York Shakespeare Project is seeking a cast of 30 for this summer’s productions of Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 in late July and early August, at a venue in the final process of being rubber-stamped.
Auditions are open and will take place this Sunday and next Sunday at St Luke’s Church Hall, from 2pm to 6pm, and on Monday, May 10 at Southlands Methodist Church, from 6.30pm to 9.30pm.
As well as actors, folk musicians are needed too, and anyone interested in participating should contact YSP. Either see yorkshakespeareproject.org for more details or send an email to info@yorkshakespeareproject.org
The plays will be told in two parts, the two site-specific productions forming one of YSP’s most ambitious undertakings so far, as Shakespeare charts the rise of the young Henry V while the drama slips easily between the history and king-making of the court and the jokes and bawdiness of England’s seedy taverns.
The Henrys will be directed by Tom Cooper, an alumnus of the University of York, who has been working as a professional director since his graduation in 2002.
“I’m really excited by the scale of this summer’s production and to get my teeth stuck into stories and characters as exciting as the ones in Henry IV,” he says. “These plays explore the character of the entire English nation. Now we need to find and build a strong cast to bring the plays to life.”
YSP chairman Councillor Janet Looker is no less excited about the summer ahead: “Presenting these two great plays in rep – with fascinating characters like Falstaff, Hal, Hotspur and King Henry IV – is the most ambitious project we’ve taken on since Henry VI in 2007. We have a very exciting venue in the pipeline, and we can’t wait.”
The York Shakespeare Project is committed to performing all of Shakespeare’s known plays in York over a 20-year stretch. Since being founded as a charitable trust in 2002, the project has produced 16 of the 37 plays, including all three parts of Henry VI in 2007, As You Like It in the shadow of York Minster in July 2008, followed by The Merchant Of Venice, Julius Caesar and Richard II at 41 Monkgate.
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