AUDITION PIECES FOR WOMEN

2012 Intake

ACTING COURSE
You must prepare two pieces from this section: one Shakespearean or Jacobean piece; and one contemporary piece.

MUSIC THEATRE COURSE BACHELOR OF ARTS & CERTIFICATE II

You must prepare any one piece from this selection in addition to the two songs.

THE GIRL WHO SAW EVERYTHING by Alma De Groen Act I

EDWINA Im sick of all this endism just because were in the nineties. It suits you to think people my age dont have hope or dreams any more. Its easy. You can avoid responsibility. But Im not ending. Im just beginning. The best place I ever was in was Fra Angelicos chapel in Rome. It was tiny. I went in and closed the door. I was alone in there. I closed the door behind me it was a heavy wooden door and I didnt care whether Id be able to open it again or not, because from the moment I went in there I was alone with a spiritAnd if that spirit is there, it can be anywhereYes, were in a crisis, but we know it, were still aware and thats whats going to save us. You cant look for something you dont know is gone!

THE SEAGULL by Anton Chekov Act III

MASHA Im telling you all this because youre a writer and can use it. Quite honestly, if hed wounded himself seriously I couldnt have gone on living one minute. Im quite brave, though, so I simply decided to wrench this love out of my heart and uproot it. By getting married. To Medvedenko. To be hopelessly in love, just waiting, waiting for years on end--. But when Im married I shant bother about love, new worries will drive out old, and anyway itll make a change, wont it? Shall we have another? Dont look at me like that, women drink a lot more than you think. A few do it openly like me, but most keep quiet about it. Oh yes they do. And its always vodka or brandy. [Clinks glasses] All the best. Youre a decent sort, Im sorry we shant see each other again. My schoolmasters not all that bright, but he is kind. Hes poor and very much in love with me. Im sorry for him, and for his old mother too. Ah well, let me wish you all the best. Remember me kindly. [Shakes him firmly by the hand] Thanks for being so nice. Send me your books, and mind you write something in them, not with respects. Just put: To Masha, who doesnt know where she comes from or what shes doing on this earth. Good-bye.

DAYLIGHT SAVING by Nick Enright Act I Scene 2

STEPHANIE You know what that bastard has done to me now? Yes, I know. I know you said, Take it easy, Steph, go easy with this one. But I thought, no, this is the one, Brendans the one. I mean, Brendan, that should have been the giveaway, even if Id missed the Miraculous Medal on the dashboard. But there he was, this vital, vibrant, caring man, who took three months to tell me his marriage was a sacrament, so even though he couldnt live without me, he couldnt live with me. Well I could live with that, right? I could live with anything. Until tonight. I could live with the guilt, and the clock-watching, and the quick dash for the door to make it home before Bernadette gets back from her Ecumenical Tae Kwon Do group. Bushwalk. I could live with being stood up for a Pentecostal

I can live with Brendan and Bernadette, I mean not live with

Brendan because of Bernadette...well, because of Bernadette, the gutless little Mick turd. I can live with anything but this. You know what hes done, Fliss? You know what Brendan has done? He has given me up for Lent.

ANNA KARENINA by Tolstoy Adapted by Helen Edmundson Act I

ANNA If I say the words, its true. I am a married woman with a child, I am having an affair with another man and my husband knows. I am a married woman with a child and another growing inside me, I am having an affair with another man, the father of this child and my husband knows. He knows. That is what people will hear, they will know that about me. Wont they? What can I do? God will not help me, he will forsake me, I cant go near a church, as long as I live I will not be able to. He might not want me here, he will throw me out and where would I go? Who can I go to? There is no-one. Not Alexei, he wouldnt want me with him, he doesnt even love me. The bailiffs will arrive any minute now. Why hadnt I thought of it before? Anna Karenina had all these things. They were her things. Oh God, oh God. Those words I said, ugly words, did they come from me? But I must have wanted to say them. I wanted it over. What am I doing? Whats happening to me?

BLACK MARY AND GUNJIES by Julie Janson Act II Scene 11

JUNE I felt a power in me that made me snap and I was runnin down the street. Gwarnghi, crazy, with anger, that death makin me cry with fury. A black hand pickin up a stone, the glass from the bar smashin over us. A shower of blood! All the Koories shoutin so angry. Voice gone with beggin that mob to go home before they all got arrested or someone killed by a gun from some ute goin by. Farmers 202s stickin out ute windows, all of them yellin at the blacks. I ran with the mob, we arent gunna take it anymore. Im lyin in the glass and two big gunjies pick me up. All the hands grabbin at me, but I was gone, into the bullwagon with its metal and vomitThem fellas bangin on the side, givin me a headache. Merrigans barkin. There was a young boy from the river, sittin bigeyed in the corner. Ill never forget what whites have done to our people, it was all there in his face.

CLOUDSTREET by Tim Winton Adapted by Nick Enright & Justin Monjo Part I Scene 63

ORIEL She cant help it, the feeling is on her and shes furious. Its a sickness, selfpity, itll eat the day and worm into your labour and weaken you.

