The awards ceremony will be in early May, but in the meantime congratulations to all the deserving nominees!

Sarah Phykitt- Set Design (Little Brother)

Brian Katz – Director (A Bright Room Called Day)

Miyuki Bierlin Costume Design ( Little Brother)

Daniel Petzoid- Featured Male Actor (Little Brother)

Andrea Schwartz – Lighting Design (A Bright Room Called Day)

Krista Smith Lighting Design (Little Brother)

Maxx Kurzunski Lighting Design ( Merchant of Venice)

Brendan Aanes Sound Design (A Bright Room Called Day)

Chris Houston Sound Design (Little Brother)

Maxx Kurzunski (Video/Puppet Design) Specialties (A Bright Room Called Day)

Pauline Luppert (Video Design) Specialties (Little Brother);

The Play About the Baby (Ensemble)

Linda Ayres-Frederick Principal Female (The Play About The Baby)

Richard Aiello Principal Male-Straight (The Play About The Baby)

Overall Production – The Play About the Baby

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE NOMINEES!

Sign up using our online scheduler at:
https://instant-scheduling.com/sch.php?kn=360707

Auditions for NEXT TO NORMAL only are Sat, March 16th from 10-2. (see more info below) Auditions for the rest of the season: Peter/Wendy, The Pain and the Itch, Top Girls, The Crucible

are Saturday March 16th, 2-6; Sunday March 17th 2-7pm; and Monday March 18th 6:30-10pm.

non-AEA only at generals.

This is for performers who wish to be considered for the 4 non-musical shows in Custom Made’s 2013/14 Season:
Please prepare two, 2-minute contrasting monologues. You will be cut off after 4 minutes, so please prepare accordingly.

Please bring four (4) copies of your headshots and resume, to be distributed to each director.
Should you need to cancel, please give us at least 24 hours notice and you MUST call us at 415.798.CMTC (2628) or write us at info@custommade.org to cancel. Otherwise, you may be disqualified for future consideration.
Performers interested in BOTH “Next to Normal” and the non-musical shows will need to audition both days.

Part/Date Breakdown:
“Peter/Wendy”
Begins rehearsal Oct ’13, performs Nov-Dec

NOTE: For “Peter/Wendy” all roles can be played by any gender or ethnicity or age. All actors must have strong composition and movement sense and be good with narrative text. The full cast wears pajamas and is onstage for most of the time. Most importantly, we will be casting towards the whole ensemble and anyone should be considered for every role. The story is the same familiar story, but the tone, rhythm and whole idea should be new (based on who the performers wind up being). They’ll play:

1.Peter – a boy. But he plays it as an adult – honest, sincere, maybe a little sallow, maybe a little elfish.
2.Wendy – awoken in the night.
3.Tinkerbell – a light.
4.Tiger Lily – She is a wildflower, and maternal as a new teen mom.
5.A Lost Boy/A Mermaid – The lost boy is blind, he wanders around all the time and his footprints trace the map of a child’s mind. The mermaid is evil.
6.Mr. Darling/Smee – Mr. is Wendy’s father, and replete with financial wisdom. Smee is the sweetest one in the play.
7.Mrs. Darling/Hook – Mrs. is Wendy’s mother, and much a dreamer. Hook is the flag pole on which the whole play waves, an emotional man.

“The Pain and the Itch”
Begins rehearsals Dec 13, performs Jan-Feb ’14

1. Mr. Hadil – M North African accent. 30s-50s.
2. Kelly, F, late 20s to late 30s
3. Clay, married to Kelly, M, late 20s to late 30s
4. Cash, Clay’s brother, M, one year older than Clay
5. Kalina, Cash’s girlfriend, F, Eastern European accent, 23 but looks younger
6.Carol, mother of Clay and Cash, F, 50s to 60s

Top Girls
Begins rehearsals late Jan ’14, performs March-April ’14

1.Marlene, F, 35-45, English dialect, director of Top Girls Employment Agency, London.
2. Isabella Bird/Joyce/Mrs. Kidd, F, 35-45, English dialect(s), 19th century traveler/Marlene’s sister/Spouse of disgruntled employee at Top Girls, Mr. Kidd.
3.Lady Nijo/Win, F, 25-35, Asian, Japanese & English dialect, 13th century Japanese courtesan and Buddhist nun/Employee at Top Girls Agency, London.
4.Dull Gret/Angie, F, 16-25, English dialect, Dulle Griet of Brueghel’s painting/16 year old niece to Marlene, Joyce’s daughter.
5.Pope Joan/Louise, F, 35-55, English dialect, Pope in year 854/Applicant to Top Girls Agency.
6.Patient Griselda/Nell/Jeanine, F, 20-45, English dialect (s), Obedient wife in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales/Employee at Top Girls Agency, London/Applicant to Top Girls.
7. Waitress/Kit/Shona, F, 12-25, English dialect (s), Waitress/12 year old daughter to Joyce/Applicant to Top Girls Agency.

