The Comeuppance by Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins, Directed by Hannah Sellers
Synopsis:
A group of old high-school friends meet to pre-game their 20 year reunion. As drinks and joints help the self-declared “Multi-Ethnic Reject Group” let their guards down, they begin to reminisce and reveal how their lives have unfolded since graduation. It wasn’t an easy two decades, which were capped by the COVID-19 pandemic, and no-one came out unscathed. Looking back, they not only try to see their past more clearly, they have to use it to think about what comes next…
Dates:
As this is a summer holiday season, we are having rolling auditions. If you can’t make either date, please submit your form and indicate all availability between now and September when you could meet for an hour max audition.
Audition dates:
July 22, August 28 & 29
Production dates:
We are finalizing the dates of the production with two different locations. Actors would need to have the last two weeks in Feb available and the last two weeks in January. Some flexibility in Jan may be possible, so please do indicate if you have any conflicts in the form.
Rehearsals dates:
The rehearsal period will be mid-September through mid-December and then Jan to end of Feb. Twice a week during week days (likely Mondays & Thursdays) and then a few weekend rehearsals closer to performances in Feb. Please indicate any conflicts in the form.
Character List:
- There are 5 principal characters and 1 character that normally is an offstage voice, but for this production will be onstage: Simon. Simon can be any gender.
- Actors do not need to be the age of the characters (late 30s/early 40s), but rather should be able to portray the emotional and physical stage of life they’re at.
- This is a diverse cast of characters and therefore we are looking for a diverse group of actors to bring them to life.
- No “US accents” are required. Come as you are.
Emilio: Left the U.S. for Berlin fifteen years ago. This is his first trip back (convinced to come by Simon). He is an artistically respected soundscape artist. Dated Kristina in high school. Unfinished business with Caitlin. Often unable to resist making cutting remarks as distance has given him clarity about his friends, his country but not necessarily himself.
Kristina: Former military doctor and current anesthesiologist, mother of five, and Paco’s cousin. Recently burned out by the pandemic. She is excellent at holding things together for other people and has striven to be a model Catholic, but is out of practice asking what she herself needs. Drinking faster than everyone else.
Caitlin: Works hard to be the helpful friend, the loyal patriot, and the “non-judgmental” community member. She’s Paco’s former high school girlfriend, but married an older man, an ex-cop with conservative politics. Unable to have kinds of her own, she helped raise his kids from a previous marriage. Skilled at performing contentment with her marriage and stepfamily life; less practiced at admitting when something’s actually wrong underneath it.
Paco (full name Francisco): A former U.S. Army veteran who was wounded during a deployment to Iran and has struggled with trauma and reintegration ever since. In high school he was a classic jock, not necessarily a bully but easygoing and unquestioning of his superiority. While at first he tries to maintain this archetype, soon enough his presence pulls the group back toward the harder truths of the post-9/11 era, and his reunion with Caitlin is a charged subplot.
Ursula: The host of the gathering, who stayed in the D.C. area after high school to care for her grandmother and never really left. Her constant smoking is harmless and a comfort as she deals with serious health issues (diabetes and recent loss of sight in one eye). The irony is that despite, or maybe because of, her limited eyesight, she is the one who sees each friend quite clearly for who they are. Never laying judgement while still protective of her own secrets. She maintains boundaries that the evening’s reunion may gradually erode.
Simon: The sixth member of MERGE, who has cancelled on the reunion, but calls in repeatedly throughout the play on his phone. He is the successful corporate worker and somehow also “the emotional anchor” of the group, even in absentia. He is the reason Emilio is there, having recently reconnected with Emilio. His presence frames the play’s history of millennial historical trauma in one of the most quoted monologues of the evening. The actor should have a strong vocal presence.
The distributed role. Every actor except Simon will take on this part: Death. Death appears throughout the play, taking over the body of one of the friends mid-scene. Death breaks the 4th wall and talks directly to the audience. Clinically calm, Death uses irreverent, direct, phrasing. Often brings dark humor. Actors will be asked to show that shift into Death.