Posted by Doctor Bird Productions
AUDITION NOTICE: Actors/Dancers
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow is Enuf
Meridian Arts Centre – Studio Theatre – June 27 (7:30pm) /28 (1:30pm & 7:30pm) 2025
Non-Equity and Non-Paying
Doctor Bird Productions is proud to present ‘For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow is Enuf’ for its third and final production of its 2024/25 season .
About the Show: In “for colored girls…” a community of women come together to share stories of joy, loss, pain, struggle, defiance, and vulnerability through text, dance, song, and sound. They form a sisterhood and through lived experiences and/or heightened empathic abilities, they are able to triumphantly hold space for themselves and each other. They are a team of storytellers with a mission; to create a space of comfort and healing where they have immediate access to their love, laughter, and pain. Individually, they have agency but together they hold the universe of this play. “For colored girls…” is a choreopoem- where text and movement work in tandem to drive the storytelling. One does not exist without the other.
Show Dates: June 27 (7:30pm) /28 (1:30pm & 7:30pm) 2025
Performance Location: Meridian Arts Centre, Studio Theatre
Rehearsal Location: St. Luke’s United Church, 353 Sherbourne St, Toronto ON
Director & Choreographer: Jhanelle Jackson
Rehearsal Dates: April 7,14,22,28 2025, May 5,12,20,26 2025 6:30-10pm and June 2, 4, 9, 11, 16, 18, 23, 25 6:30pm-10:30pm
Submissions: Will be accepted below on our audition form until February 20th 2025
- One (1) video excerpt of a 30 seconds to a minute monologue of your choice.
- One (1) video excerpt of a 30 seconds to a minute dance (freestyle and/or choreographed)
- Headshot
- Resume
*Videos need not be of professional quality, but enough to see and hear you.
Callbacks
Will be decided on a case by case basis, and each person will be contacted individually. In this case, expect to prepare an assigned excerpt from the show.
Performer Expectations
Rehearsals are a shortened time period so all are fast paced and all individuals are expected to come ready to work. All cast are only allowed to miss 3 rehearsals through the entire process – no absences permitted during the last 2-3 weeks of rehearsals.
We reserve the right to dismiss any cast members who miss more than 3 rehearsals, and are not demonstrating appropriate preparation and commitment of their material. We will be keeping a reserve list of performers ready to replace any such cast members.
Any questions can be submitted by email to doctorbirdproductions@gmail.com.
Doctor Bird Productions Inc. is committed to equity, diversity and inclusion. As such, we encourage performers of all races and ethnicities, gender identities, sexualities, abilities, and ages, as well as d/Deaf, to submit auditions for all roles.
*** While everyone is encouraged to audition, we are prioritizing performers of Black ethnicities for all roles.
Character Breakdown
Lady in Brown:
Storyteller, guide. An explorer with a love of literature. Stories are her escape. She takes us on the journey of being a Black girl in the world and embodies the spirit of evocation. She carries centuries of stories within her. A conduit of love. She illustrates the path to reveal our power. She accesses her youth and embodies the nuance of a child. She is an explorer and a discoverer. As she learns more of the world, she realizes that the safest place for a Black girl is within her own imagination.
Lady in Yellow:
Storyteller. A woman who can access the spirit of her teenage years. She’s fun, carefree, and likes to have a good time. She loves to hang with the fellas while remaining the cute, spunky girl she is. She’s taking us on a journey of new experiences. She’s aware of the power she has, but is learning – in real time- how to use it as she discovers a new level of sexuality. Street smart. She is learning how to heal when her powers fail. She is a grounded, reliable friend. Sisterhood is important to her.
Lady in Blue:
Storyteller. Music and dance are her love language and what she holds so intimately. She grooves to “mambo, bomba, merengue’. She travels to the Bronx to dance and claims that space as her own. It is her 23 & me. She is a shapeshifter. A woman who does not like being told what to do. Left to make life changing decisions on her own, shame and bitterness are alive within her. She yearns to escape her suffocating environment, she continues to be disappointed by her reality, and she refuses to ever give up on herself.
Lady in Red:
Storyteller. She is a woman who commands attention and takes up space- who embodies those she speaks of with great flexibility and ease. Her stories fill a lifetime. From memories of what it feels like to shrink oneself, to reliving an unforgivable betrayal, she is a caregiver who refuses to remain a victim. Through healing, she accesses a newfound strength to navigate through life. She finds strength in her vulnerability.
Lady in Orange:
Afro-Latinx or Latinx Woman. Storyteller. She is young and optimistic in spirit. She has a fierce energy that is exciting and infectious. Where Lady in Blue loves to access music and dance, Orange is music and dance. It lives within her. She emanates upbeat energy that is infectious and admirable. When she falls, she falls hard. She’s not used to the curveballs of life in the way the others might be. Heartbreaks are raw and intense. Despite this, she is resilient and fearless. As she learns more about the world, she refuses to be shaped by it. She is tired of carrying the tropes of Black women. Bonus; fluent in Spanish.
Lady in Purple:
Storyteller. Time traveler. Goddess. She has access to the past in a magical/mystical way. All knowing- floats on air, ethereal. Patience and wisdom. She has been here before, and she will be here again- long after us. She has experienced everything the other ladies speak of, in her own way. And she has survived. She is the result of healing. She is the embodiment of wisdom. She yearns to share everything she knows with her sisters.
Lady in Green:
Deaf actors are encouraged to submit for this role; storyteller. She is able to physicalize the poems of the other women. Her body is an instrument and the embodiment of the historical and contemporary. Green is a badass. Confident- regal and defiant. She knows who she is and refuses to let anyone take her “stuff” away- which is every aspect of her being. She is not quick to forgive if/when mishandled. Her power is her truth and raw emotions. She’s not afraid to feel. Her vulnerability is a gift.