Boston Playwrights Theatre 2026-27 Season - Boston, MA EPA (05.18.26) & (05.20.26) (Revised)

DESCRIPTION

Notice: Audition Call Type: EPA

REVISED

Breakdown updated. Descriptions for WHITE PHOENIX updated.

AUDITION DATE

Monday, May 18, 2026

11:30 AM - 7:30 PM (E)

BREAK: 2:00PM - 3:00PM

AND

Wednesday, May 20, 2026

9:30 AM - 5:30 PM (E)

BREAK: 1:30PM - 2:30PM

APPOINTMENTS

To schedule an audition appointment, please email: [email protected]. Include your full name, Equity status, contact information (including mailing address), and the show(s) for which you would like to be considered. Please include your complete availability for both audition dates (5/18 and 5/20). You will receive a confirmation email with a specific time slot.

CONTRACT

NEAT

$475 weekly minimum (cat. 4)

SEEKING

Equity actors for roles in Boston Playwrights Theatre's 2026-27 Season (see breakdown).

PREPARATION

Please prepare a contemporary monologue of 2-minutes or less. If you wish, you may also prepare one side from one of the season’s plays, which will be sent when your audition slot is confirmed. These plays are new and in process! Perusal copies of scripts can be requested in advance by emailing [email protected]

LOCATION

Boston Playwrights' Theatre

949 Commonwealth Ave

Boston, MA 02215-1305

PERSONNEL

EXPECTED TO ATTEND:

Artistic Director: Megan Sandberg-Zakian

5/18 only: Director, Roswell: Taylor Stark

5/18 only: Director, Parallel Play: Carla Mirabal Rodríguez

5/19 only: Director, Jessica of Venice: Josh Glenn-Kayden

OTHER DATES

See breakdown for production-specific dates.

OTHER

https://www.bostonplaywrights.....

You are welcome to email [email protected] with any questions.

An Equity Monitor will not be provided. The producer will run all aspects of this audition.

Equity’s contracts prohibit discrimination. Equity is committed to diversity and encourages all its employers to engage in a policy of equal employment opportunity designed to promote a positive model of inclusion. As such, Equity encourages performers of all ethnicities, gender identities, and ages, as well as performers with disabilities, to attend every audition.

Always bring your Equity Membership card to auditions.

Breakdown

Boston Playwrights Theatre 2026-27 Season

BPT is an award-winning small professional theatre on the campus of Boston University dedicated to new works for the stage. Read more about us at: https://www.bostonplaywrights....

For these auditions, no nudity or any form of sexual contact will be required as part of an actor’s audition. We will not ask prospective participants to perform violence or sexual contact as part of an audition without disclosing this expectation in the audition notice or invitation. Upholding our space as a home for artists, staff, and audiences is an organizational value for BPT. To us, this means that everyone is invited to be fully present here, and everyone deserves to be treated with respect. We expect any person interacting with BPT to comply with our community expectations, including but not limited to:

- Respecting the backgrounds and identities of all people, on and off our stages. This includes age, race, religion, gender identity, and sexual orientation.

- Understanding each individual’s right to be at the theater and enjoy it in their own way while being mindful of those around them.

- Showing appreciation for the facility and those working within it.

WHITE PHOENIX

by Yide Cai

Directed by Dmitry Troyanovsky

Rehearses 10/5-11/4, Previews 11/5-11/6, Performances 11/7-11/22

SYNOPSIS: An epic family drama that spans decades and continents – told by two actors in one room. White Phoenix follows Li CunYi, a Chinese orphan who makes a promise to reunite with his sister, Li CunXin, who is adopted by an American family. As CunYi grows into adulthood in China, he becomes involved with the daughter of a powerful political family, who both aids and manipulates the search for
his sister. Meanwhile, CunXin, renamed Annie Bradford, comes of age in America within a prominent senatorial dynasty, and begins a secret romance with the senator’s son. When their parallel journeys finally converge, the long-awaited and fraught reunion between the siblings and their political partners mirrors the conflicted, intense, and incestuous partnership between China and America.

