Equity Principal Auditions

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 submit.

Yale Rep is committed to an inclusive casting policy and encourages all actors to audition regardless of an individual’s sex, race, color, religion, age, disability, status as a veteran, national or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression. Please refer to the character breakdown and description of roles below.

Yale Repertory Theatre 2026-27 Season – Yale Repertory Theatre

AUDITION DATE

Monday, June 5, 2026

9:30 AM – 5:30 PM (E)

BREAK: 1:00PM – 2:00PM

APPOINTMENTS

To schedule an audition appointment, please email your request to
YaleRepEPA@gmail.com with LOCAL EPA 26-27 in the subject line.

CONTRACT

LORT Non-Rep

$889 weekly minimum (LORT D) – Paid at $1450 weekly

+ Pension and Health.

Housing in New Haven and economy travel is provided for actors outside a 50-mile radius from New Haven, CT

SEEKING

Equity actors for roles and understudy roles in Yale Repertory Theatre’s 2026-27 Season (see breakdown).

All roles at Yale Rep are understudied. All rehearsals take place in New Haven, CT.

Yale Rep is committed to an inclusive casting policy and encourages all actors to audition regardless of an individual’s sex, race, color, religion, age, disability, status as a veteran, national or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression. Please refer to character breakdown and descriptions for more details.

PREPARATION

Please prepare a 2-3 minute contemporary or classical monologue, your choice; preference for heightened or poetic language; material either by a Yale Rep commissioned writer or from a writer in any Yale Rep season very much appreciated. For more information go to https://yalerep.org/2025-26-season/

Please email your headshot & resume with your appointment request.

LOCATION

Center for Collaborative Arts and Media
149 York St.
David Geffen School of Drama
New Haven, CT 06510
Rehearsal Room Studio Room 107/109, First floor, wheelchair accessible

PERSONNEL

Artistic Director: James Bundy
Artistic Director Designate: Evan Yionoulis
Associate Artistic Director: Chantal Rodriguez

EXPECTED TO ATTEND:

Associate Producer, Yale Repertory Theatre, Kay Perdue Meadows

OTHER DATES

See breakdown for production-specific dates.

OTHER

Accommodations are welcome for persons with access needs, please contact YaleRepEPA@gmail.com.

All rehearsals & performances in New Haven, CT

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

YALE REPERTORY THEATRE 2026-2027 SEASON

August Wilson’s MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM

Directed by Timothy Douglas

Rehearsal period: August 18 – September 24

Technical rehearsals begin: September 25

Previews: October 2, 3, 5, 6, 7

Opening: October 8

Closing: October 24

SEEKING:

Set in a Chicago recording studio in 1927, the play centers on race, power, ambition, artistry, and survival within the early American music industry. The ensemble should possess strong command of heightened naturalism, musical rhythm, and emotional volatility. Musical ability is an ideally significant asset for the band member roles.

MA RAINEY

Black woman | 40s–50s | Blues Singer

The legendary “Mother of the Blues.” Fierce, commanding, sensual, funny, and shrewdly strategic. Ma understands the exploitative nature of the white-controlled music industry and refuses to surrender authority over her voice, body, or art. She is unapologetically Black, Southern, and self-defined.

LEVEE GREEN

Black man | Late 20s–30s | Trumpeter

Ambitious, charismatic trumpet player with dreams of transforming popular music and escaping poverty. Levee is energetic, flirtatious, volatile, stylish, and ‘wounded’ beneath his bravado. His hunger for validation and success tragically collides with ‘the system’ and his unresolved trauma.

CUTLER

Black man | 40s–50s | Trombone Player/Bandleader

The practical, steady member of the band. Cutler functions as mediator, protector, and moral anchor within the ensemble. He is religious and grounded in survival wisdom, he understands the consequences that comes with crossing racial Boundaries.

TOLEDO

Black man | 40s–60s | Pianist

The intellectual philosopher of the band. Toledo is educated, reflective, and politically conscious, often delivering incisive commentary on Black identity, migration, history, and assimilation. He sees himself as part of a collective Black future, though the others sometimes dismiss him.

SLOW DRAG

Black man | 40s–60s | Bass Player

Easygoing, humorous, and observant. Slow Drag often diffuses tension with wit and charm, but beneath his laid-back demeanor is a survivor shaped by experience. He acts as a social glue within the band.

