January 2025 Casting Call
BILINGUAL (SPANISH/ENGLISH) DEVISED VERBATIM THEATRE PIECE

Seeking actors in greater Philadelphia, PA area.

AUDITION DATES: First round a recorded video submission with a call back end of January.

CONTRACT: Non-Union. Rehearsals February - March in Philadelphia, PA. Performances: March 14, 15, and 16, 2025 in New Brunswick, NJ.

Teatro Esperanza at coLAB Arts presents a bilingual (Spanish/English) devised verbatim theatre piece, exploring the ways that our neighbors and environment shape us and supports our dreams of a stronger community. Using movement, humor, and heartfelt storytelling, this production delves into personal narratives that highlight the experiences of the local Oaxacan immigrant community in New Brunswick, NJ. The devising process will be led by playwright Tanaquil Márquez and director Marisol Rosa-Shapiro.

coLAB Arts (Producing Organization) engages artists, social advocates, and communities to create transformative new work. coLAB Arts fosters creative conversations, connects artists with community partners and mentors, and stages productions that challenge perceptions and inspire action. Dedicated to community-powered projects, coLAB Arts transforms spaces like schools, parking lots, and backyards into hubs of artistic expression. Believing that artistic expression is civic engagement, it emphasizes collaboration, professional development, and creating new platforms for emerging and established voices across diverse communities.

Tanaquil Márquez (Playwright) is a bold Latina artist dedicated to celebrating the Latinx voice through bilingual work that bridges cultures and communities. As the Director of Education at 1812 Productions and a member of its Artistic Core, she has created and self-produced original plays in Spanish and English. A recipient of the 2022 Pew project grant for *Nichos* and a 2023 finalist for the F. Otto Haas Emerging Artist Award, Tanaquil continues to develop innovative bilingual works through her theater company project, La Fábrica. Her upcoming projects include *The Thanksgiving Play* at Villanova University and two original plays premiering in 2025, *Twelfth Night* with Liz Filios and *La Otra* with Eliana Fabiyi.

Marisol Rosa-Shapiro (Director) is a theater artist, educator, and facilitator based in NYC and Philadelphia. She brings playfulness, empathy, and community-building into her work. A Princeton graduate, she studied at Helikos in Italy, where she trained in the Jacques Lecoq method. Marisol's work spans acting, directing, clowning, and community engagement, including projects with Theatre Horizon and Shakespeare in Clark Park. She is a board member of Clowns Without Borders USA and co-created The Most Important Place in the World, an acclaimed anti-colonial work on Puerto Rican diaspora. Her theater company, Soledad Ensemble, is developing The Seven Ravens Project, blending Grimm Brothers’ tales with modern migrant stories.

SEEKING:
Non-Equity actors in the greater Philadelphia, PA area who are bilingual (Spanish/English) for a new devised verbatim theater piece. Performers should be comfortable working in a collaborative, movement-based process and able to portray both comedic and dramatic material. We are seeking both male and female identifying people.

PREPARATION:
Please submit a video audition to victoria@colab-arts.org  with the following:

• Perform one of the provided sides. Memorization is not required

• Headshot

• Resume

REQUIREMENTS:

• Spanish language fluency and comfort acting in a bilingual, English/Spanish narrative.

• Familiarity and comfort with collaborative devising processes that include spatial imagination and movement-based play.

• Availability to attend rehearsals and devising sessions in Philadelphia, PA and New Brunswick, NJ from late-January to mid-March 2025.

• Availability for all technical rehearsals and performances during the week of March 10-16, 2025.

PREFERRED SKILLS (NOT REQUIRED):

• Mexican folkloric dance

• Comfort with preparing tamales and handling masa

SCHEDULE:
Initial Meetings and Auditions (Philadelphia, PA):
Online Video auditions with follow up at in-person call backs at the end of February. 

Likely Devising/Rehearsal Schedule (Philadelphia, PA) with possible additional dates:

• Tuesday, Feb 4, 11am-5pm OR Friday, Feb 7, 11am-5pm

• Thursday, Feb 6, 11am-5pm

• Tuesday, Feb 11, 11am-5pm OR Friday, Feb 14, 11am-5pm

• Thursday, Feb 13, 11am-5pm

• Tuesday, Feb 18, 11am-5pm

• Thursday, Feb 20, 11am-5pm

• Tuesday, Feb 25, 11am-5pm

• Thursday, Feb 27, 11am-5pm

Full-day rehearsals during the week of March 3, 2025.

