All auditions take place at The Sauk (240 E. Chicago St. in Jonesville, MI) unless otherwise noted. ​​​​​​

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Small Mouth Sounds

Auditions will consist of readings from the script and character-based improvisations. No preparation necessary. No experience necessary. You must be 18-year-old to audition for this production. Bruce Crews will direct. 

About the Play

In the overwhelming quiet of the woods, six runaways from city life embark on a silent retreat. As these strangers confront internal demons both profound and absurd, their vows of silence collide with the achingly human need to connect. Filled with awkward humor, this strange and compassionate new play asks how we address life’s biggest questions when words fail us.

Available Roles

• The Teacher - A disembodied, androgynous voice with a strange, slightly accented way of talking. 
  
• Joan, late 40s, wears a lot of clothes and jewelry from India. She is a therapist and sex educator in colleges, high school and in private practice with couples. 
  
• Judy, maybe 50, is Joan's partner. She works at "O" magazine as a top editor in the art department. 
  
• ​Alicia, thirty-ish, strawberry-blonde from Southern California. She is the kind of person who manages to make a lot of noise even when she "in silence."
• Ned, somewhere in his 40s, has had a severe run of bad luck worse than the worst country-western song.
  
• Rodney, mid-30s, ageless, fit, gorgeous, grew up in the Pacific Northwest, and teaches yoga. 
  
• Jan, 50-ish, is from a small town in Finland. He is pale and sweet, with a wide-eyed, continually curious air about him. 

Sauk Shorts

Auditions consist of readings from the various scripts. There are roles for 8 men, 11 women, 7 teenage boys and 3 teenage girls. No experience necessary. Directors to be announced. Joella Hendrickson will stage manage. 

Breakfast Meditations

By Sarah Gray

​No matter which planet they're from, men and women think differently But, in the end, it's all breakfast!

• Shannon - 30s
• Adam - 30s
• Serenity - meditation instructor
• Inner Shannon - 30s
• Inner Adam - 30s

Checking The Ice

By Scott Mullen

Four brothers go down to a pond to check if the ice is thick enough, and they disagree over how reckless that process is. But it turns out that the older brother has things well in hand.

• Justin (17). The older brother. Distracted
• Kyle (16). The second brother. Always worried. 
• Brady (15). The third brother.  The instigator.
• Max (14). The youngest brother. The instigated. 

Finding the Feel

By Scott Mullen

​​A man in a fishing contest isn't happy when a teenage boy starts fishing near him.

• Doug (30s-50s). Experienced fisherman. 
• Charlie (14). Not an experienced fisherman. 

Guts 

By Sarah Gray 

​When friends are more like family, what would you do for them? Would you have the guts?

• Georgia - girl age 14-17. Tough and rough around the edges. 
• Anastasia - girl age 14-17. Quiet. Unsure of herself. 
• Mr. Curtis - principal. 

M.A.S.H.-ed

By Tiffany Thatcher

​Four women reunite to discover the game they played at a sleepover as kids has shaped their entire lives in absurd ways.

• Kelly - female, 30s
• Jessica - female, 30s
• Steph - female, 30s, very pregnant
• Heather - female, 30s

Mollie and Harry

By Tom Block

​At the end of their lives, Harry visits Mollie, his one and only true love from high school who he hasn’t seen in nearly 70 years, to see if he can rekindle what has been lost.  But Mollie has slipped into dementia: Harry is too late.

• Mollie: An 88-year-old widower. She has dementia and is slowly slipping off into the Great Night. Any race or ethnicity. 
• Harry: dated Mollie in high school. Never married and always harbored a secret love for her. He has not seen her in 65 years since the day Mollie and Ellis married. Any race or ethnicity. 

Pasta Fasul!

By Sarah Gray

​Photo recreations take a turn when the baby of the family learns what photos he's agreed to take again. His older siblings are all too eager to make him oblige!

• Maria
• Tony
• Joey

​Soulmate

By Deirdre Girard

​The mysterious Lorna no longer uses her psychic ability on stage, but Jerry tempts her into one last reading that changes the course of his life.

• Lorna: Female, 30s. Attractive, sophisticated, a bit mysterious.
• Jerry: Male, 40s. Friendly and enthusiastic with a working class attitude and accent. 

