M Butterfly

GRADS’ November production will be the compelling, award winning play M Butterfly by David Henry Hwang at the Dolphin Theatre, UWA, presented by arrangement with Hal Leonard Australia Pty. Ltd, on behalf of Dramatists Play Services, Inc. New York. It will be directed by Barry Park, whose recent productions of 'All My Sons' and 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' achieved considerable success. Auditions 28th and 29th July: Venue: to be arranged Rehearsals (Sunday afternoons, Monday and Wednesday evenings) start: 26th August Production week starts 29th October Runs: 2nd to 17th November, Wednesdays to Saturdays. Graduates and non-graduates are all invited to audition. This is a non-professional production. To apply for an audition, please email Yvette Wall at yvette.wall@gmail.com your name, telephone number and email address; and state which role you would like to play. Please attach a CV and photograph. Please prepare a monologue from any show (maximum five minutes). Auditions will also consist of cold readings from the script. There are several challenging roles for male and female actors and some dancers. Loosely based on the real-life relationship between French diplomat Bernard Boursicot and Chinese opera diva Shi Pei-Pu and inspired by Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly, this imaginative and at times shocking play is one of the most celebrated of recent American plays, and the first by an Asian-American to win universal acclaim. It was first produced in 1988 and won numerous awards, including the Tony Award for Best Play of the Year, the New York Drama Desk Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Broadway play, and the John Gassner Award for the season's outstanding new playwright. M. Butterfly enjoyed a popular run on Broadway and when it moved to London's Shaftsbury Theatre in 1989 it broke all box office records in the first week. The play is based on a bizarre but true story of a French diplomat who carried on a twenty-year affair with a Chinese actor and opera singer, not realizing that his partner was in fact a man masquerading as a woman. The diplomat apparently became aware of the deception only in 1986, when he was charged by the French government with treason—it transpired that his companion had been an agent for the Chinese government, and had passed on sensitive political information that he had acquired from the diplomat. This almost unbelievable story stimulated Hwang's imagination, and from it he created a drama that plays with ideas on a grand scale and manages at the same time to be witty and entertaining. Weaving into the play many parallels with, and ultimately ironic reversals of, Puccini's opera, Madame Butterfly, Hwang explores the stereotypes that underlie and distort relations between Eastern and Western culture, and between men and women. Cast required: (Ages are stage ages) Roles for 5-7 Men: Rene Gallimard – 30-50 (lead) efficient, slightly self-effacing, cultured. Gallimard is a former French diplomat who has been imprisoned for treason. His crime was passing classified documents to the Chinese, through his lover, Song. Gallimard is an unimpressive man, who by his own admission is not "witty or clever." At high school, he was voted "least likely to be invited to a party." He is uncomfortable in his relations with the opposite sex, and has had little success in romance. He married for practical reasons rather than for love. However, he still longs for a beautiful woman who will be completely devoted to him. When he thinks he has found such a woman in Song, he gains pleasure in dominating her, and behaves arrogantly and cruelly towards her. This makes him feel for the first time that he is a real man. Eventually, however, he does develop a genuine love for Song. As a diplomat, Gallimard is a failure, and is ordered back to France for giving poor advice to the French ambassador. Gallimard's greatest mistake, however, is that he fails to realize that Song, his long-time lover, is, in fact, a man. When his error is revealed at his trial, he becomes a laughing stock in France and around the world. Song Liling - 20 - 40 (lead) Beautiful, seductive, sharp, playful, cunning. A man playing a woman. The actor should be Asian. Song Liling is a Chinese singer and actor. Although he is a man, he plays female roles in Chinese opera, which is a traditional practice in China. When Song and Gallimard first meet, Song allows him to think that he, Song, is really a woman. Song pretends to fit the stereotype that Western men have of the submissive Oriental woman: he appears modest and retiring in a way that Gallimard finds enticing. However, Song can also be assertive in his views about how women are treated in Chinese society and of the West's prejudiced attitude to China. But all the time he is with Gallimard, Song is merely acting a part. In reality, he is using Gallimard to obtain sensitive political information, which he passes on to the Chinese government. Song shows no qualms about his deception of Gallimard, and even goes as far as acquiring a baby (supplied for him by his communist masters) and telling Gallimard the baby is theirs. When Song reveals himself as a man and testifies against Gallimard at the trial, he relates his story in a detached and unemotional manner, as if he has no real feelings in the matter. At the end of the play, he toys with the distressed Gallimard and tries to reassert his control over him. Marc/Man #2/Counsul Sharpless - 35 - 50, (supporting) Marc is first seen as a rowdy college man then outgoing, sexy... everything Rene is not. Marc is an old school friend of Gallimard's, and his complete opposite. Whereas Gallimard was socially withdrawn in high school, Marc was the most popular student. Gallimard lacks confidence with women, but Marc has been a shameless womanizer all his life. He is married, but boasts that he cheated on his wife only six months after their wedding and has had three hundred sexual conquests in twelve years. He urges Gallimard to be aggressive in his pursuit of Song. The actor doubles as Man 2, an embassy party-goer and as Consul Sharpless, an American, a realist. M. Toulon/Man #1/Judge - Distinguished man in his 40's - 60's (cameo) M. Toulon is the French Ambassador in Beijing. He is a man of the world as far as sexual liaisons are concerned, and he seems impressed when he learns of Gallimard's affair with Song. In his conversations with Gallimard about state business, however, he expresses disdain for both the Chinese and the Americans. Gallimard thinks Toulon has a paternalistic attitude to his employees, regarding them all as his children. The actor doubles as Man 1 and the Judge. At Gallimard's trial in Paris in 1986, the judge questions Song about his relationship with Gallimard. 2 or 3 Kurogo Dancers – could be played by men or women. Contemporary / modern dance ability required. (Cameo) Roles for 3-5 Women: Helga – 20 -30s (supporting) Helga is Gallimard's wife. While the couple lives in Beijing, she remains ignorant of Chinese culture and appears to dislike the Chinese. She is concerned that she and Gallimard seem unable to produce a child. When the couple returns to Paris, Helga is upset by the demonstrations in the street and realizes that she was happier in Beijing. Comrade Chin/Suzuki/Shu Fang - Asian woman - 30- 50 (supporting) Comrade Chin: Pragmatic, passionate, a Communist Official, Butterfly's ‘lady in waiting’. The actor should be Asian. Comrade Chin is the Chinese Communist Party official who instructs Song to spy. Chin unthinkingly accepts communist doctrine. As the representative of the Communist Party during the revolutionary upheavals in the 1960s, she supervises Song's confession of his offenses against party dogma. The actor doubles as Suzuki, a dry, unenthusiastic attendant for Son Liling, and as Shu Fang, subordinate servant girl to Song Liling. Renee/Woman at Party/Girl in Magazine - 20 - 40 (cameo) Pretty, seductive, shrewd, Renee is a student from Denmark with whom Gallimard has an affair. She is physically attractive and sexually uninhibited. She engages Gallimard in explicit sexual discussions. The actress playing Renee also doubles as a Woman at Party, and in a brief scene as a pin up girl. Partial nudity may be required. 2 or 3 Kurogo Dancers – could be played by men or women. Contemporary / modern dance ability required. (Cameo)