Auditions: Peter and the Starcatcher

Peter and the Starcatcher

Based on the novel Peter And The Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson.  
Adapted for the stage by Rick Elice.

Directed by: John A.C. Kennedy

Audition Dates and Information

  1. Audition dates are December 19 and 20 at 7:00pm, Rehearsals will begin in January
  2. Sign up for an audition time slot. Audition sides are below.
  3. We also ask that you please submit, prior to your audition, 1 minute of yourself singing a show tune you enjoy (audio or video).  While Starcatcher is not a traditional musical, there’s some singing involved, and it helps us to have an idea. Please submit to our dropbox.  
  4. Our COVID policy: vaccination proof is required of all performers and backstage staff

Performance Dates

March 17, 18, 24, 25, 31, April 1 at 8:00 pm

March 19, 26 at 3:00 pm

The Production

A dozen (or so) actors will play everyone and everything – sailors, pirates, orphans, natives, fish, mermaids, birds … even doors, passageways, masts, storms, jungles. They also narrate action and memory, giving each of them a privileged relationship with the audience. 

This production will be very much an invention of the cast, working closely with the director and the production team, to develop whatever we discover together in rehearsal.  The script is theoretically written for 1 woman and 11 men — but we’re just looking for a team of adventuresome storytellers, and expect the final cast to be a fairly even balance.

The Story

Peter & The Starcatcher is the story of an orphan and his mates, shipped off from Victorian England to a distant island. At sea, the boys are discovered by a precocious girl named Molly, a Starcatcher-in-training, who realizes the ship carries a powerful and dangerous celestial substance. When the ship is taken over by pirates – led by a villain determined to claim the treasure for his ambitions of world domination – the journey quickly becomes fraught with danger, sword fights, crocodiles and mermaids.

The Tony Award-winning, magical and hilarious adventure reveals the origins of Peter Pan, Wendy, the Lost Boys, Captain Hook-and a far-off place known as Neverland.

The Casting

NOTE ON CASTING – The characters (or most) have specific genders and age ranges… but these will not dictate the casting. We’ll be looking for the performer who best embodies the spirit of each character – so adults may play children, women may play men… and everyone will play a mermaid.   

THE ORPHANS

BOY/PETER (M, 13): A boy who doesn’t miss much. Nameless, homeless, and friendless at the beginning of the play and a hero by the end. A survivor. More than anything in the world, he wants a home and a family. If he could grow up, he’d fall for Molly in a big way. But it’ll never happen.

PRENTISS (M, 12-14):  Ambitious, hyper-articulate, logical; yearns to be a leader, even as he knows in his heart that he never shall be one. A bit of a blow hard with just the teeny-tiniest touch of cowardice.

TED (M, 12-14): Obsessed with food: the eating of, the fighting over, the dreaming about. A natural actor, an easy wit, perhaps a future poet. Called “Tubby” by Prentiss, though not due to girth, of which orphans, given their meager diets, have very little indeed.

THE BRITISH SUBJECTS

LORD LEONARD ASTER (M, 40-50): The very model of a Victorian English gentleman, loyal subject to the Queen, devoted father, faithful friend. Also, and not irrelevant to our story, Lord Aster is a Starcatcher-dedicated to protecting the Earth and all who dwell thereon from the awesome power of starstuff.

MOLLY ASTER (F, 13): A true leader at a time when girls are mostly followers. Will risk everything for the sake of Doing Right. Curious, intelligent, beginning to feel things she doesn’t yet understand-romantic longings that revert to childish tantrums under pressure-because, after all, she’s a thirteen-year-old kid. She’ll be a great woman one day.

MRS. BUMBRAKE (F, 40-60): Molly’s nanny. British to the bone. Still has enough of her girlish charm to turn a sailor’s head and leaven his dreams. Stiff in the lip, loose in the hip, fun on a ship.

CAPTAIN ROBERT FALCON SCOTT (M, 20-40): Captain of Britain’s fastest frigate, the Wasp. Years later, he will lead an expeditionary team to the South Pole, freeze to death, and become the iconic British hero, Scott of the Antarctic.

GREMPKIN (M, 30-60): The mean and malodorous schoolmaster of St. Norbert’s Orphanage for Lost Boys. Likes to keep his boys in the dark, as sunlight is known to feed rebellious notions, and on account of the preference in certain quarters for lads that are white and pasty.

THE SEAFARERS

BILL SLANK (M, 30-50): The Neverland’s vicious captain, without the skill or quality to lead anyone but himself, and always into disaster. A greedy bastard who’d sell his own mother for a ship to command and send boys to their doom for the favor of those who would use starstuff for personal gain, global domination, or worse. An orphan, too.

ALF (M, 40-60): An old sea dog. Something about him appeals to the feminine sensibility-might be his bowlegs, his saucy gait, or his kind heart.

MACK (M, 20-60): A very bad sailor who wants to be anywhere but under the thumb of Bill Slank.

BLACK STACHE (M, 30-50): Long after everyone else got out of the pirate business, Black Stache continues to terrorize the seven seas in search of a hero worthy of his villainy. Famous for his face foliage, he started shaving at age ten, had a bushy handlebar by eleven, and the blood of twenty crews on his hands by twelve. Heartless and hirsute, suspiciously well read, partial to the poetical and theatrical, and given to a ferocity from which no good shall ever spring.

SMEE (M, 40-60): First mate to Black Stache. Single-mindedly dedicated to his captain’s every whim. His motto: ‘”Tis good to be busy.”

SANCHEZ (M, 20-60): A hardworking Spanish pirate with an identity crisis.

THE NATIVES

FIGHTING PRAWN (M, 40-60): King of the Mollusks, son of Jumbo Prawn and Littleneck Clam. Kidnapped by British sailors and brought in chains to England, he served as sous-chef in a country estate in Derbyshire, where, for no good reason, he learned Italian wines and mastered Italian cuisine. Since returning to his island kingdom, he vengefully murders any English with the temerity to land on his Mollusk Isle domain.

HAWKING CLAM (M, 15-30): Son of Fighting Prawn and Sweet’n’Sour Shrimp. One day, he will ascend the Clam throne as head of the Royal Clam Clan.

TEACHER (any gender/20’s +): Formerly a salmon, now an ancient, knowledgeable mermaid.

Audition Sides