The Great Debate

By Tiffany Thatcher

​Which is the superior holiday Christmas or Thanksgiving? Esther and Ezra come together to argue the finer points of each when they are interrupted by Parker who is championing an unlikely third option.

• Esther and Ezra - opponent in a debate. Both are certain that they are right and are attempting to win over the audience to their side. 
• Parker - earnest and likable. All of his lines should be directed to the audience unless noted. 

This Date is Going So Well

By Jacob Weldon

​An overworked barista goes on a date with the most superstitious person there is.

• Puck. Gender neutral. Puck is the embodiment of a red flag. While charming at first, PUCK is very eccentric and standoffish. 
• Reilly. Gender neutral. Reilly is an overworked barista. They have always had a busy week and they are constantly overstressed. They just want to find someone who is right for them, but keep coming across people with red flags 

Untitled World Premiere

By G.M. (Bud) Thompson

• Characters TBD

Oklahoma!

Audition requirements will be announced at a future date. Trinity Bird will direct with musical direction by Kristi Gautsche. Gay Shaw will be vocal coach. 

About the Play

Rodgers & Hammerstein’s first collaboration remains, in many ways, their most innovative, setting the standards and rules of modern musical theatre. In a Western territory just after the turn of the 20th century, a high-spirited rivalry between local farmers and cowboys provides a colorful background for Curly, a charming cowboy, and Laurey, a feisty farm girl, to play out their love story. Their romantic journey, as bumpy as a surrey ride down a country road, contrasts with the comic exploits of brazen Ado Annie and hapless Will Parker in a musical adventure embracing hope, determination and the promise of a new land.

Available Roles

• Aunt Eller
• Curly
  
• Laurey
• Ike Skidmore
• Fred
• Slim
• Will Parker
• Jud Fry
• Ado Annie Carnes
• Ali Hakim
• Gertie Cummings
• Ellen
• Kate
• Sylvie
• Armina
• Aggie
• Andrew Carnes
• Cord Elam
• Mike
• Joe
• Sam

The 24-Hour Theatre Project

Each person will have up to two minutes to show off what they can do (perform a monologue, tell a story, sing a song, dance, perform a special skill or a combination of these things) . Please remember the writers and directors are looking for your strengths but can only judge their reactions based on what they see you do. Anyone age 15 and older can audition. Actors cast in the project must be available from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday, May 10. Playwrights and directors TBA.

Winnie The Pooh

Audition requirements will be announced at a later date. Director TBA. 

About the Play

This play is a faithful adaptation of A. A. Milne’s first book of Pooh stories: Winnie-the-Pooh. Welcome to Christopher Robin’s “100 Aker Wood”, home of all your favorite childhood friends: Piglet, Rabbit, Eeyore, Owl, Kanga, Roo and of course that “hunny” loving bear, Pooh. Balloons, Heffalumps and Donkey-tails take the stage and everyone celebrates at a woodsy party.

Available Roles

• Storyteller
• Mr. Milne
• Mr. Shepard
• Christopher Robin
• Winnie-The-Pooh
• Rabbit
• Piglet
• Eeyore
• Owl
• Kanga
• Roo

Jesus Christ Superstar

Audition requirements will be announced at a later date. Trinity Bird will direct with musical direction by Kristi Gautsche. Sarah Kilgore will choreograph. Gay Shaw will be vocal coach. Allison Tappen will stage manage. 

About the Play

What’s the buzz? The first musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice to be produced for the professional stage, Jesus Christ Superstar has wowed audiences for over 50 years. A timeless work, the rock opera is set against the backdrop of an extraordinary and universally known series of events but seen, unusually, through the eyes of Judas Iscariot. Loosely based on the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Superstar follows the last week of Jesus Christ’s life. The story, told entirely through song, explores the personal relationships and struggles between Jesus, Judas, Mary Magdalene, his disciples, his followers and the Roman Empire. The iconic 1970s rock score contains such well-known numbers as “Superstar,” “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” and “Gethsemane.” A true global phenomenon and perfect pick for schools, community theaters and professionals alike, Superstar continues to touch new generations of audiences and performers.

Available Roles

• JESUS (Male) Rock Tenor. Leader of the twelve Apostles, a man, called the "Son of God" and the "King of the Jews".
  
• JUDAS (Male) Rock Tenor. Arguably the antagonist of the show. One of the twelve apostles of Jesus; concerned for the poor and the consequences of Jesus' fame.
  
