These are unpaid roles for credit only, in a free podcast production.
Recording Instructions: (Read these! They can help your chances of getting cast.)
Please record your best takes of each line (no more than 3 takes please) and save your takes in one .mp3 file per line. Please do not clean your takes.
Name your files like so: CHARACTERNAME_LINE###_YOURNAME.mp3. So for example, if I auditioned for King John, my first file would be named KingJohn_Line1_LandonBeall.mp3. The second would be labeled KingJohn_Line2_LandonBeall.mp3. And so forth.
Please send all of your auditions in one .zip file to wildbillvarietyshow@gmail.com
If you do not receive an email confirming receipt of your auditions within 48 hours, please give us a holler ASAP!
Deadline for auditions is **WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6!!!**
As with all of Shakespeare’s plays, we put a focus on understanding and bringing the text to life. It truly comes alive when you understand what you’re saying and can relate it to the audience. Please read through the character descriptions and notes carefully. Please do not audition with a British accent unless it’s your natural accent. And please, do feel free to audition for as many roles as you can. Doing so gives us a better idea of which actors are best suited for a role.
There are 6 audition roles below, which we’ll be using to cast approximately 26 roles, so do your best!
King John is an English History play, set in the same post-crusades period as Robin Hood. For our adaptations we're treating each history play as a technology era, with this play being set in a fictional Jules Verne-esque era of steam tech.
ANY GENDER:
Arthur (16)
Arthur is King John’s nephew (or neice) and the rightful heir to England’s throne. Young, ambitious, and surprisingly wise, Arthur’s desire to live as a commoner runs counter to the royal ambitions of their mother.
Line 1: I will not struggle, I will stand stone-still. For heaven sake, Hubert, let me not be bound! Nay, hear me, Hubert, drive these men away, and I will sit as quiet as a lamb; I will not stir, nor wince, nor speak a word, nor look upon the iron angerly: thrust but these men away, and I'll forgive you, whatever torment you do put me to.
FEMALE ROLES:
Constance (Adult)
Arthur's mother and King John’s Sister-in-law, Constance wants nothing less than for her son to be king. Ambitious to a tee, Constance is deeply emotional and quick to lash out at those who stand in her way.
Line 1: Thou monstrous injurer of heaven and earth! Call not me slanderer; thou and thine usurp the dominations, royalties and rights of this oppressed boy: this is thy eld'st son's son, infortunate in nothing but in thee: thy sins are visited in this poor child; the canon of the law is laid on him, being but the second generation removed from thy sin-conceiving womb.
Line 2: Grief fills the room up of my absent child, lies in his bed, walks up and down with me, puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words, remembers me of all his gracious parts, stuffs out his vacant garments with his form; then, have I reason to be fond of grief?
Queen Eleanor (Adult)
Mother of the late Richard the Lionheart and the current King John. Eleanor has a strong guiding relationship with her son. Mellow but rarely reserved, she regularly clashes with Constance and the French.
Line 1: What now, my son! Have I not ever said how that ambitious Constance would not cease till she had kindled France and all the world, upon the right and party of her son? This might have been prevented and made whole with very easy arguments of love, which now the manage of two kingdoms must with fearful bloody issue arbitrate.
MALE ROLES:
King John (Adult)
The appointed King of England. John is emotionally erratic, always making self-centered decisions. Belligerent when he feels it, happy when he wills it, sad when it strikes him, and quick to anger too, he avoidably puts himself at odds with King Philip of France, the Catholic Church, and his own council of nobles.
Line 1: My life as soon: I do defy thee, France. Arthur of Bretagne, yield thee to my hand; and out of my dear love I'll give thee more than e'er the coward hand of France can win: submit thee, boy.
Line 2: Hadst thou but shook thy head or made a pause when I spake darkly what I purposed, or turn'd an eye of doubt upon my face, as bid me tell my tale in express words, deep shame had struck me dumb, made me break off, and those thy fears might have wrought fears in me: but thou didst understand me by my signs and didst in signs again parley with sin; yea, without stop, didst let thy heart consent, and consequently thy rude hand to act the deed, which both our tongues held vile to name. Out of my sight, and never see me more!
Philip the Bastard (Adult)
The illegitimate son of Richard the Lionheart. Philip becomes a knight in service to King John; the most loyal member of the court, Philip is sharp witted, thoughtful, and fiercely committed. To say he's kingly material is an understatement.
Line 1: A foot of honour better than I was; but many a many foot of land the worse. Well, now can I make any Joan a lady. 'Good den, Sir Richard!'—'God-a-mercy, fellow!'— And if his name be George, I'll call him Peter; for new-made honour doth forget men's names; 'tis too respective and too sociable for your conversion.
Line 2: Art thou gone so? I do but stay behind to do the office for thee of revenge, and then my soul shall wait on thee to heaven, as it on earth hath been thy servant still. Now, now, you stars that move in your right spheres, where be your powers?
Louis (Adult - Please audition for this role with a French accent)
The son of France’s King Philip. Louis marries King John’s niece in an effort to broker peace, but his youthful hotheadedness puts him on the warpath seeking to take John’s crown.
Line 1: There's nothing in this world can make me joy: life is as tedious as a twice-told tale vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man; and bitter shame hath spoil'd the sweet world's taste that it yields nought but shame and bitterness.
