Body Awareness

By Annie Baker

Directed by Jeanne Leep

It's "Body Awareness" week on a Vermont college campus and Phyllis, the organizer, and her partner, Joyce, are hosting one of the guest artists in their home, Frank, a photographer famous for his female nude portraits. Both his presence in the home and his chosen subject instigate tension from the start. Phyllis is furious at his depictions, but Joyce is actually rather intrigued by the whole thing, even going so far as to contemplate posing for him. As Joyce and Phyllis bicker, Joyce's adult son, who may or may not have Asperger's Syndrome, struggles to express himself physically with heartbreaking results.

"The deepest and richest of the three plays by Annie Baker that make up the Shirley, VT Plays Festival...Editor's Pick!" - The Boston Globe

"An engaging new comedy by a young playwright with a probing, understated voice...Its quiet rewards steal up on you." - The New York Times

"Sexuality's endless capacity to make us miserable is the keynote of Annie Baker's gentle satire, which takes just four actors and 90 minutes to spin an astonishingly complex web of emotions and ideas...Body Awareness is a smart, modest work about ordinary, flawed people, grasping for connection, but none of it feels small, thanks to Baker's sharp ear for the deeply painful—and funny—longings squirming under her characters' dialogue. What a beautiful start to a young playwright's theatrical body of work." - Time Out New York

"An impressive and occasionally beautiful meditation on the mysteries of being moved." - The New Yorker

"When you're looking around trying to find interesting plays, the first thing you listen for is the truth of the author's voice" - Neil Pepe, Artistic Director, Atlantic Theatre Company

Body Awareness was first presented Off Broadway by the Atlantic Theater Company in New York City in May 2008. It was directed by Karen Kohlhaas.

Produced by StageQ at Bartell Theatre's Evjue Stage, 113 E. Mifflin St., Madison

Performances: March 27 - April 11, 2015

Performance Times:
March 27 at 8:00 pm
March 28 at 8:00 pm
March 29 at 2:00 pm
April 2 at 7:30 pm
April 3 at 8:00 pm
April 4 at 8:00 pm
April 9 at 7:30 pm
April 10 at 8:00 pm
April 11 at 2 pm (Tentative)
April 11 at 8 pm

Ticket Prices: $20 Friday and Sat Night $15 Thursday and Matinees

Call (608) 661-9696 for reservations or more information.

Auditions

Auditions will be held on the following days:

11/18/2014
11/19/2014

LOCATION:
Auditions are held at the StageQ rehearsal space which is located at 148 East Wilson Street, Madison.

AUDITION DATES:
7-9 pm on Nov. 18 and 7-9pm on Nov. 19, 2014

CALLBACKS:
Possible callbacks on Nov. 20, 2014 at 7 pm (if needed)

CASTING NEEDS:
Casting ages can be flexible.

JOYCE – 39-60, old enough to have a 21 year old son, Phyllis’s girlfriend. A high school teacher.
JARED - 21, her son, who may or may not have Asperger's Syndrome
PHYLLIS – 39-60ish, can play a middle aged college professor type, in charge of Body Awareness Week at the college
FRANK BONITATIBUS – 40-62, a controversial photographer artist, famous for female nudes

WHAT TO PREPARE:
Nothing! Come prepared to have fun! You will be asked to read from the script. Please contact StageQ for a copy of the script or Jeanne Leep at JLeep@Edgewood.edu

REQUIREMENTS:
If cast you must be able to attend tech week. March 22 -March 27, 2015.

REHEARSALS:
Rehearsals will start mid Feb. depending on schedules. For specifics please e-mail JLeep@Edgewood.edu.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:
Jeanne Leep, Ph.D. (Head of the Acting & Directing Program/Edgewood College Theatre Producer) is a Professor in the Department of Theatre Arts here at Edgewood College.

She received her Ph.D. in directing from Wayne State University, and her M.A. from the University of Michigan in theatre studies. Leep has also studied the Stanislavski system at the Moscow Art Theatre’s training program. An active member of the Association of Theatre in Higher Education, she is currently serving on the acting focus group conference planning board.

Dr. Leep serves as the head of the acting and directing program for the Department of Theatre Arts, as well as the Producer for the Edgewood College Theatre Company as they continue to celebrate moving to their new home in the Black Box Theatre of the visual and theatrical arts building, The Stream. She is also the faculty advisor for many student organizations in the theatre, including Theatre Assembly, and the Theatre Assembly Planning Committee.

Some past directing credits include Metamorphoses, Comedy of Errors, Dead Man Walking, Arabian Nights, Wait Until Dark, Dancing at Lughnasa, The Cripple of Inishmaan, Top Girls, Guys and Dolls, The Importance of Being Earnest, How I Learned to Drive, The Glass Menagerie, and The Laramie Project.

She is a founding member of River City Improv, an award-winning performance improvisational company based in Michigan, celebrating its 20-year anniversary in 2014. She also continues to perform short form improv with River City and other companies as her schedule allows.

Her book, Theatrical Improvisation, published by Palgrave Macmillian, came out in 2008, and was recently issued in paperback.