The Crucible:
Begins rehearsals April ’14, performs May-June ’14

Men:
1. Reverand Parris, 35-50
2. Thomas Putnam/Governor Danforth 45-65, we need a stellar actor here- it’s the role of a lifetime for the right person
3. John Proctor, 30-45
4. Giles Corey, 60+
5. John Hale, 25-40
6. Ezekiel Cheever, 25-35
7. Marshall Herrick, 25-35
8. Francis Nurse/Judge Hawthorne, 45-60

Women:
1. Betty Parris/Elizabeth Proctor- we need an actress who can play young, but is probably 25-35
2. Tituba, 30-50, must be African American
3. Abigail Williams, 18-30
4. Betty Paris, 15-20
5. Ann Putnam/Sarah Good, 40-60
6. Mercy Lewis, 18-30
7. Mary Warren, 18-30
8. Rebecca Nurse/Martha Corey

NEXT TO NORMAL  info:
Directed by Brian Katz
Musical Direction by Armando Fox

Sign up using our online scheduler at:
https://instant-scheduling.com/sch.php?kn=360707

Performances:
Sept 13 – Oct 13
Can extend until Oct 27
Thurs-Sun

Rehearsals begin mid-August.

We are looking to cast the following roles: (***note: ages are playable ages.)

DAN Diana’s husband. Handsome. Genuine. Constant. Tired.
30s-40s
B3 -B5

GABE Diana’s son. Almost eighteen. Dashing. Gentle. Bright. Playful. Everything a mother, etc.
17-18 yrs old
A3 – B5

HENRY Seventeen. Musician, romantic, stoner, slacker, philosopher king.
16-18 yrs old
A3 – B5

NATALIE Diana’s daughter. Sixteen and trying to be perfect. It’s not going well.
16-17 yrs old
G3 – F5

Diana and Dr.Fine/Dr. Madden are pre-cast.

Please prepare a 1-minute contemporary monologue, as well as 16-32 bars of one uptempo and one ballad, in style of show. We may listen to one or both songs. Please bring sheet music; accompanist provided

Should you need to cancel, please give us at least 24 hours notice and you MUST call us at 415.798.CMTC (2628) or write us at casting@custommade.org to cancel. Otherwise, you may be disqualified for future consideration.

Pay: Stipend
AEA: Not this round.

Here are the titles of our upcoming 2013/14 season, which is our 15th anniversary in San Francisco!  Info on early-bird subscriptions coming soon!

NEXT TO NORMAL
A Rock Musical
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama

Opens September 17, 2013

Music by Tom Kitt; Lyrics by Brian Yorkley
Directed by Brian Katz
Musical Direction by Armando Fox
Musical Staging by Daunielle Rasmussen

Coming off the triumphant East Bay Premiere staging, Custom Made Artistic Director Brian Katz brings NEXT TO NORMAL to the intimate Gough Street Playhouse.

From Katz’s Pinole staging:
“A steaming, fiery cauldron of raw emotion… amazingly realized characters… this is a show with a whole lot of heart, and much to say, not only about mental illness, but the nature of families and human relationships.” -Pat Craig, Contra Costa Times

Director Katz says, “When I first saw ‘Next to Normal’ on Broadway, I fell instantly in love with the raw emotion of the play and the intensity of the original cast. Later that night, though, I had a revelation – that this musical was really a small theater piece trapped on a Broadway stage.  This is what the Custom Made production will be – an intimate, sincere, and honest look at mental illness and how it can drive a family both apart, and then together. We are going to eschew the rock-concert staging and instead bring Dan and Diana’s troubled home to light, with all the secrets it contains. ‘Next to Normal’ is as much a Henry James story as it is rock opera, and bringing this aspect to the forefront creates a much more frightening, and haunting, play.”

