Audition for Emilie: La Marquise du Chatelet Defends Her Life Tonight

Directed by Iris Sowlat
UMass seeks actors of all types for their production of Emilie: La Marquise du Chatelet Defends Her Life Tonight

When & Where:
Audition: November 6 and 7, 6:30-10:30 pm (actors will sign up for one 5-minute slot on either day) 
Callbacks: November 8 and 9, 6:30 - 10:30 pm 
The Curtain Theater, Bromery Center for the Arts

Production Dates:
Rehearsals: Monday-Friday, 6:30-10:30 pm, beginning on Wednesday, November 15, through December 8, with time off for Thanksgiving Break. There will be up to two Zoom rehearsals during Winter Break. Rehearsals will resume on February 1. 
Tech: February 22-29 
Performances: March 1, 2, 6, 7, 8 & 9 at 7:30 p.m. , Matinee March 9 at 2 p.m.

Synopsis:
Most people, if they know her at all, recognize Emilie: La Marquise du Châtelet as Voltaire’s lover. She was also a brilliant scientist who contributed to our understanding of physics. Eighteenth-century France was even more hostile than our society to women who “want it all,” and on the eve of her death from childbirth, Emilie tracks "love vs. science" on a scoreboard to see which dominated her life more. Lauren Gunderson’s thoughtful, wistful play invites us along as this charismatic, daring intellectual investigates her life choices.

Content advisory: Death in childbirth

Audition Info:
For general auditions, please prepare a 1-2 minute classical or contemporary monologue. Heightened or poetic language is preferred, but any type of monologue is welcome! 

Callbacks will involve group activities around sides from the script and the physicalization of the tableaus in the script. 

Note about onstage intimacy: 
The characters Emilie, Voltaire, Soubrette (both tracks) and the Gentleman (as Jean-Francois) engage in different degrees of staged intimacy. This production will have a qualified intimacy choreographer to stage those moments of intimacy. 

Characters:

Emilie: A driven, brilliant physicist. She frames the play, narrating the action and reliving it, in her quest to figure out if she made the most of her life, scientific work, and romantic relationships. She guides the story with a warm and lighthearted connection to the audience. 

Voltaire: French Enlightenment philosopher. Brilliant, charismatic, and warm. He loves Emilie, but he is quick to anger when the relationship doesn’t go his way.

In the text, the character of Soubrette, who portrays a young Emiliie in flashbacks, Marie-Louise, and Gabrielle, can be played by one actor or two. We’re choosing to split Soubrette between two actors, one for the younger Emilie track and the other for Gabrille and Marie-Louise. 

Soubrette (Emilie track): A younger Emilie, appearing in many of the flashbacks. Soubrette often physicalizes Emilie’s story in moments when present-day Emilie cannot make physical contact with others. 

Soubrette (other characters): Plays Gabrielle (Emilie’s daughter, who calls her out for not giving her the same life choices she gave herself, bold and direct), Marie-Louise (Voltaire’s adult niece who he has an affair with, an ingenue), and a few other ensemble roles. In the text, the character of the Gentleman, who portrays about five different male characters, can be played by one actor or two. We’re choosing to split the Gentleman role between two actors. 

Gentleman: Portrays Emilie’s husband the Marquis (calm and compassionate, described as being the “earth,” compared to Voltaire’s “fire”), Sir Isaac Newton, and Marain. 

Gentleman: Portrays Jean-Francois Saint-Lambert (a young soldier-poet who Emilie falls in love with after her relationship with Voltaire ends; he is very earnest and adores her; she finds the relationship to be safe and effortless, like “air”) and Maupertuis (Emiliie’s tutor who she has an early affair with). 

Madame: Portrays Emilie’s Mother (traditional, cold, and wounded) and Madame Gaffiney (a demanding, not-too-self-aware, and enthusiastic noblewoman).