AGE Residency at Lewis & Clark
AGE (Advancing Gender Equity in the Arts) is hosting a workshop of a new play at Lewis & Clark as part of its Legacy Playwrights program, which supports work written by female identifying BIPOC playwrights over the age of 40. The play is Empty Spaces by Renee Flemmings and explores the racialized response to human trafficking victims. The Workshop is directed by the Artistic Director of Bag & Baggage productions in Hillsboro, OR, Nik Whitcomb. (See Bio Below)
Nik will be casting 4 student roles in the workshop, and participation comes with a $200 stipend.
AVAILABLE ROLES
Jasmine - black female identifying fourteen years old. Precocious, yet, awkward and lives in a duality of expectations. She is a nerd, but wants to be grown so bad.
Candace - Black female identifying, mid-late twenties. Lives on the outside of the rules.
Dangerous and manipulative.
Ensemble 2 - BIPOC Male Identifying; Freddy/Acevedo/Phillip
Ensemble 3 - White Male identifying: P.O. On the street/Reporter/Eric/Templeton
Ensemble 4 - BIPOC Female identifying: Lisa/Girl on the street/V.O. News broadcast
To prepare for the audition READ the play. Email jessicafoote@lclark.edu to receive a copy. There are also a few printed copies in the office to read. Content Warnings - sex trafficking, grooming, mental and physical abuse.
Sign up on the call board. Plan on being there for the full two hours. Nik will have everyone do a cold read for the first hour and the second hour will be a Casting Workshop. Nik will bring his decade of experience in Casting and you bring your Questions!
Info on the New Play Workshop
Rehearsals will be at Fir Acres May 5-14th (Mon-Fri 6-10pm) with two public performances of a staged reading on Thursday May 15th and Friday May 16th at 7:30pm.
**We are also looking to hire an ASM and an Assistant Director -
reach out to Rebecca Lingafelter (rlingafelter@lclark.edu) if you are interested.
Nik Whitcomb is a lifelong theatre artist who has worked in various capacities with nonprofit arts institutions across the nation such as Guthrie Theater, Hennepin Theatre Trust, Goodman Theatre, Northlight Theatre, and Omaha Performing Arts among others. Nik has also worked on Broadway with producers, general managers, and other industry leaders as Program Director of the Black Theatre Coalition. He is a proud Associate Member of the Stage Directors & Choreographers Society and is a reader on the Distinguished Play Committee for the American Alliance for Theatre & Education. Nik is a vocal advocate for equity, access, and inclusion in the entertainment industry and consults with creative organizations of all sizes on strategic community development and implementation of human first creative models. Some favorite directing credits include Ella Enchanted (Rose Theater, Omaha Entertainment & Arts Award for Best Musical), Smart People (Union for Contemporary Art), When The Snow Melted Down in Chicago (Collaboration Theater), Now Becomes Then (Actors Theatre of Louisville), and his work as Resident Director with The Twenty-Sided Tavern which has been seen Off-Broadway, at Edinburgh Fringe, and at the Broadway Playhouse in Chicago. He is an Ensemble Member with the Performing Arts Collective at The Union for Contemporary Art, an Advisory Council Member of The Stillwell Institute for Contemporary Black Art, the Entertainment & Community Strategist for The House of Afros, Capes, & Curls, and was named a “Theatre Worker You Should Know” by American Theatre Magazine.