DUSSIE MAE

Black woman | 20s–30s

Ma’s younger girlfriend. Attractive, flirtatious, and aware of the power her sexuality gives her in male-dominated spaces. Though often underestimated, Dussie Mae navigates survival through charm, instinct, and adaptability.

SYLVESTER

Black man | 20s

Ma’s nephew. Earnest, prickly, dignified, and ‘country’. He possesses a pronounced stutter. Ma insists that he perform the spoken introduction on her recording despite pressure from the band members who have little patience for him and from the producers to replace him. Represents innocence and the importance of dignity and familial protection.

IRVIN

White man | 40s–50s

Ma’s manager. Diplomatic, and perpetually attempting to manage conflict between Ma and the recording studio executives. He presents himself as supportive while ultimately serving the economic interests of his own.

STURDYVANT

White man | 40s–60s

Owner/producer of the recording studio. A perpetrator of the exploitative machinery of the music business. Sees Ma Rainey and Levee primarily as commodities and Profits.

POLICEMAN

White man | 30s–50s

A Chicago police officer who is the embodiment of institutional authority with a particular charge of keeping non-whites in line. He is ‘on the take.

Soho Rep production of
WATCH ME WALK

Written and performed by Anne Gridley

Directed by Eric Ting

Rehearsal period: Nov 2 – 7

Technical rehearsals begin: Nov 9

Previews: Nov 14 – 18

Opening night: Nov 19

Closing night: Dec 5

Anne has a disease you’ve probably never heard of and it doesn’t have a cure. Her doctor says it shouldn’t define her, but she’s going to define it for you. Watch Me Walk is a hilarious, biting, and compassionate new play about disability, pity, injustice, and family mythologies that will stay with you long after the curtain–or Anne–falls.

SEEKING:

The roles of Anne Gridley and one Adonis have been cast. As a remount of a previous production with limited rehearsal time; looking for performers who can quickly pick up staging and choreography.

ADONIS

Male presenting | 20’s-early 30’s | Open to all ethnicities

One of Anne’s backup performers – the two Adonis’ are, in the fantasia of Anne’s story, her dreamy sidekicks. Part singer/backup dancer, part security, they take care of Anne with a wink and a smile, and likely a sequined top hat to boot. Looking for physically fit performers with experience singing & dancing. Performers must be 6’2″ – 6’4″.

World Premiere
ELECTRA AMERICA

By Kate Attwell

Directed by Sivan Battat

Commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre

Rehearsal period: Nov 17 – Jan 6

Technical rehearsals begin: Jan 7

Previews: Jan 14 – Jan 20

Opening: Jan 21

SEEKING:

NOTE: All roles require strong command of fast-paced dialogue and rhythm. Playing ages and gender identity flexible.

ELECTRA

white female | early 20s

Recently returned home after an absence, she is at once at war with her family and family life, and searching for connection. Fiery, sardonic, with moments of deep emotional vulnerability.

CLYTEMNESTRA

white female | 40s-50s

Her mother. Commanding, larger-than-life, image conscious, she’s a woman who has been holding it all together for too long. Possesses a comedic command of language.

ORESTES

white male | early to late 20s

Electra’s older brother. The wayward son, returning home to his mother’s dismay. Energetic, emotionally volatile but charismatic and charming.

CHRYSOTHEMIS

white female | early 20s

Electra’s younger sister. The good-girl of this rigid, religious family. Invested in appearances. She knows how to play the feminine type that her world asks of her.

PYLADES

white male | 20s-30s

A youth pastor at the local evangelical church. He is charming, polite and controlled. Also sings and plays guitar.

LEDA

white female | 60s-70s

Clytemnestra’s mother. Moves seamlessly between moments of clarity and confusion, her body holds the family’s history. A beautiful, glamorous older woman constrained in her aging body.

THE SEAGULL

By Anton Chekhov

Newly adapted & Directed by Yura Kordonsky

Rehearsal period: Jan 19 – Feb 25

Technical rehearsals begin: Feb 26

Previews: March 5 – 10

Opening: March 11

SEEKING:

Looking for a diverse company of actors to play a collection of volatile and fragile persons. Everybody is in love and is rejected. Emotions run high, hands are smeared in blood, bodies carry pain and experience.

ARKADINA

Female | early 40s

A fast-paced emotional acrobat: jumps from vulnerability to cruelty in seconds. Predator and victim at once. Raw, open, unguarded – a car accident you cannot look away from. Earned her financial security through years of hardship. Loves her son but believes he doesn’t have what it takes to be an artist. Brutal and honest, trying to save him from a terrible mistake, she disregards how this destroys him. Terrified of aging.

