Audition Notice
For the MainStage Studio Full Production of
“Old Times”
By Harold Pinter
Directed by Doug Streich
Audition Time: Thursday, June 18 at 7:30pm and Sunday, June 21 at 4:00pm
To arrange an alternate audition time or for questions, contact Doug at dougstrei@aol.com
Place: Acting Ensemble on the Avenue, 602 E Mishawaka Ave, Mishawaka IN 46545
Auditions will consist of cold readings from sides provided by the director.
Performance date and rehearsals: Performances are August 7, 8, 13, 14, and 15 at 7:30pm and (Sundays) August 9 and 16 at 2:00pm. This is a full production with a full rehearsal schedule. Please arrive at the audition knowing your conflicts.
THE STORY:
Deeley and his wife Kate are visited by Anna, an old friend of Kate’s, who they haven’t seen in over 20 years. Anna launches into recollecting memories of concerts and other bohemian haunts the two women shared while young and living together in London. When the memories become more than just stories and prove to be a tool to vie for Kate’s attention, Deeley also begins to bring up stories that are almost too clear to be true. However, it’s Kate’s memory that gives the play it’s shocking conclusion.
CHARACTERS (ages may vary from 30’s to 70’s)
Kate
A woman in her forties.
Deeley
Kate’s partner
Anna
A woman in her forties and a mysterious former friend of Kate’s from her past
Cautionary note: Contains mild adult themes.
“What am I writing about? Not the weasel under the cocktail cabinet … I can sum up none of my plays. I can describe none of them, except to say: that is what happened. This is what they said. That is what they did.” – Harold Pinter.
Old Times first premiered with the Royal Shakespeare Company in June of 1971, under the direction of Peter Hall.
“Transfixing… cunning, sexy, ultimately highly disturbing.” – The New York Times
“Deeply unnerving, bafflingly brilliant… totally gripping.” – The Telegraph
“So resonant… exposes the way we shape the past according to the psychological needs of the present.” – The Guardian
Harold Pinter (1930-2008) was born in London on October 10, 1930. He lived with Antonia Fraser from 1975 until his death on Christmas Eve 2008. (They were married in 1980).
After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the Central School of Speech and Drama, he worked as an actor under the stage name David Baron. Following his success as a playwright, he continued to act under his own name, on stage and screen. He last acted in 2006 when he appeared in Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape at the Royal Court Theatre, directed by Ian Rickson.
He wrote 29 plays, including The Birthday Party, The Dumb Waiter, A Slight Ache, The Hothouse, The Caretaker, The Collection, The Lover, The Homecoming, Old Times, No Man’s Land, Betrayal, A Kind of Alaska, One For The Road, The New World Order, Moonlight and Ashes to Ashes. Sketches include The Black and White, Request Stop, That’s Your Trouble, Night, Precisely, Apart From That and the recently rediscovered Umbrellas.
He directed 27 theatre productions, including James Joyce’s Exiles, David Mamet’s Oleanna, seven plays by Simon Gray (one of which was Butley in 1971, for which he directed the film adaptation three years later) and many of his own plays, including his last, Celebration, paired with his first, The Room, at The Almeida Theatre, London in the spring of 2000.
He wrote 21 screenplays, including The Pumpkin Eater, The Servant, The Go-Between, The French Lieutenant’s Woman and Sleuth.
In 2005 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature. Other awards include the Companion of Honour for services to Literature, the Legion D’Honneur, the European Theatre Prize the Laurence Olivier Award and the Moliere D’Honneur for lifetime achievement. In 1999 he was made a Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature. Harold Pinter was awarded 18 honorary degrees.
