Auditions & Interviews

About the plot. Doubting his effectiveness as a leader, the Duke of Vienna temporarily removes himself from his state duties and deputizes a member of his administration, Angelo, to enforce the laws. Known for his strict moral values, Angelo’s first decision is to make an example of a young man, Claudio, who has had pre-marital sex with his fiancé, Juliet, and gotten her pregnant. Enforcing a long-forgotten edict, he sentences the young man to public shaming followed by beheading. This unexpectedly extreme level of law enforcement brings fierce public outcry which Angelo doubles down to in response. 

Angelo orders a major crackdown on the city’s red-light district and, in response, the police demolish whole areas of the city, unhousing many, and spreading unrest. In the midst of the chaos, Claudio sends his friend Lucio to find his sister, Isabella, a novice nun who has just taken her vows. Hearing of her brother’s death sentence, Isabella leaves the convent to meet with Angelo and appeal for mercy, asking that he spare her brother’s life. Taken with Isabella’s virtue, Angelo offers her a trade - he will commute Claudio’s sentence if she will sleep with him. Shocked by this brazen reversal, Isabella refuses.

Meanwhile, disguised as a friar, the Duke surveils the city, observing Angelo’s behavior and the community’s response. He gets into the prison where he gains access to the detainees, learning more about them and their complicated motives. When Isabella visits Claudio and let’s him know about Angelo’s offer, Claudio begs her to submit but, committed to her vows, she advises him to prepare for death. Impressed with Isabella’s conviction and outraged at Angelo’s hypocrisy, he devises a plan. With access to state secrets, he will save Isabella’s brother, preserve her honor, and reveal Angelo for the corrupt pretender he really is.

The Duke finds Angelo’s jilted fiancé, Marianna, and sends her in disguise in Isabella’s place. Under the cover of darkness and thinking the woman is Isabella, Angelo sleeps with his estranged fiancé. When Isabella asks him again for a pardon, despite his belief that he got what he wanted, he still refuses, ordering Claudio beheaded. Hearing this, the Duke quickly outsmarts the unknowing Angelo, sending him the head of another prisoner, leaving Angelo in the dark.

Mastering his stage fright, the Duke stages a public return to Vienna, where he reveals his disguise to the crowd and reports everything he has witnessed. In retribution, he judges Angelo guilty of fornication and, as punishment, forces him to marry his jilted fiancé. He pardons Isabella’s brother and allows him to marry his fiancé, Juliet. In the end, a final couple is revealed when he proposes to Isabella. But before we can know her answer, the curtain falls.

Production History. MEASURE FOR MEASURE was written by William Shakespeare between 1603 and 1604. It is seen as one of his ‘problem plays’ due to its shifts in mood from comedy to drama. In the hundreds of years since its premiere, MEASURE FOR MEASURE has been produced countless times around the world, often when people are questioning authority and the enforcement of morality laws. In the past five years, a range of celebrated productions of the play have resonated deeply with contemporary audiences. Notable among these was Cheek by Jowl's international tour with the Pushkin Theatre, which drew strong parallels to the #MeToo movement and current social justice issues. The Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s 2023 production, set in pre-Castro Cuba, reimagined the play through a vibrant cultural lens, while Bard in the Botanics in Glasgow presented an intimate, stripped-down version with only four actors.

From the Director. During Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court, a group of women protestors dressed in black, with black veils and tape over their mouths lined up outside the courtroom. The striking scene reminded me of Shakespeare’s play MEASURE FOR MEASURE, where, in the last act, two young women (dressed in widow’s black) come to the gates of the city to demand, “Justice, justice, justice, justice!” 

The play is about our struggle with difficult moral questions. The New York Times columnist, Frank Bruni, says we’re living in “The Age of Grievance.” Our grievances have become the central problem animating every interaction these days. We allow moral relativism to give us an out, throw our hands in the air, and walk away from the argument. We explain our concessions through ambivalence. When two people disagree, it's just because they have two different opinions. Who’s to say who’s right and who’s wrong? Or, we take to moral absolutism – my way is the right way and your way is wrong, and since you don’t agree with me, you’re out of my life, ejected, canceled. 

What I like about this play right now is that it shows characters struggling with difficult moral questions without letting them off the hook. Just because a question is difficult doesn't mean we can't find an answer. While there are things sensible people can have different opinions about, like which highway to take to New York City, there are other things—especially disagreements involving injustices—where we need to take a clear moral stance. Some things are just right or wrong, and it's important to figure out which is which. It can be tough, but we can do it, especially if we work together as a community. Not every question has a clear answer, and not every problem can be fixed, but with effort and good intentions, we should always try.

MEASURE FOR MEASURE raises difficult moral questions and gives us examples of people doing their worst trying to solve them, like Angelo, and people doing their best, like Isabella. Everyone is flawed. The Duke struggles and fails. In the end, he comes up with a solution we might not agree with, but we are faced with it nonetheless. It's good to sit in a theater full of people and dwell in the difficulty, the heartbreak, the tragedy for a while. It’s how we recognize the preciousness of life amidst the beauty, mystery, and joy.