We are also thrilled to welcome back Armando Fox, who was the musical director on the CMTC critically acclaimed production of Assassins, which was named a top play of the year by the SF Bay Guardian and Talkin’ Broadway.“
Reprising their roles from the East Bay premiere will be Lisa-Marie Newton as Diana and company member Perry Aliado as Dr. Madden/Dr. Fine.

“Peter/Wendy” – West Coast Premiere!
Adapted and directed by Jeremy Bloom
from J.M. Barrie’s “Peter Pan and Wendy” and “The Little White Bird”
Opens November 19, 2013

“Do you know why I come here, Wendy!? I come here to hear stories,” declares Peter Pan, the fearless boy who refuses to grow up and the protagonist of Peter/Wendy, a new adaptation of the fanciful childhood tale.

Conceived and directed by Jeremy Bloom, a protégé of Tony Award winning Mary Zimmerman (“Metamorphoses” & “The White Snake”) the plight of Peter takes on new life in an anxiety-ridden, deadly adventurous world of love, fairy dust and twilight. The pajama-clad performers, an exuberant ensemble of lost boys, pirates, fairies, and mermaids, explore familiar text compiled from the J.M. Barrie novels, “Peter Pan and Wendy” and “The Little White Bird.” Featuring Bloom’s signature low-tech, inventive image staging, Peter/Wendy reveals the nuances of Neverland.

“While researching Barrie’s novels for a different play,” said Bloom, “I was struck by how deeply exhilarating and dark the text is on a psychological level, beyond the animatronic and animated portrayals of the story we grew up watching.”

Custom Made is proud to bring Mr. Bloom to the Bay Area in this West Coast Premiere, which also continues the company’s collaboration with the cell, a Chelsea NYC based theatre and salon. Custom Made is currently co-producing a reading series at the cell and will mount Mark Eisman’s “Sightlines” there in October, a project that was presented last summer in “Studio, CMTC.” “Peter/Wendy” will be produced at the cell, in association with Custom Made, beginning May 30th.

Show #3 – Custom Made’s 15th Anniversary Season

We are thrilled to announce our third show of Custom Made’s 2013/14 Season.

Check back tomorrow for our final two shows and more audition/staffing information!

“The Pain and the Itch” – Bay Area Premiere!
by Bruce Norris, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of “Clybourne Park”
directed by Dale Albright
Opens January 14, 2014

Something’s been gnawing at the avocados in Clay and Kelly’s kitchen. This upper middle class American couple will go to any lengths to protect their children from whatever creature has invaded their domestic bliss, but the sense of invasion will not stop. As the story is gradually unfolded to their visitor, a Muslim cab driver, his relationship to the events becomes increasingly clear, as does the emptiness of the family’s supposed benevolence and sensitivity.

Custom Made is thrilled to welcome director Dale Albright (Theatre Bay Area, Dragon Productions) to helm award-winning playwright Bruce Norris’ scathing satire of the politics of class and race, in this controversial, painfully hysterical examination of denial and its consequences.

“Playgoers hungry for smart, vicious drama will feel like an itch has been scratched.” —Time Out NY.
“Some moments are hysterical and laugh-out-loud funny while others are shocking and stop your heart.” -Broadwayworld.com

“Top Girls”
by Caryl Churchill
directed by Laura Lundy-Paine
Opens March 18, 2014

Marlene has just been made president of Top Girls Employment Agency in London, beating out her more established male colleague and taking the agency by storm. She has achieved her dream to become successful and the top executive, but what now? A sumptuous dinner, of course, with wine, gourmet food, and five of the most famous and scandalously adventurous women in history: Adventurer Isabella Bird, Courtesan Lady Nijo, Dull Gret from Brueghel’s masterpiece, Pope Joan, and Patient Griselda from The Canterbury Tales. Shocking and hilarious, these six women take the restaurant by storm with stories of battles and high jinks, masquerading as men, passionate love-making, and beating their oppressors bloody.

Churchill’s gift for rapid-fire exchanges, overlapping dialogue and fearless thrust of her subject matter are as breath-taking now as they when “Top Girls” was presented in the 80’s as a scathing attaching on the individualist nature of Margaret Thatcher’s England. Truly, not much has changed since then, and not only the 1% should ask: at what price success?

Helming “Top Girls” is Virago Theatre Artistic Director, Laura Lundy-Paine, who says, “I love this play–for its challenges, for its depth and beauty, and for the questions it poses about the meaning of success, and the accompanying isolation and loneliness. And if we take our lives into our own hands, is it work the risk?”

