Richard III auditions

Registration is now open for Richard III auditions.

Sedos’ first play of the 2024 season will be a two-week production of Richard III, by William Shakespeare, which will be staged at the Bridewell Theatre from 9-18 May 2024.

KEY INFO

Pre-audition workshop: Sat 6 Jan (11am-1pm)
Auditions: Tue 9 Jan (7pm-10pm), Wed 10 Jan (7pm-10pm), Sat 13 Jan (10am-5pm)
Recalls: Sat 20 Jan (10am-5pm)
Rehearsals: Mon (7-10pm), Wed (7pm-10pm) and Sat (10am-5pm) from Sat 10 Feb

Read the full audition notice, then sign up at membership.sedos.co.uk

Any queries? Please email us at richard3@sedos.co.uk

INTRODUCTION FROM THE DIRECTOR

This is a production that has been 5 years in the making for me. I first prepared this interpretation of Richard III in 2018 for a director’s school interview, where I was asked to pitch a modern retelling of a Shakespeare play of my choice. The concept below was what I came up with, and though I didn’t get into director’s school, I became determined to fully realise this version on stage, rather than have it remain hypothetical.

Personally, I have often found Shakespeare to be a tad inaccessible, and my aim with this production is to bring it into a modern setting, retaining the language and poetry of Shakespeare, but using more familiar surroundings and characters to allow audiences like me to connect properly with themes and messages of Richard III.

ABOUT THE SHOW

Richard III is one of Shakespeare’s most famous history plays and follows the machinations of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, as he attempts to clear the obstacles between himself and the throne of England in the years following the War of the Roses.

Our production will do away with the duels and pitched battles, with grandly dressed kings, queens, and nobles and instead takes us to the modern seat of power in the United Kingdom: Westminster. We will take the themes of Richard III, namely ambition, betrayal, political machination, appearance versus reality and the accrual of personal power, and see them reflected in the politics of the British Government and the Conservative Party over the last few years in the wake of the Brexit Referendum. Real life has provided our inspiration for the character of Richard III - we will explore the parallels between the machiavellian scheming of Richard during his rise and his increasing desperation to cling to power during his fall through the recent career of Boris Johnson.

With this modern, political setting allied with ambitious technical elements, we hope to tell the old story of Richard III in a new way, one that allows the audience and cast to connect with this story. At the same time, this interpretation will allow us to pass comment on the politics of our time, but using Shakespeare’s extraordinary prose - to also tell a modern story in a traditional way.

Read more in the full audition notice

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

We are looking for a company of performers who value creative collaboration and are comfortable with a degree of creative autonomy. With 40+ speaking roles, Richard III can be considered both a ‘star-vehicle’ and an ensemble piece - beyond the role of Richard, the vast majority of the other roles are similar in size and open to development. Alongside this, there will also be scripted and improvisational opportunities around filming pre-recorded footage to feature in the production. We hope to give our company the opportunity to explore, question and create these characters and footage, alongside the creative team.

As such, we are also seeking to create a diverse company of performers from a wide range of backgrounds, ages and identities to bring a plethora of different lived experiences to this creative process.

Disability

Productions of Richard III have often had an able-bodied actor directed to use physical movement or speech to portray a physical disability - we will not be asking the actor playing Richard to impersonate somebody with a disability and ask you not to do so when auditioning for this role. If you are a disabled actor who doesn’t wish to mask their disability in this role, then we would be delighted to see your interpretation.

We will consider performers with a disability for any role and actively encourage disabled performers to audition. If you would like to discuss further, including how the audition process might work and practicalities in the rehearsal or performance, please do get in touch.

Read more in the full audition notice about diversity and inclusion in Richard III.

SIGN UP

Read the full audition notice, then sign up at membership.sedos.co.uk

FULL AUDITION NOTICE

ANY QUESTIONS?
Please email the team at richard3@sedos.co.uk if you have any questions.

MORE AUDITIONS

Info about all Sedos’ London auditions.