KONSTANTIN

Male | mid-20s

Still being born. Cannot separate from his mother. Flashes between genuine tenderness and ferocious anger. Gen Z. Feels everything at full volume. Ricocheting attention. Cannot self-regulate. Anger-management issues. Loses his identity when he loses Nina.

SORIN

Male | 60s

Trying to keep the peace in his dysfunctional family. Trying to avoid alcohol. Failing at both. Heart-damaged, the clock is ticking. Would give anything for a moment of true artistic ecstasy, daydreams about a different life; but his legs hurt, he cannot sleep without pills, and barking dogs infuriate him.

NINA

Female | early 20s

A young Arkadina. Tough, sometimes even stubborn. Starts the play at age 19 as a free, beautiful seagull –a luminous personality, too bright for this small town lake. Suffers two terrible years of devastating loss; returns physically and emotionally dehydrated. Paid a catastrophic price for the

discovery of her voice and would do it again.

SHAMRAEV

Male | mid-50s

Failing estate manager and a hopeless theatre romantic. Writes earnest bad love poems he keeps to himself. Knows he is not Masha’s real father. Keeps his head in the sand. Rubbing elbows with celebrated artists makes him feel like he almost matters.

POLINA

Female | late 40s

Married to Shamraev but still in love with Dorn. Mother to Masha by their affair. Repulsed by her husband and cannot hide it. Insecure and explosive, savagely jealous of everyone who breathes near Dorn. Abandoned shame long ago, she is all fire and ashes.

MASHA

Female | mid 20s

Hopelessly in love with Konstantin and too angry to hide it. A punk who wears her misery in public as a badge of honor, shocking people with dangerous honesty and vodka-fueled cynicism. Living out the town’s open secret, she is choked by the shame of her illegitimacy, resentful of her mother and betrayed by her father.

TRIGORIN

Male | mid 30s

Famous writer. Arkadina’s lover. Stays with her out of habit and great sex — but often feels like her dog playing fetch. His true burning affair is with literature and art. Talented but insecure: doubts himself constantly. Non-confrontational. Feels guilt but not shame. Wants to encourage Konstantin as an artist, but can’t understand why he refuses his help.

DORN

Male | 50-55

Formerly charismatic, brilliant, cynical, and irresistible, now a cold volcano. Fervently speaks against alcohol addiction and the fear of death – suspiciously so for someone who claims to be unfamiliar with these demons. He loves his daughter Masha, but can’t pull her back from the edge. An artist and a dreamer on the inside but too late to change his life.

MEDVEDENKO

Male | mid 20s

Poor schoolteacher. Loves Masha. Lives in hardship but remains an optimist. An oddball. Has scars, bruises, and burns from lab experiments gone wrong. Poet and philosopher in spirit if anyone would

listen. Totaly unseen.

YAKOV

Male | early 20s

Future Konstantin. Loves theatre. Secretly writes a play dismantling old theatrical forms.

World Premiere
QUISQUEYA ON THE HUDSON

By Guadalís Del Carmen

Directed by Knud Adams

Commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre

Rehearsal period: March 9th – April 15

Technical rehearsals begin: April 16

Previews: April 23 – 28

Opening: April 29

SEEKING:

ROBERTO DE LA CRUZ

Black Dominican | M | 40s

The patriarch. Served in WWII as one of the Tuskegee Airmen. Is a delivery driver for a textile factory.

QUISQUEYA DE LA CRUZ

Dominican | F | Late 30s

The matriarch. Married young. Worked in a factory making nylons during WWII. Is now a homemaker and
works from home – laundry and tailoring for neighbors.

CONSUELO GONZALEZ

Black Dominican | F | early to mid 20s

Quisqueya’s first cousin. Arrives in the US after almost getting arrested for conspiring with a rebel group in DR. She was a journalist and kept an account of Trujillo’s dictatorship. Has an accent speaking in English.

SAMUEL DE LA CRUZ

Black Dominican | M | just turned 18

Roberto and Quisqueya’s son. Senior in high school. His mother dreams of him going to law school, he has his own. Speaks with a slight accent when speaking in Spanish.

ANDRE HODGES

Black American | M | mid-late 20s

Lives down the hall. A jazz musician, saxophonist. NYC born and raised, has been living in the building for almost eight years.