SEEKING:

TRACK ONE - Li CunYi(李存义) : male, Chinese, age 25, a Chinese orphan who sacrifices everything to reunite with his sister, including himself and his sister Doubles as Gabriel Bradford: male, white American, the son of the Senator Bradford, from a prominent
American political dynasty

TRACK TWO - Li CunXin(李存信), female, age 19, Chinese, English name Annie Bradford, a Chinese orphan who sacrifices everything to reunite with her brother, including herself and her brother. Doubles as Zhao YanYan(赵燕燕), female, Chinese, the daughter of the chairman of congress of China, from a prominent Chinese political dynasty

JESSICA OF VENICE

by Rachel Beth Greene

Directed by Josh Glenn-Kayden

Rehearses 10/12-11/11, Previews 11/12-11/13, Performances 11/14-11/22

SYNOPSIS: Convening in a forgotten library, a group of Orthodox Jewish schoolgirls discover a banned copy of The Merchant of Venice and become fascinated with Jessica, the rebellious runaway daughter. Most enamored of all is the discontented Shaina, who dreams of a big world just beyond her community and crushes on a Christian boy from her drivers-ed class. Lines between harsh reality and forbidden fiction begin to blur as Shaina walks a dangerous tightrope between religious and secular worlds. Set in the present day with Early Modern themes, “jessica of venice” asks what it takes to rip yourself from the home that made you, and what – or who – you destroy on your way out.

SEEKING:

SHAINA (CAST) – 17, jewish. Has a "zaftig figure," according to her father. A dreamer, willing to do whatever it takes to build the life she wants. Ambitious, dissatisfied, stubborn, and too smart for her own good.

HANNAH (CAST) – 17, jewish. The new girl. Secretive, sensitive, and cool. She holds her thoughts and feelings close to her chest, but there is a fire deep down waiting to burst out. Doubles as KAIDEN – 17, female. Brooke’s best friend. Spends too much time on TikTok. A follower and fine with it. Smarter than most people expect.

ALIZA (CAST) – 17, jewish. A rule follower. Eager to please and to learn, she buries her own desires and curiosities deep, deep down. The type of student who gets paired with the bad kids because she’ll be a “good influence.” Doubles as BROOKE – 17, female. Kaiden’s best friend. Spends too much time on TikTok. Popular and a ringleader, but with a genuinely kind heart.

LOGAN (CAST) – 17. A bit of a burnout, he’s not sure yet where he belongs in this world. Acts confident and cool to hide his insecurities. Saw “Wicked” once and lowkey fucked with it.

RIVKA – 36, Jewish. Shaina’s mother. Nurturing but restless. Has found herself trapped in a dissatisfied life, haunted by echoes of what could have been.

SHLOMO – – 50, Jewish, Male. Shaina's father. Harsh but fearful. A sort of Shylock for the modern day, finds himself caught between his drives to love and to protect.

RABBI FARKAS – 25-50, jewish, male. An educator, trying his best. A bit out of his depth. He really cares about his students, in his own way. May also double as MR. BURSKI – 25-50, male. An educator, trying his best. An honest, midwestern guy, he is satisfied with a simple life.

ROSWELL

by Gabrielle Franklin directed by Taylor Stark

Rehearses 1/19-2/17, Previews 2/18-2/19, Performances 2/20-3/7

SYNOPSIS: July 4th, 2027; Roswell, New Mexico. Lauryn – government operative, veteran, almost astronaut – has been working for a decade to bring aliens back to Roswell. In partnership with Dr. Hart, a brilliant but marginalized physicist, she identifiesa human medium whose body can be used as a safe container for the alien’s entrance: Guadalupe, a twenty-year-old waitress whose family is facing eviction. The experiment seems to have worked – at least until Guadalupe's boyfriend shows up, giving new meaning to “love will set us free.” Roswell is a new sci-fi thriller that explores what it means to feel foreign in a place where you should be at home.

SEEKING:

LAURYN: Late twenties, early thirties. Female. Racially ambiguous, local to the Area, but not obviously so. (Black, Latina, Indigenous, or Interracial)

GUADALUPE: Twenty years old. Female. Latina.

DR HART: Late forties, early fifties. Female. White.

ADRIEN: Twenty years old. Male. Latino.

PARALLEL PLAY

by Fintan Bracken

Directed by Carla Mirabal Rodríguez

Rehearses 1/26-2/24, Previews 2/25-2/26, Performances 2/27-3/7

SYNOPSIS: Rebecca drops by her twin sister Ruth’s house for an impromptu visit – which is, of course, totally unrelated to the fact that Ruth just returned from the hospital after attempting suicide. But when she finds Ruth shacked up with an eccentric stranger she met on her trip to the psych ward, Rebecca stays longer than she planned. The long night unfolds, fueled by vodka, Stratego, and decades of things left unsaid. A play about what it means to be alive, and what it means to keep going – or not.

SEEKING:

REBECCA- 33, Jewish, Fraternal twin of RUTH. PhD in Psychology. An anxious person.

MIKEY- 46, Italian-American. Loves his mother, loves Napoleon, very into French & Asian cultures. Recently attempted suicide.

RUTH- 33, Jewish, Fraternal twin of REBECCA. Older twin by three minutes. PhD in Medieval Art History. Recently attempted suicide.

SALARY

NEAT $475 weekly minimum (cat. 4)

• UNION
  AEA