TECH REHEARSALS AND PERFORMANCES (New Brunswick, NJ):

• Tech rehearsals: March 10-13, 2025

• Performances: March 14, 15, and 16, 2025

PAYMENT: 

• $1500 for the production

• Housing/meals provided for tech/performance

• $100 travel stipend 

MONOLOGUES– The first is a male identifying monologue and the last two are female. Applicants can select whichever they prefer. Memorization is not required.  Please submit a link to your taped audition, with headshot and resume to victoria@colab-arts.org

MONOLOGUE 1-Male

Um, my mom. I really love my mom. I'm like, closer to my mom than I am to my dad, because growing up like my mom would always, she would just always be there for me, like my dad was obviously there, but he was more of like the worker, I guess. So like, every time there was like a school event or like an appointment, my mom would just always be my mom. And I just remember being like, in kindergarten first grade, winning like, these little awards at school. And it would just always be my mom. She's short, so like, you just always see her, like, with her camera trying to record above other people's heads, because she's pretty short, but she was always, always be there somehow, always get pictures. And she would just always like, provide, even when she couldn't like, she would try her hardest to provide. And like she she was like, always selfless, so she'd rather, she'd prefer me eat over her. Like, there would be days where she wouldn't eat and. All because, like, I'd be sick, or, like, she had to take care of my other siblings or something. But yeah, I feel like she really inspired me, because, like, she didn't really have much growing up, and she was one of five, so it was like she didn't really receive that much attention, because she was always she told me she she used to work from like, the age she was seven till when she left Mexico, because her dad died, like, at a young age, so she just always had to do everything herself. And, like, I really looked up to it, because, you know, like, that's not an easy life to have so and from there, like, she's just always been there for me. And she's never really like everything I everything I picked up, like every single different activity I would do, she would just always be there supporting me. She would find stuff for me to do if I didn't have anything to do, and she's always supportive of everything I did.

MONOLOGUE 2-Female

Yo sabía que al norte se iba contactando a un coyote. Y era como, ok, está bien, me voy. ¿A quién contactamos? ¿Quién me lleva? Y eso me marcó, sabes, porque me di cuenta de que la ignorancia mata. A veces suena fuerte, pero es así. Cuando yo regreso y veo eso, es como, wow, qué tan ignorante era. Ni siquiera sabía que había un proceso para venir a Estados Unidos. O tal vez lo habría escuchado, no sé, pero yo sabía que no había manera, ¿no? Pero no recuerdo ni siquiera haberlo escuchado. En ese pueblo la única manera que sabían de venir a Estados Unidos era esa. Entonces, pues ya contactas a las personas y te dicen, sí, te llevo, no… Ah, ok. Recuerdo que yo me vine en el final del 95, en diciembre del 95, y me recuerdo que habían dicho que era un invierno muy muy fuerte en aquellos años. Y algunas personas que iban a venir dijeron, no, porque tenemos temor al frío, no… Había noticias de que la gente moría o cosas así. Pero yo ya estaba determinada y eso no me asustó, simplemente yo tengo que llegar, tengo que irme. Además, éramos jóvenes, tú no piensas en los peligros. Tú te vienes y tú tienes una meta y punto, entonces pues ya emprendí el camino.

MONOLOGUE 3- Female

¡Oh my God! Es una tremenda historia. Bueno mi esposo lo conocí yo hace como dieciséis, diecisiete años. No mentira yo llevo más de veinte años aquí Flor. Dieciocho años tengo de conocer a mi esposo porque ya la hija de mi cuñada ya, ya tiene dieciocho la chamaca. Yo a él lo conocí en la calle, iba con su hijo. El tiene un hijo de tres añitos cuando me junté con él, su hijo no tiene a su mamá verdad. Entonces, eh, él pregunta a mi prima que si estoy soltera. Y mi prima le dice que si, le dice, “me puede dar el número de teléfono para hablar con ella,” y mi prima dijo “si, si ella quiere hablar con usted, bien.” Y ahí empezamos a hablar por teléfono como tres meses. Y después de tres meses empecé a salir con él. Y de ahí surgió que mi prima se dio cuenta que yo salía con él, y por razones que ella se iba a encontrar con la ex mujer de él, me terminó corriendo a mi de su casa. Mi prima, a los quince días que ella se dio cuenta que ya empezaba a salir con él ya así más frecuente, me corrió. A medio mes, me botó de su casa, y me dijo, “aquí no quiero que me vengas a dar una queja de que el te pego, que te hizo esto, que si, que se yo, porque no te voy a apoyar,” me dijo. Y pues gracias a Dios yo nunca le di esa preocupación a ella, ni a darle que saber de mis problemas. Yo no tengo problemas con mi pareja. Gracias a Dios por ponerlo en mi camino porque, porque gracias a él porque él paga los gastos de la casa.