Chickens

Production Company
United Players of Vancouver
Producer(s)
Susan Mellor
Director(s)
Chris King
Casting Director(s): 
Chris King
Union Status
Non-Union
Project Type
Theatre / Live Performance
Student Production
No
Compensation Details

None

Audition Date(s)
Monday, May 6 and Wednesday, May 8, 6 pm - 10 pm
Audition Location
Jericho Arts Centre
Shoot / Performance Date(s)
September 6 - 29, 2024 (Thurs-sun)
Shoot / Performance Location(s)
Jericho Arts Centre
Submission Deadline
Thursday, May 2, 2024
Submission Instructions

Please prepare two songs of your choice, one of which displays your “comedy chops” and a one- to two-minute comedy monologue. Please send back-up tracks for your songs as mp4s a few days before your audition. If you play an instrument(s), please note this in your audition application.

To secure an audition time slot, submit a resumé and headshot to Nancy Caldwell at nancy.w.caldwell@gmail.com letting us know which character(s) you wish to audition for.

NOTE: Some of the actors may make up a musical band – we are interested in hearing about any instruments you can play.

Project Synopsis
Pal escapes from his woes of bankruptcy and immerses himself in the world of raising exotic chickens while his wife, Liza, tries to keep the family farm afloat. Meanwhile, in the chicken coop, two roosters and two hens parallel the couple’s life and get down and dirty with the pressures of egg fertilization, the country poultry fair and the question of flying. SETTING: A family farm in central Alberta, Canada, 1984.
Additional Information & Safety Protocols: 

NOTE: This is a non-union production with the option to cast one union member on an amateur contract. Please indicate if you have any union affiliations.

The chickens are Liza and Pal's "demons" so to speak, the walking, talking bundles of fear and contradictions that battle within their brains. The chickens also play various human characters.

Rehearsals will be at St. Mary’s Kerrisdale, 2490 West 37th Avenue (37th & Larch), Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and probably Sunday afternoons and evenings, beginning Sunday, July 21, 2024.

Character 1
PAL GRANDFIELD
Age
Middle aged
Gender
Male
Description
A middle-aged, broke Albertan farmer. Pal is a tender-hearted, philosophical dreamer and a whimsical romantic. When facing great odds he retreats inwards and shuts himself off from his loved ones and the rest of the world. He is searching for a sense of power and belonging and yearns to be freed from the guilt and feeling of failure that he carries.
Character 2
LIZA GRANDFIELD
Age
Open
Gender
Female
Description
Pal’s wife. She is a prairie warrior woman of great industry and vivacity, a determined optimist. Liza smiles in the face of sorrow with a vengeance and cannot afford the luxury of anger or self-pity, and never plays the victim. She confronts great odds head on and often takes over where Pal leaves off. Liza is getting anxious about getting too old to have children. She secretly wishes Pal would be more assertive and attentive.
Character 3
BUTTER BALL
Age
Open
Gender
Female
Description
A silver- spangled bantam hen. She is Liza’s heart: she lives in the past, is old-fashioned, religious, and yearns to be protected and provided for. This lonely aging beauty queen is nurturing, sweet, cheerful and lusty.
Character 4
HIS NIBS
Age
Open
Gender
Male
Description
A silver-spangled bantam rooster. He is Pal’s intellect and creativity. He is traumatized by the demise of his brother, leaving him with a profound sense of guilt, fear and loss of confidence, particularly in his masculinity. He is self-sufficient, cultured and elevated.
Character 5
ALPHONSO
Age
Open
Gender
Male
Description
A Plymouth barred rock bantam rooster. He is Pal’s machismo: proud, aggressive and stubborn. He embodies what’s left of Pal’s randy, old-world, domineering, red-neck sensibilities. Alphonso is also very playful, sexy, vulnerable, truthful and audacious.
Additional Characters

STEWER: A renegade mass-production laying hen. She is Liza’s ferocious pride: fiercely independent, a controlling, tough, wary survivor. She is very strong and willing to take on any adversary, in fact, almost invites conflict as a sort of safe intimacy. She feels homely and unworthy of love and uses honesty as a cruel weapon. She is loyal and passionate when she decides to trust.