Sometimes she wakes dreaming of hell. Shes six years old, and alone in the dark, the only one left. She comes out of the tent and runs to the house and goes from room to room checking that all of them are still there, that its not only her left again. All of them breathing in their beds, helpless and sweet in sleep. She sits on Quicks empty bed while Fish snores. She looks in on Lester. Theres no malice in the man, you have to give him that, and she still loves him. Yes, theres a hell, there are hells abounding, and if theres not a heaven, theres this, the sleeping, the helpless, those that are your own. Shes a sinner, she knows, and proud, and angry at God to the point of hatred, but she knows shes made a fortress for her own and for whoever seeks shelter there, and its good, worthy and priceless.

Lester asks why she stays in this tent, as though she knew the answer herself. What is it? The sound of Middle C ringing in her ears? The boy that doesnt know her? That big, old house that fights her? Or the voice of that house that sometimes whispers to her: wait, wait.

SKYLIGHT by David Hare

KYRA Please, please dont start lying! Whatever you do, dont start lying to me!

Of course. Do you think Im proud of it? Do you think it was easy? Just to walk out of your lives? Every day, Ive thought of the wreckage, of what must have happened to Alice and you. But I couldnt stay. I couldnt. Breeze in to Alice and say, Please understand, in my mind I never betrayed you. Really, I

promise you, you have our everlasting love and respect...? Do you think we could have been happy? You and me? Happy like murderers, perhaps. And all the time Id be thinking: the one thing...the one thing I asked him never to do...he went off and did it deliberately...

We had six years of happiness. And it was you who had to spoil it. With you, when something is right, its never enough. You dont value happiness. You dont even realize. Because you always want more. Its part of the

restlessness, its part of your boyishness. You say you knew that I loved and valued your family. You knew how much you were loved. But that cant be true. Well, can it? Because if youd realized why would you have thrown it away? I love you, for Gods sake. I still love you. I loved you more than anyone on earth. But Ill never trust you, after what happened. Its what Alice said. Youll never grow up. There is no peace in you. I know this. For me there is no comfort. Theres no sense of rest. The energys wonderful. Oh God, I tell you the energys what everyone needs. But with the energy comes the restlessness. And I cant live in that way.

HELLO AND GOODBYE by Athol Fugard

HESTER Some of those big-shot places dont serve you if youre a woman by yourself. I wasnt trying for a pick-up. I just wanted a few beers and a little peace and quiet somewhere nice for a change. Theyre supposed to be open to the public! But when I walked in they all started staring and then this waiter comes to me and says they dont serve ladies by themselves. Well, this time they will. Because Ill be a boarder. Ill pay in advance. And then let one of those bitches smile as though shes not also selling what shes got between her legs. Give them a chance to say Yes and I DO because who the hell ever says no put a ring on their finger and they think theyre better! That being married gives them a licence to do it! Im sick of that lot with their husbands and fashions and happy families. They dont fool me. And Ill tell them. Happy families is fat men crawling on to frightened women. And when youve had enough he doesnt stop. Ive washed more of your husbands out of me than ever gave you babies.

Who the hell do they think they are? Laughing at us like were a dirty joke or something. Let them live in a back-room where the lavatory is blocked again and the drain is crawling with cockroaches and see if they go on smelling like the soap counter in Woolworths. Money, brother. Money! You can do

anything with money. And my turn is coming. Bring in the boxes. Ive wasted enough time.

THE GOOD FATHER by Christian OReilly Act II Scene 5

JANE When you kissed me on the beach. I woke up to you, not for my baby this time, but for me. I woke up to you for me. But that was almostto fall in love. To fall in love. To feel that. To have that much luck. That it really could be great, greater than I ever imagined. But I couldnt enjoy it, because of the lie. It felt right, but it felt wrong. Our love made it feel wrong. And then he, my baby the other thing I neverHaving chosen to keep him, to give him life, to make him oursto have him die, die inside me...That wasnt meant to happen. That wasnt meant to happen. We didnt deserve that. But thats when I needed the truth. Thats why I still need the truth. You knew, you knew, but you just left me there. You wouldnt give me the one thing I needed. To pick me up and hold me in your arms and tell me you knew he wasnt yours that you knew he wasnt yours, but that it was all right.

I cant grieve like this. We cant move on like this. Were stick in a fantasy. (Pause.) Youve taken him, put him somewhere he doesnt belong. How can I hold him if I dont know where he is? I dont know where he is.

JULIUS CAESAR By William Shakespeare Act II Scene 1

PORTIA You've ungently, Brutus, Stole from my bed: and yesternight, at supper, You suddenly arose, and walk'd about, Musing and sighing, with your arms across, And when I ask'd you what the matter was, You stared upon me with ungentle looks; I urged you further; then you scratch'd your head, And too impatiently stamp'd with your foot; Yet I insisted, yet you answer'd not, But, with an angry wafture of your hand, Gave sign for me to leave you: so I did; Fearing to strengthen that impatience Which seem'd too much enkindled, and withal Hoping it was but an effect of humour, Which sometime hath his hour with every man. It will not let you eat, nor talk, nor sleep, And could it work so much upon your shape As it hath much prevail'd on your condition, I should not know you, Brutus. Dear my lord, Make me acquainted with your cause of grief.

