Project Description:
Directed by Elliot Weiner
Performances: September 7th through September 30th, 2012 Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30pm and Sundays at 2pm. One special performance on Sunday, September 9th at 7:30pm for the Spay & Neuter Clinic
THE PLAY
Empty-nesters Greg and Kate have moved to Manhattan after twenty-two years of child-raising in the suburbs. When Greg brings home a dog he found in the park, a street-smart mixture of Lab and Poodle bearing only the name "Sylvia" on her name tag, she becomes a major bone of contention between husband and wife. Greg is going through a mid-life crisis, and Sylvia offers him the unconditional love and acceptance that only ‘man’s best friend’ can. They become inseparable, leaving out Greg’s wife Kate who feels threatened by Greg and Sylvia’s burgeoning relationship. A series of hilarious and touching complications arise: Can this ménage-a-trois make it or will someone have to go?

Written by A.R. Gurney, Sylvia originally opened on May 2, 1995, at the Manhattan Theatre Club, where it ran for 167 performances. The production received Drama Desk Award nominations for Outstanding Play and Outstanding Actress in a Play for Sarah Jessica Parker who starred as Sylvia.

SINGING NOTE: While “Sylvia” is definitely not a musical, at one point all 3 characters sing (individually and in harmony) part of the Cole Porter song, “Every Time We Say Goodbye…”

Audition/Interview Dates:
Sunday, July 15 at 7pm and Monday, July 16 at 7pm

Callbacks or second audition/interview?
Wednesday, July 18 at 7pm

Audition Requirements:
Please prepare a 1-2 minute monologue, bring your headshot and resume, and be prepared to list any potential conflicts.

Describe any monetary compensation:
minimum $100 per actor

Character Breakdown / Project Needs
SYLVIA (Female. Stage-age – twenty-something)

Wanted: an actor not afraid to crawl around on all fours, pant provocatively and lick the faces of total strangers. But as Gurney wrote, “The play works best when the dog is played straight, with no attempt to be arf-arf or cutsie-poo. After all, this is first and foremost a love story and should be treated as such.” That said, she still sniffs people’s “places” and is a dog who walks and talks like a human -- in other words, she incarnates our anthropomorphic ideal of the animal rather than the beast itself. Sylvia is cute, sexy, innocent, knowing, loyal and amoral, (when in the company of Bowser or chasing cats!”)

GREG (Kate’s husband) (Male. Stage-age: old enough to have a 22 yr-old marriage)

Greg has been a successful commodities trader who is now experiencing a midlife crisis. He is a man discovering how to restore fun to his life. Greg has reached a terrible point when his old job doesn't satisfy, and he doesn't know where to turn. He has lost his inner compass. He finds Sylvia in Central Park (or she finds him), and she becomes crucial to his salvation.

KATE (Greg’s wife) (Female. Stage-age: old enough to have a 22 yr-old marriage)

Kate is quick-witted, with a preppy chill. Hers is a role that could easily become a stereotypical whiner, but she must remain a sympathetic character and build to her blossoming in the second act. There is every reason to sympathize with her. She and Greg have moved from the suburbs into Manhattan now that their children are grown and out of the house. She has taken up teaching, and it is going well. Kate loves this new calm, orderly existence; the shakiness of Greg’s Wall Street career is upset enough, without adding a frenzied, flawed animal to the mix.

TOM/PHYLLIS/LESLIE (Male, stage-age - adult)

This actor plays three roles and is challenged with such broad humor that it runs the danger of caricature. Tom is Bowser’s “dad” and is a philosophical dog-lover Greg meets in the park. Phyllis is an old Vassar classmate of Kate's. Leslie is a marriage counselor whose therapy is based on his/her being utterly androgynous. (“I let my patients select my gender.”)