• MARY MAGDALENE (Female) Exotic/Beautiful Belter A female follower of Jesus who finds herself falling in love with him. The role requires an actress that can show grace, stability, weakness and compassion.
  
• PILATE (Male) Rock Baritone. Governor of Judea who foresees the events of Jesus' crucifixion from beginning to aftermath in a dream and finds himself being presented with that very situation.
  
• KING HEROD (Male) High Baritone. The King of Galilee; Jesus is brought to him for judgment after first being taken to Pilate.
  
• PETER (Male) Tenor. One of Jesus' twelve apostles; denies Jesus three times upon the night of Jesus' arrest to save himself.
  
• SIMON (Male) High Baritone. One of Jesus' twelve apostles; urges Jesus to lead his followers into battle against the Romans.
  
• CAIAPHAS (Male) Low Bass with Rocky Top. High priest who sees Jesus as a threat to the nation.
  
• ANNAS (Male) High Baritone. Fellow priest at the side of Caiaphas who is persuaded by Caiaphas into seeing Jesus as a threat.
  
• ENSEMBLE (Male) Must be strong movers AND good rock / pop sounds.
  
• ENSEMBLE (Female) 3 Soul Girls will also come out of the ensemble. Must be strong movers who have good rock / pop sounds.
  

Plays-in-Development

Auditions will consist of readings from the scripts. Scripts and directors TBA. 

Girls' Weekend

Audition requirements to be announced at a later date. Chris Dube will direct.  

About the Play

​In this lightning-quick farce, four women travel to Dot’s Northwoods cabin to consume copious amounts of wine, laugh at their lives, trade stories and chat about their book club’s latest selection. However, after the third case of wine comes through the door, it becomes clear there will be more stewing than reviewing. Carol, who is monitoring her temperature for the best “window of opportunity” to get pregnant, gets a ride to the cabin from her husband, Rick, who is hoping the “time is right” for a quick tryst. She sends him home, frustrated, in a snowstorm, only to discover that her temperature shows she IS ready, and calls him to drive back and hide out in a shed until she can sneak him in with a special porchlight signal. Meg, recently widowed, is having a secret affair with Dot’s son, only to find he has shown up at the cabin unexpectedly and wants to further their relationship in stealth. Meg sends him to hide in a boathouse until he sees her special porchlight signal and the coast is clear to rejoin her in the cabin. Ellie, the youngest and Meg’s daughter, would rather not be a part of the weekend with her “elders” and meets a young townie, inviting him to hide out in a barn. When he sees her special porchlight signal, he climbs into her bedroom window and sneaks her out to a local bar after the other ladies retire. The only obstacle to each of the ladies’ secret endeavors is Dot, who wants to stay up all night and party with the girls. So they make sure they ply her with plenty of party favors, and Dot proceeds to pass out. The ladies move Dot’s lifeless body from floor to closet to room, as the bottles tip up, the secrets spill out and the men sneak in. The madcap, door-slamming chaos comes to a head when Dot wakes up and discovers her girls’ weekend is full of men!

Available Roles

• DOT: 50- to 6-something. Orchestrates the weekend. Has a 30-something-year-old son, Stephen. 
  
• MEG: 40s. Dating Stephen. Has a 20-something-year-old daughter, Ellie
  
• CAROL: 30s. Trying to have a baby with her husband, Rick. 
  
• ELLIE: 20s. Single. Free spirit. Doesn't really want to be there.
  
• STEPHEN: 30s. Dot's son. In a relationship with Meg.
  
• RICK: 30s. Carol's husband.
  
• SHERIFF TOM LANE: 40s. Divorced. Newly elected. 
  
• BUBBA: 20s. Townie. Went to college with Ellie. Currently working for his dad. 

The Outsiders

Auditions will consist of readings from the script. No preparation necessary. No experience necessary. Trinity Bird will direct this production. Mandee Leigh Howard will stage manage. 