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE By William Shakespeare Act IV Scene 1 PORTIA The quality of mercy is not strain'd, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes: 'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown; His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; But mercy is above this sceptred sway; It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, It is an attribute to God himself; And earthly power doth then show likest God's When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew, Though justice be thy plea, consider this, That, in the course of justice, none of us Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy; And that same prayer doth teach us all to render The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much To mitigate the justice of thy plea; Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.

TITUS ANDRONICUS by William Shakespeare Act II Scene 3

TAMORA Have I not reason, think you, to look pale? These two have 'ticed me hither to this place: A barren detested vale, you see it is; The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean, O'ercome with moss and baleful mistletoe: Here never shines the sun; here nothing breeds, Unless the nightly owl or fatal raven: And when they show'd me this abhorred pit, They told me, here, at dead time of the night, A thousand fiends, a thousand hissing snakes, Ten thousand swelling toads, as many urchins, Would make such fearful and confused cries As any mortal body hearing it Should straight fall mad, or else die suddenly. No sooner had they told this hellish tale, But straight they told me they would bind me here Unto the body of a dismal yew, And leave me to this miserable death: And then they call'd me foul adulteress, Lascivious Goth, and all the bitterest terms That ever ear did hear to such effect: And, had you not by wondrous fortune come, This vengeance on me had they executed. Revenge it, as you love your mother's life, Or be ye not henceforth call'd my children.

CYMBELINE By William Shakespeare Act I Scene 3

IMOGEN I did not take my leave of him, but had Most pretty things to say; ere I could tell him How I would think on him at certain hours Such thoughts and such, or I could make him swear The shes of Italy should not betray Mine interest and his honour, or have charg'd him, At the sixth hour of morn, at noon, at midnight, To encounter me with orisons, for then I am in heaven for him; or ere I could Give him that parting kiss which I had set Betwixt two charming words, comes in my father, And like the tyrannous breathing of the north Shakes all our buds from growing.

LOVES LABOURS LOST by William Shakespeare Act V Scene 2

ROSALIND A time, methinks, too short To make a world-without-end bargain in. No, no, my lord, your grace is perjured much, Full of dear guiltiness; and therefore this: If for my love, as there is no such cause, You will do aught, this shall you do for me: Your oath I will not trust; but go with speed To some forlorn and naked hermitage, Remote from all the pleasures of the world; There stay until the twelve celestial signs Have brought about the annual reckoning. If this austere insociable life Change not your offer made in heat of blood; If frosts and fasts, hard lodging and thin weeds Nip not the gaudy blossoms of your love, But that it bear this trial and last love; Then, at the expiration of the year, Come challenge me, challenge me by these deserts, And, by this virgin palm now kissing thine I will be thine; and till that instant shut My woeful self up in a mourning house, Raining the tears of lamentation For the remembrance of my father's death. If this thou do deny, let our hands part, Neither entitled in the other's heart.

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA by William Shakespeare Act V Scene 2

CLEOPATRA Sir, I will eat no meat, I'll not drink, sir; If idle talk will once be necessary, I'll not sleep neither: this mortal house I'll ruin, Do Caesar what he can. Know, sir, that I Will not wait pinion'd at your master's court; Nor once be chastised with the sober eye Of dull Octavia. Shall they hoist me up And show me to the shouting varletry Of censuring Rome? Rather a ditch in Egypt Be gentle grave unto me! rather on Nilus' mud Lay me stark naked, and let the water-flies Blow me into abhorring! rather make My country's high pyramides my gibbet, And hang me up in chains!

THE WINTERS TALE by William Shakespeare Act V Scene 1

HERMIONE Sir, spare your threats: The bug which you would fright me with I seek. To me can life be no commodity: The crown and comfort of my life, your favour, I do give lost; for I do feel it gone, But know not how it went. My second joy And first-fruits of my body, from his presence I am barr'd, like one infectious. My third comfort Starr'd most unluckily, is from my breast, The innocent milk in its most innocent mouth, Haled out to murder: myself on every post Proclaimed a strumpet: with immodest hatred The child-bed privilege denied, which 'longs To women of all fashion; lastly, hurried Here to this place, i' the open air, before I have got strength of limit. Now, my liege, Tell me what blessings I have here alive, That I should fear to die? Therefore proceed. But yet hear this: mistake me not; no life, I prize it not a straw, but for mine honour, Which I would free, if I shall be condemn'd Upon surmises, all proofs sleeping else But what your jealousies awake, I tell you 'Tis rigor and not law. Your honours all, I do refer me to the oracle: Apollo be my judge!

KING LEAR By William Shakespeare Act IV Scene 3

CORDELIA Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave My heart into my mouth. I love your Majesty According to my bond; no more nor less.

Good my lord, You have begot me, bred me, lov'd me; I Return those duties back as are right fit, Obey you, love you, and most honour you. Why have my sisters husbands, if they say They love you all? Haply, when I shall wed, That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry Half my love with him, half my care and duty. Sure I shall never marry like my sisters, To love my father all.