December 5th 6-9pm. Rehearsals begin in late August/early September 2014. Performs for three weekends starting in October 2014.

Robert Faires on Calling a Thing by its Name, Austin Chronicle, July 25, 2013

From Robert Faires' column All Over Creation, some lexical advice: what kind of town is Austin, anyway?

 

 

All Over Creation: What Do You Mean?

Shaking up the lexicon once in a while is necessary if we want to be clear

by Robert Faires

[ . . . . ] Robert Lynch, president and CEO of the national advocacy group Americans for the Arts, in his speech on cultural tourism at the Marchesa last Thursday[, . . . .] related an anecdote about meeting a couple of folks in an airport, and Austin came up. "Oh, we love Austin," they told him. "Great," he said. "When you're there, do you ever do anything related to the arts?" "No," they replied. "We never do the arts, because we're too busy doing music." 

Rimshot.

Sure, we know what those people meant, but it still points to this divide that persists between anything artistic in popular culture and what are called traditional fine-art disciplines, as if all those sounds being cranked out at clubs and concert halls every night couldn't be part of the arts. Naw, that stuff is church; what bands play is fun. If you want to know why I and a number of other advocates for arts and culture have been ramming the word "creative" down your throat as a surrogate for "artist" of late, that's the reason. After 30 years of culture wars in which the arts have been demonized as elitist and offensive, "artist" is too charged a term to be effective in most public discourse.

"Creative" as a noun – and sorry, lexicon cops, I gotta break the law on this one – not only dispenses with all that baggage, it's more reflective of our contemporary attitude toward who's engaged in artistic pursuits. It encompasses filmmakers, designers, craftspeople, chefs, knitters, mixologists, architects, slam poets, programmers, and, yes, singer-songwriters, as well as painters, playwrights, dancers, and classical musicians. 

What all these very different kinds of people do is creative, and these days they're much more likely to do it with one another – collaborating across discipline and form – than the artists of days past. If we want people in this city or elsewhere to gain a new appreciation for the expansiveness and pervasiveness of the arts in modern society and their profound impact in every corner of our culture – education, productivity, mental well-being, the economy, human values, entertainment – it behooves us to speak in terms that make our meaning as clear as possible. Sometimes that means setting aside favored words of old, words that in a sense point backward, in favor of words that are free of the barnacles of bad experiences and controversy, that can be heard without assumption, without prejudice, and point a way forward.

Read full text at the Austin Chronicle. . . .