THE WESTERN RESERVE PLAYHOUSE ANNOUNCES AUDITIONS FOR…
Godspell
Conceived and Originally Directed by John Michael-Tebelak
Music and New Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz
Originally Produced on the New York Stage by Edgar Lansbury, Stuart Duncan and Joseph Beruh
Directed and Co-Choreographed by Emma Figge
Musical Direction by Robert Kowalewski
Co-Choreography by Mayela Squires
Godspell was the first major musical theatre offering from three-time Grammy and Academy Award winner, Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Pippin, Children of Eden), and it took the world by storm. Led by the international hit, "Day by Day," Godspell features a parade of beloved songs, to be sung by an intergenerational cast.
A group of people help Jesus Christ tell different parables by using a wide variety of games, storytelling techniques and hefty doses of comic timing. An eclectic blend of songs, ranging in style from pop to vaudeville, is employed as the story of Jesus' life dances across the stage. Dissolving hauntingly into the Last Supper and the Crucifixion, Jesus' messages of kindness, tolerance and love come vibrantly to life.
Thursday, March 26 6:30-9:30pm & Saturday, March 28 from 1-4pm
If needed, callbacks will take place Monday, March 30 at 7pm with dance call.
At the Western Reserve Playhouse, 3326 Everett Rd, Richfield, OH 44286
Rehearsals:
Rehearsals will begin around May 21 and run Monday through Thursday, 7-10pm and select Sunday’s 1pm-4pm based on cast availability. Please bring all conflicts for the rehearsal and performance process; additional conflicts not noted on your audition form will not be accepted.
Performances:
July 16-26, 2026, Thursday through Sunday. At this time, we are unable to cast actors who have conflicts with scheduled performances.
ALL ROLES ARE OPEN to all gender identities, races, ethnicities, body types, ages, and abilities. No equity contracts are available at this time. All positions are volunteer. None of these parts are precast. All levels of actors welcome!
Roles Available:
***We encourage actors of all experiences, ethnicities and ages to audition. Roles will be cast gender-blind, and the ensemble will be intergenerational.
Jesus: The central figure of the story. Charismatic, compassionate, and grounded with a strong ability to connect with others. Strong singer and actor required.
Judas: Charismatic storyteller and narrator who both challenges and supports Jesus. Strong acting ability and vocal strength required.
Ensemble: A diverse company of performers who portray disciples and various characters throughout the show. Ensemble members sing the majority of the musical numbers, with solos and featured moments distributed throughout the cast.
***while the traditional casting for Godspell is a smaller 10-12 person ensemble, WRP plans to have an expanded ensemble for this Intergenerational cast***
What to prepare:
A short selection from one of the following songs (see below for cuts): Learn Your Lessons Well, Alas for You, All Good Gifts, Bless the Lord. Tracks will be provided.
Cold reading from the script will also be provided
Please bring all conflicts for the rehearsal and performance process; additional conflicts not noted on your audition form will not be accepted.
VIDEO SUBMISSIONS will be accepted and due to education@thewrp.org & august@thewrp.org by March 26th at 10:30pm. Please submit a song selection and one of the below scene selections.
How to sign up:
Please sign up for a 10 minute audition slot below:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/508054EADA92AA5F85-62875340-auditions
If you have any questions about the audition process please do not hesitate to contact the artistic director, august@thewrp.org
GODSPELL is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. www.mtishows.com
Music selections available here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1XS7Q9QJa2MlLIgjtOfgluWUbkO185Bop?usp=sharing
Selections from script:
Please come familiar with at least one of the following Parables(while these do not need to be memorized, they do need to be convincing and intriguing-copies will be provided)
Jesus
Now, do not suppose that I have come to abolish the Law and the prophets.
I did not come to abolish, but to complete. I tell you this: so long as heaven and earth
endure not a letter, not a stroke, will disappear from the Law until all that must
happen has happened. Therefore, whoever sets aside even the least of the Law’s demands will have the lowest place in the kingdom of Heaven. But whoever keeps the law and teaches others so will have the highest place in the kingdom of Heaven.
Unless you show yourselves far better men than the Pharisees and the doctors of the Law…
…You shall never enter the kingdom of Heaven.
Rich Man's Parable
There once was a rich man whose land yielded heavy crops. He cared not for the
people who tended his crops, though they worked long hours and were paid a
fraction of the rich man’s salary.
Yet despite all his riches, he found it still wasn’t enough. “Oh, what am I to do?,” he
said. “I have not the room to store my produce. Ahh, this is what I will do,” he said.
“I will tear down my storehouses and build them bigger. I will collect in them all my
corn and popcorn and tuna surprise, and M&Ms…
And then I will say to myself: ‘Man, you have plenty of good things laid by you,
enough to last you many years. Take life easy. Eat. Drink. Enjoy yourself.’”