“The Crucible”
by Arthur Miller
directed by Stuart Bousel
Opens May 20, 2014

Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” is arguably The Great American Play, a classic story of individuals confronting the corruption within their society and standing up for their convictions under even the direst of circumstances.

An infamous allegory for the McCarthy witch-hunts of the 1960′s, the action remains in 17th century Salem and concerns the persecution and state-sponsored murder of twenty outsiders by their friends and neighbors for alleged affiliations with the supernatural world.

Ultimately, “The Crucible” is a study of how power is wielded- and opposed- in any community; this endurable show contains some of the most gripping scenes in modern theater and remains wildly popular wherever and whenever it is produced.

Custom Made is thrilled to bring back director Bousel, whose previous engagements, “M. Butterly” and “The Merchant of Venice”, have been audience and critical favorites. His production of “Prelude to a Kiss” will complete Custom Made’s current season.

Robert Hurwitt, the dean of SF critics, writes, “The comedy and theatrical invention in “Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them” are as zany and pointed as you’d expect from Christopher Durang… much of the comedy is as immediate as today’s debates about gun control, pre-emptive drone strikes and (courtesy of “Zero Dark Thirty”) “enhanced” interrogation techniques…. Durang’s provocative comedy offers considerable rewards.”
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/performance/article/Why-Torture-Is-Wrong-review-4200017.php#ixzz2ICPLYGRi

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/performance/article/Why-Torture-Is-Wrong-review-4200017.php#ixzz2ICP7nWRC

http://forallevents.info/reviews/a-superior-play-at-custom-made-theatre/

“This production evokes new appreciation of the clicking mind behind one of America’s theatrical treasures.” – Stacy Trevenon, Stage and Cinema

“…a polished gem of black comedy.” – Charles Kruger , Examiner.com

Director Brian Katz’s production is surreal, riotous, troubling, intimate and heartbreaking….This is a must for Albee fans and a pleasing outing for anyone who enjoys thinking person’s drama.” – Richard Connema, Forallevents.

Woot!  Come check out what all the raving is about – only eight shows left!

First from Lee Hartgrave, writing for ForAllEvents.com

“The Actors are “Awesome!”… They deserve a couple of Oscars… What a show! – “Wonderful and imaginative!”  4/4 Glasses of Champaign.  (ed-Yum!)

http://leehartgraveforallevents.blogspot.com/2012/09/albees-play-about-baby-compelling.html

And next from Kedar Adour, our Theatre MD (never a bad idea to have around!)

“a great cast… devious and inventive… this reviewer highly recommends seeing another side of Albee….you should not miss this production!”

http://forallevents.info/reviews/the-play-about-the-baby-has-a-great-cast/

Previews begin Sept 7th! Get your tickets at http://www.custommade.org/tickets

A "family" portrait

Oh, what a wangled teb they weave

BOY and GIRL in the clover

BOY and WOMAN - "Mountain Climbing"

From Lee Hartgrave, writing for BeyondChron.com and Lee Hartgrave Tonight!  http://leehartgraveforallevents.blogspot.com/

From Richard Connema, writing for ForAllEvents.com http://forallevents.info/reviews/richard-connema/

and finally a capsule review in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, which you can find here now, but it might disappear later, so here’s the text:

Custom Made Theater presents director Stuart Bousel’s generally sharp staging of Shakespeare’s perennially controversial but often-misunderstood play. The lively if uneven production ensures the involved storyline cannot be reduced to the problematical nature of its notorious Jewish villain, Shylock (played with a compellingly burdened intensity by a quick Catz Forsman), but rather has to be seen in a wider landscape of desire in which money, status, sex, gender, political and ethnic affiliations, and human bodies all mix, collide, and negotiate. To this end, this Merchant is set amid a contemporary financial district coterie (given plenty of scope in Sarah Phykitt’s thoughtfully pared-down scenic design), where titular melancholic businessman Antonio (Ryan Hayes) sticks his neck out (or anyway a pound of flesh) for his beloved friend Bassanio (Dashiell Hillman) — no doubt the unspoken source of Antonio’s brooding heart as staged here — as the latter seeks a loan with which to court the lovely and brilliant Portia (a winning Megan Briggs). While the subplot concerning the wooing and flight of Shylock’s daughter, Jessica (Kim Saunders), is less adeptly rendered, fluid pacing and a confident sense of the priorities of the drama overall offer a satisfying encounter with this fascinatingly subtle play. (Avila)