Harlem Duet

by Djanet Sears

Director: Kandace Crystal
Producer: Anthony Zelig

Audition Date/Time:

Thursday, November 5 (6:30-9:00pm) and Friday, November 6 (6:30-8:00pm)

By appointment, in individual slots within each half hour period, VIA ZOOM.

CALLBACKS:

Sunday, November 8 from 6:30-9:30pm, by invitation only, VIA ZOOM

Production Dates/Times:

March 19 – April 18, 2020

Thursday – Saturday 8pm, Sunday at 2pm. 

To Reserve Your Audition Time:

Please click on the following link and complete the online submission form.  Please attach your headshot and resume. https://form.jotform.com/202605211390139

Note: If the slots are full, please check back regularly as openings do happen up until the audition dates.

Where:

Via Zoom.

Instructions will be included in your confirmation email and the Zoom link sent the day before the audition.

If you have any questions not answered in this announcement, you may email audition@coronadoplayhouse.com. 

Please note:  No screenshot photos or video recording permitted during auditions or callbacks.

Audition Details:

• For all roles: Prepare a one-minute contemporary monologue. 

You need to know all of your conflicts from January 25 through March 18, 2021 and these must be listed on the audition form. Please ensure you do not have any performance date conflicts.

Audition forms will be emailed to you with your confirmation. Please make sure to return your completed form prior to the auditions. 

Rehearsals will begin Monday, January 25 at 6pm. The rehearsal schedule will be provided in advance of the first read through.  Typically, they are held Sunday through Wednesday evenings and possibly during the day on Saturday but then expand once the current show closes.

• Strictly a Non-Equity production. There is no pay.

If you are asked to come to callbacks, you will be provided with sides from the show.

COVID-19 Notice:

Coronado Playhouse cares about the well-being of its staff, casts and crew and will be following all guidelines and procedures to ensure their safety. All necessary precautions will be taken including physical distancing, wearing masks, frequent sanitation, temperature checks and testing.

In addition, should we find we are not allowed to open our theatre and welcome a limited capacity audience, our plan is to record and stream the show for our patrons. 

Show synopsis: 

In what could be a prelude to Shakespeare’s Othello, Djanet Sear’s Harlem Duet recounts the story of Othello and his first wife, Billie (before Desdemona). Their history is told through the lives of three couples during eras of special significance in the Black American Experience. 

Set in contemporary Harlem at the corner of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X Boulevards, the tale tows the line of racial identity, sexual politics, and mental illness in the black community. Sears’s script diffuses the action through three timelines: the 1860s, 1928 and 1997.

It’s a weighty play, and one that leaves us with no easy answers.

Harlem Duet received Canada’s highest literary honor for dramatic writing, the Governor General’s Literary Award, in 1998. That year it also received the Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award.

Cast List and Breakdown:

Billie – Black Female, around 37

Othello – Black Male, around 40

Magi – Black Female, around 41
Billie’s landlady

Amah – Black Female, around 33
Billie’s sister-in-law

Canada – Black Male, around 67
Billie’s father

Mona – White Female, around 33 (offstage voice, usually played by actor playing Amah)
Othello’s girlfriend