But, then God said to the man,…
“You fool, this very night you must surrender your life. You have made your
money. Who will get it now?”
Jesus
Thou shalt love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and all your soul. This is the
greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself. All the rest of the law, and all the prophets have written, is based on these
first two.
The doctors of the law and the Pharisees sit in the chair of Moses, therefore listen to
what they say, pay attention to their words, but do not follow their practices.
For they say one thing and do another. They make up heavy packs and pile them on men's shoulders and they don’t raise a finger to lift the load themselves. Everything they do is done for show. Oh, they go about wearing broad phylacteries with large tassels on their robes. They like to have their places of honor at feasts and at the synagogues and to be greeted respectfully in the streets and to be called “teacher.”
But you must not be called “teacher” for you have one teacher: The Messiah,…
…and you must not call any man on earth “father” for you have only one Father and
you are all brothers,…
…And you must call no man on earth “rabbi” for you have one Rabbi and he is in Heaven.
Prodigal Son
Once upon a time there was a man who had two sons. And the younger said to
his father: “Father, give me my share of the property.” So, he divided his estate
between them. A few days later the younger son turned the whole of his share into cash and left home for a distant country, where he squandered it in reckless living.
He had spent it all, when a severe famine fell upon the country and he began to feel
the pinch. So he decided to attach himself to one of the local landowners…
…Who sent him on the farm to mind the swine.
He would have been glad to have filled his belly with the pods that the pigs were
eating…
…But no one gave him anything. Then he came to his senses (BOING!) and said:
“How many of my father’s paid servants have more food than they can eat, and here I am starving to death. I will set off and I will go to my father and I will say to him: ‘Father, I have sinned against God and against you; I am no longer fit to be called your son; treat me as one of your paid servants.’“ So he set out for his father’s house, but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and his heart went out to him. (Lub-dub, lub-dub, lub-dub, lub-dub) The son ran to meet his father, threw his
arms around him, and kissed him, saying: “Father, I have sinned against God and
against you; I am no longer fit to be called your son; treat me as one of your paid servants.” But the father called to one of his servants:
“Quick, fetch me my robe, my best one. Put a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet and bring the fatted calf and kill it.
And let us have a feast to celebrate the day, for this son of mine was lost and is found.” And the festivities began!
THE WESTERN RESERVE PLAYHOUSE ANNOUNCES AUDITIONS FOR…
A Touch of the Poet
Eugene O’Neill
Directed by August Scarpelli
The first of the late, great, American masterpieces by our country’s one and only Nobel prize winning playwright. The time of the play is 1828. A tavern in a village near Boston. The tavern is owned by a tempestuous Irishman, Cornelius Melody, who is as proud as he is ill-tempered. But his exhibitions delude only himself. He is of humble origin in a strange and unfriendly civilization. He is totally in debt. His wife, Nora, keeps the tavern going; unaccountably, this long-suffering woman adores him. His passionate and resolute daughter, Sara, whom he treats like a servant and berates as a slut, hates him. We arrive on the anniversary of Talavera, where Con Melody served as a major for the Duke of Wellington. The love of Sara’s life, a yankee poet is lying ill upstairs and the hopes of her future, her very own American dream begins to unravel downstairs. The poet's familial disapproval of the union cuts Con Melody’s pride and cuts it deep. A deed must be done and a debt must be paid. But his arrogance continues until at last he is beaten by the Yankee enemy— This deed means the death of the past, the death of his pretensions and the birth of a new Con Melody
[Monday March 30th][630pm-1030pm] &[Tuesday March 31st]from [630pm-1030pm]
If needed, callbacks will take place[Wednesday April 1st ]at [630pm-1030pm].
At the Western Reserve Playhouse, 3326 Everett Rd, Richfield, OH 44286
Rehearsals:
Rehearsals for this production will proceed as follows. There will be as many as 6 rehearsals, scheduled approximately monthly, based on actor availability between April 2026 and October 2026 exploring the deep dramaturgical roots of the play. The normal rehearsal process will begin between September 28th 2026 and October 5th 2026. and typically run Sunday through Thursday, 630pm-10pm. Please bring all conflicts for the rehearsal and performance process; additional conflicts not noted on your audition form will not be accepted.
Performances:
Thursday November 12th - Sunday November 22nd [DATES], Thursday through Sunday. At this time, we are unable to cast actors who have conflicts with scheduled performances.
ALL ROLES ARE OPEN to all gender identities, races, ethnicities, body types, ages, and abilities. No equity contracts are available at this time. All positions are volunteer. None of these parts are precast. All levels of actors welcome!
Roles Available:
***We encourage actors of all experiences, ethnicities and ages to audition. [Insert any additional notes about roles available]
Mickey Malloy - “is twenty six, with a sturdy physique and an amiable, cunning face, his mouth usually set in a half-leering grin”. Mickey tends bar at the tavern and has been with the family for some time and has his opinions about them and knows what to do with them. “Sure, it’d be the joy of my life to have a mother like you to fight for me, - or better still a wife like you”.
