UIS Theatre to hold open auditions for upcoming performances of "How I Learned to Drive"

The Theatre program at the University of Illinois Springfield (UIS Theatre) will hold open auditions and crew interviews for their upcoming production of Paula Vogel’s 1998 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama How I Learned to Drive on Sun., Jan. 26 and Mon., Jan. 27 in The Studio Theatre at UIS.

Crew interviews will begin at 6 p.m., followed by auditions at 7 p.m. both nights. Roles and crew positions are open to students, faculty, staff, and community members. Scripts are available for limited check-out at the Brookens Library reserves desk. Callbacks will take place on Tues., Jan. 28.

How I Learned to Drive takes an un-flinching look at "the gifts we receive from people who hurt us,” according to Vogel. The play’s protagonist, Li'l Bit, "received the gift of how to survive," from a surprising source. Through a non-linear series of emotional, and often times funny flashbacks and recollections, Li’l Bit takes the audience on a ride that explores how a family, a culture, and a society contributed to an inappropriate relationship. This thrilling ride has been described by Dramatists Play Service as “a wildly funny, surprising and devastating tale of survival as seen through the lens of a troubling relationship between a young girl and an older man.”

UIS Associate Professor of Theatre Missy Thibodeaux-Thompson will direct How I Learned to Drive, which runs April 11-13 and 17-19, 2014. Roles are available for a minimum of three women and two men. Actors are needed for the following roles: Li’l Bit (a woman who plays an age-range from early teens to early 40s); Peck (a man from 30s to 40s—some flexibility in age is possible); Male Greek Chorus (1 or more actors to play grandfather, waiter, high school boys); Female Greek Chorus (1 or more actors to play mother, Aunt Mary, high school girls); and Teenage Greek Chorus (1 or more actors to play grandmother, high school girls, and the voice of 11-year-old Li’l Bit). Casting of the “Greek Chorus” roles is flexible.

For more information on the production, contact Missy Thibodeaux-Thompson at 217/206-8307 or mthom1@uis.edu. You can also visit the UIS Theatre website.