About the Play

S.E. Hinton, who wrote this modern classic when she was 16 years old, comments: "The Outsiders, like most things I write, is written from a boy's point of view. That's why I'm listed as S.E. Hinton rather than Susan. (I figured most boys would look at the book and think 'What can a chick know about stuff like that!') None of the events are taken from life, but the rest—how kids think and live and feel—is for real. The characters—Dallas, who wasn't tough enough; Sodapop, the happy-go-lucky dropout; Bob, the rich kid whose arrogance cost him his life; Ponyboy, the sensitive, green-eyed Greaser who didn't want to be a hood—they're all real to me. Many of my friends are Greasers, but I'm not. I have friends who are rich, too, but nobody will ever call me a Soc—I've seen what money and too much idle time and parental approval can do to people. Cool people mean nothing to me—they're living behind masks and I'm always wondering "Is there a real person underneath?" This entirely practical stage adaptation deals with real people, seen through the eyes of young Ponyboy, a Greaser on the wrong side of life, caught up in territorial battles between the have-it-made rich kids—the Socs—and his tough, underprivileged "greaser" family and friends. In the midst of urban warfare, somehow Ponyboy can't forget a short poem that speaks of their fragile young lives:

          Nature's first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold.
          Her early leaf's a flower; But only so an hour.
          Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief,
          so dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay.

"Robert Frost wrote it," Ponyboy tells Johnny. "I always remembered it because I never quite got what he meant by it." Cherry, a beautiful Soc, comes to share a special sensitivity with Ponyboy as she discovers that he remembers poems and needs to watch sunsets. At the same time, Cherry's attracted to the older, tougher Dallas, and in a sense she's caught in the violent space between the Greasers and the Socs. While the Socs appear to have everything, the only thing a Greaser has is his friends. As these young people try to find themselves and each other, as the sadness of sophistication begins to reach them and their battles and relationships reach a resolution, Ponyboy's dying friend, Johnny, sends him a last message … I've been thinking about the poem that guy wrote. He meant you're gold when you're a kid, like green. When you're a kid everything's new, dawn. It's just when you get used to everything that it's day. Like the way you dig sunsets, Pony. That's gold. Keep it that way. It's a good way to be. This is a play about young people who are not yet hopeless about latent decency in the midst of struggle.

Available Roles

• PONYBOY - in his early teens, a greaser
• JOHNNY - Ponyboy's friend, in his early teens
• BOB - a Soc
• RANDY - a Soc
• DALLAS - early 20s, a greaser
• TWO-BIT - early 20s, a greaser
• DARRY - Ponyboy's oldest brother, 20-years-old
• SODAPOP - Ponyboy's second oldest brother, mid teens
• SANDY - Sodapop' girlfriend
• CHERRY - a Soc
• MARCIA - Cherry's friend
• MRS. O'BRIANT - a parent
• JERRY - a parent
• DOCTOR - at the hospital
• NURSE - at the hospital
• MR. SYME - an English teacher
• PAUL - early 20s, a Soc

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

Audition requirements to be announced at a later date. Tim Ambrose will direct. 

About the Play
This dramatization of C.S. Lewis' classic work faithfully recreates the magic and mystery of Aslan, the great lion, his struggle with the White Witch, and the adventures of four children who inadvertently wander from an old wardrobe into the exciting, never-to-be-forgotten Narnia. The intense action features chases, duels and escapes as the witch is determined to keep Narnia in her possession and to end the reign of Aslan. All the memorable episodes from the story are represented in this exciting dramatization: the temptation of Edmund by the witch, the slaying of the evil wolf by Peter, the witnessing of Aslan's resurrection by Susan and Lucy, the crowing of the four new rulers of Narnia, and more. The supporting characters are also here: the unicorn, the centaur and other forest animals, along with Father Christmas, Mr. and Mrs. Beaver and Tumnus the Faun. This story of love, faith, courage and giving, with its triumph of good over evil, is a true celebration of life. 

Available Roles

• ASLAN - a great lion
  
• WHITE WITCH - an evil queen
  
• LUCY
  
• EDMUND
  
• SUSAN
  
• PETER
  
• MR. BEAVER
  
• MRS. BEAVER
  
• UNICORN
  
• CENTAUR
  
• TUMNUS - a faun
  
• FENRIS ULF - a wolf, head of the Witch's secret police
  
• DWARF - a servant to the Witch
  
• FATHER CHRISTMAS - a bringer of gifts
  
• ELF - Father Christmas' helper
  
• WHITE STAG - an elusive omen of good fortune. 
  
• ENSEMBLE consisting of Aslan's followers, the Witch's Army and Wood Nymphs.