—Laura Standley, Professor of Theatre, MCLA

Character Breakdown: 
Pronouns listed below describe characters as scripted. Roles are open to any actor comfortable with them. None of these roles will be understudied.

DUKE VINCENTIO (He/him, any ethnicity). The Duke of Vienna.
ESCALUS (He/him, any ethnicity). The Duke’s Advisor.
ANGELO (He/him, any ethnicity). The Duke’s Deputy.
FRIAR THOMAS (He/him, any ethnicity). A Franciscan Friar.
MISTRESS OVERDONE (She/her, any ethnicity). A Vienna Madame.
POMPEY (She/her, any ethnicity). A Vienna Hustler.
YOUNG PROSTITUTE (She/her, any ethnicity). A Victim.
LUCIO (He/him, any ethnicity). A friend of Claudio. Host of his own show, “The Fantastic.”
2ND GUEST (He/him, any ethnicity). An Extremist.
1ST GUEST (He/him, any ethnicity). An Extremist.
ISABELLA (She/her, any ethnicity). A Novice Nun, Claudio’s Sister.
ABBESS (She/her, any ethnicity). A Reverend Mother.
FRANCISCA (She/her, any ethnicity). A Nun.
CLAUDIO (He/him, any ethnicity). A Gentleman, engaged to Juliet, brother to Isabella.
JULIET (She/her, any ethnicity). Claudio’s Fiancé.
PROVOST (He/him, any ethnicity). The Head of Police.
ELBOW (He/him, any ethnicity). A Policeman.
POLICEMAN (He/him, any ethnicity). A Policeman.
MARIANA (She/her, any ethnicity). A Jilted Bride.
BARNARDINE (He/him, any ethnicity). A Prisoner.
ABHORSON (He/him, any ethnicity). An Executioner.

The ensemble plays various crowds, refugees, nuns, courtroom onlookers, prisoners, and 
citizens of Vienna.

-We are casting an ensemble of 6-12 actors. Doubling of roles will be determined after all roles 
are cast

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ABOUT THE PLAY 

Adapted by Rick Cummins and John Scoullar
from the book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

About the Plot. As a child, an Aviator became disillusioned with the lack of imagination in grown-up life. He now prefers to keep his own company, which he does until his plane goes down in the Sahara Desert. Miles from human habitation, he is surprised to encounter a Little Prince who claims to be from another planet. The Little Prince appears each day at sunset and describes life on his planet and the reason he set out on his journey. As the Little Prince recounts his travels and the people he encountered, the Aviator’s own situation becomes more dire, with dwindling provisions, hallucinations and a damaged plane. Perhaps among the Little Prince’s story and lessons will be the key to the Aviator’s survival and a renewal of his own imaginative possibilities.

Production History. THE LITTLE PRINCE has been performed across the world in many iterations dating back to shortly after the original publication of the original French children's story in 1947. It has been a movie, a puppet show, a Broadway musical, and many other things. While this version of the script is the same one that has been produced most often here in the US, at the Guthrie Theatre and many other places, like any new production this one will be uniquely and distinctly our own.

From the Director. I first encountered THE LITTLE PRINCE many years ago while working as resident artist for Flint Youth Theatre and that production remains one of my favorite lighting designs to this day. The story, so simple on the surface yet soulful and poetic beneath, has never been far from my mind. An Aviator, who has turned his back on his own creativity as an act of ego-preservation, must return to it in order to quite literally save his own life. Such a beautiful life lesson on the power of the arts and the importance of following one's own path.  When I later returned to the same theatre company as its Executive Artistic Director, it was always on my short list of plays to direct, but for one reason or another I never quite got to it.  And now, when I have finally returned my attention to the joy, beauty, and wonder of children's theatre eight years after leaving that work, I can think of no better play to introduce the MCLA community to the importance and power of Theatre for Young Audiences.

—Jeremy Winchester, Professor of Theatre, MCLA
 Board of Directors, Theatre for Young Audiences/USA, 2016-2022
 Executive Artistic Director of Flint Youth Theatre, 2012-2016

Character Breakdown: 
Pronouns listed below describe characters as scripted. Roles are open to any actor comfortable with them. None of these roles will be understudied.

AVIATOR (He/him, any ethnicity). Downed in the Sahara Desert.
Little Prince (He/him, any ethnicity). From another planet.
Rose (She/her, any ethnicity). Also on the Little Prince’s planet.
King (He/him, any ethnicity). The sole resident of his planet.
Businessman (He/him, any ethnicity). The sole resident of his planet. 
Conceited Man (He/him, any ethnicity). The sole resident of his planet.
Geographer (He/him, any ethnicity). The sole resident of his planet.
Lamplighter (He/him, any ethnicity). The sole resident of his planet.
Fox (He/him, any ethnicity). Encountered on Earth.
Snake (She/her, any ethnicity). Encountered on Earth.

-We are casting an ensemble of 4-10 actors. Any doubling of roles will be determined at casting.

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