Jamie Creagan - “as obviously Irish as Maloy, he is middle aged, tall, with a lantern jawed face. There is a scar of a saber cut over one cheekbone”. Jamie is a cousin to and an old soldier of Con Melody’s. “Let me get away from the sight of him where there's men in their right senses laughing and singing! And don’t be afraid, Sara, that I'll tell the boys a word of this. I’ll talk of our fight in the city only, because it’s all I want to remember”.
Sara Melody - Daughter of Cornelius and Nora Melody. “...There is a curious blending in her of what are commonly considered aristocratic and peasant characteristics….Her voice is soft and musical, but her speech has at times a self-conscious, stilted quality about it due to her restraining a tendency to lapse into brogue” - “Isn’t that a joke on me, with all my crazy dreams of riches and a grand estate and me a haughty lady riding around in a carriage with a coachman and footman! (She laughs at herself) Wasn't I the fool to think that had any meaning at all when you’re in love? You were right, Mother. I knew nothing of love…”
Nora Melody - “ … is forty, but years of overwork and worry have made her look much older. She must have been as pretty as a girl as Sara is now. She still has the beautiful eyes her daughter has inherited. But she has become too worn out to take care of her appearance… Yet in spite of her slovenly appearance there is a spirit which shines through and makes her lovable, a simple sweetness and charm, something gentle and sad and , somehow, dauntless”. “Sure, what's rheumatism but a pain in your body? I could bear ten of it. It’s the pain of guilt in my soul”.
Cornelius Melody - “Is forty-five, tall, broad-shouldered, deep-chested, and powerful... Beyond shaky nerves, it shows no effects of hard drinking. It has a bull-like, impervious strength, a tough peasant vitality. It is his face that reveals the ravages of dissipation—a ruined face...the face of an embit-tered Byronic hero …His manner is that of a polished gentleman. Too much so. He overdoes it and one soon feels that he is overplaying a role which has become more real than his real self to him. But in spite of this, there is something formidable and impressive about him”. “ I Have not loved the world, nor the world me;
I have not flatter’d its rank breath, nor bow’d
To its idolatries a patient knee,—
Nor coin’d my cheek to smiles,—nor cried aloud
In worship of an echo; in the crowd
They could not deem me one of such; I stood
Among them, but not of them”
Dan Roche, Paddy O’Dowd, Patch Riley - “The street door at rear is flung open and dan roche, paddy o’dowd, and patch riley attempt to pile in together and get jammed for a moment in the doorway. They all have hangovers, and Roche is talking boisterously. Dan Roche is middle-aged, squat, bow-legged, with a potbelly and short arms lumpy with muscle .... Paddy O’Dowd is thin, round- shouldered, flat-chested, with a pimply complexion, bulgy eyes, and a droopy mouth. His manner is oily and fawning, .... Patch Riley is an old man with a thatch of dirty white hair. His washed-out blue eyes have a wandering, half-witted expression. .... He carries an Irish bagpipe under his arm.”
Deborah (Mrs. Henry Harford) - “is forty-one, but looks to be no more than thirty. She is small... One would never suspect that she is the middle-aged mother of two grown sons. Her face is beautiful— that is, it is beautiful from the standpoint of the artist with an eye for bone structure and unusual character....About her whole personality is a curious atmosphere of deliberate detachment, the studied aloofness of an ironically amused spectator. Something perversely assertive about it too, as if she consciously carried her originality to the point of whimsical eccentricity”. Deborah is the Mother to Sara’s beloved Poet upstairs. “I begin to resemble Cassandra with all my warnings. And I continue to stand here boring you with words”.
Nicholas Gadsby - “is in his late forties, short, stout with a big, bald heady round florid face and small blue eyes. A rigidly conservative, best-family attorney, he is stiffly correct in dress and manner, dryly portentous in speech, and extremely conscious of his professional authority and dignity. Now, however, he is venturing on unfamiliar ground and is by no means as sure of himself as his manner indicates.”
What to prepare:
[No preparation is necessary. Having read or having a knowledge of the play or playwright is always useful. When signing up for an audition slot below, you will receive a small section of text a few days before the audition along with a description of some context to read over that we will focus on during the audition. ]
[etc]
Please bring all conflicts for the rehearsal and performance process; additional conflicts not noted on your audition form will not be accepted.
VIDEO SUBMISSIONS will be accepted and due to august@thewrp.org by Tuesday March 31st at 10:30PM.
How to sign up:
Please sign up for a 20 minute audition slot below:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0C4BA5AB2FABF8C52-62993889-auditions
If you have any questions about the audition process please do not hesitate to contact the artistic director, august@thewrp.org