Character Breakdowns for
Gideon and the Blundersnorp
Storyline:
Gideon is a stablehand who yearns to join the Royal Cavaliers. Alanna is a young viscountess who feels trapped in the system of hereditary succession. The two have more in common than they think.
​
Thrown together by chance, Gideon and Alanna must contend with bandits, a treacherous forest, and a giant monster that just wants to eat everyone.
​
Gideon and the Blundersnorp combines witty characters, pulse-pounding excitement, and a rousing cinematic/medieval-folk score. Underlying the fun is a positive message: aspiration is fueled by personal character, not social class.
​
Characters:
Find sides for these roles at Sides
If you'd like to audition for Gideon and the Blundersnorp, please prepare the appropriate sides as well as a 32 bar or 1 minute excerpt from a song that shows your range and is from the musical theatre genre. Please also bring sheet music or an accompaniment recording to your audition.
​
[The Troubadour]
Lead
Male/Female
Age Range 18-50
Vocal Range: Male C2 -Gb4 Female A3-D5
The Troubadour is an energetic and spirited narrator. He/she takes the audience on a journey through
the age of adventure, and tells us the story of Gideon and his encounter with the blundersnorp. Role
requires great strong command of the stage, comedic timing, and a strong singing voice.
[Gideon]
Lead
Male
Age Range: 18-35
Vocal Range: C2-A4
Gideon is the hero of our story. He is a young stablehand with a positive attitude and big dreams. One
day the stables are visited by a cavalier, who inspires him to chase adventure. So Gideon and his horse
take the leap and end up saving the cavalier and the village from a blundersnorp thus making his
dreams a reality. This role requires stamina and physicaliy, because Gideon sings a lot while dancing,
jumping, and galloping.
[Alanna]
Lead
Female
Age Range: 18-35
Vocal Range: G3-E5
Alanna is the young viscountess of Cembria. She is very proud of her status and thinks it makes her
quite important. After finding herself kidnapped by bandits, she and Gideon form an unlikely team.
They embark on an epic journey to save the village, and along the way Alanna finds herself. Alanna
can have a British or Scottish accent but it is not required. Must be able to embody a regal demeanor
but have playful, sassy teenager energy. Must have a strong singing voice.
[Master Trammel]
Supporting
Male
Age Range: 25-60
Vocal Range: F2-F4
Master Trammel is the stable owner where Gideon works. He is very eager to do business and to make
Gideon miserable. He has sly fox energy. This role will most likely double as a bandit therefore
requires dancing and singing.
[Shillelagh]
Supporting
Female
Age Range: 25-60
Vocal Range: A3-Eb5
Shillelagh is the wife of Master Trammel. Together they run the stables where Gideon works. She and
her husband are hungry for money and enjoy treating Gideon poorly. She has a stuck up busy body
persona. She could have a funny shrill character voice but it is not required. This role will most likely
double as a bandit which will require singing and dancing.
[Trent]
Supporting
Male
Age Range: 18-60
Vocal Range: A2-F4
Trent is the leader of the bandits. They enjoy stealing stuff and singing about it. He is rough, tough and
in charge but has some comedic moments. This role requires singing and dancing.
[Royal Crier]
Supporting
Male/Female
Age Range: 18-40
Vocal Range: Male A2-G4 Female A3-Eb5
The royal crier is out of breath and in a hurry because they are a new herald with a lot of ground to
cover. This character can have a bit of a frantic frazzled energy with good comedic timing. This role
will double as a bandit and will require singing and dancing.
[Sir Hallock]
Male
Age range: 20-50
Vocal Range: A2-G4
Sir Hallock is a royal cavalier. He crossed paths with Gideon at the stable and unintentionally inspires
Gideon to go on his grand adventure. He finds himself in danger from a blundersnorp but denies help
from Gideon because he is only a stable boy. Then after being injured he is saved by Gideon changing
his mind about what is possible. This role may double as a bandit and will require singing and dancing.
[Spike]
Female
Age Range: 18-50
Vocal Range: A3-Eb5
Spike is one of the bandits who capture Alanna and Gideon. Spike is a bit goofy and ditsy. This role
requires singing, dancing, and comedic timing.
[Sneaker]
Female
Age Range: 18-50
Vocal Range: A3-Eb5
Sneaker is one of the bandits who capture Alanna and Gideon. Sneaker is very confident but often very
wrong. This role requires singing, dancing, and comedic timing.
[Hack]
Male
Age Range: 18-60
Vocal Range: A2-G4
Hack is one of the bandits who capture Alanna and Gideon. He is bit more serious and brutal than most
of his cohorts. He can have a bit of a pirate vibe to him. This role requires singing and dancing.
Character Breakdowns for
The Front Page
Storyline:
The Front Page, by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, first premiered in 1928 and has been one of the most-produced plays ever since. It spawned a film version in 1931 and was later remade as His Girl Friday in 1940. Acclaimed playwright Tom Stoppard has called The Front Page "America's greatest play."
​
This rollicking comedy is set in a run-down Chicago newspaper office. It tells the story of Hildy Johnson, a burnt-out ace reporter bent on changing professions. Her plans are derailed when a convicted murderer who is hours from being hanged escapes and hides out at Chicago Examiner press room, determined to tell his story.
​
The lightning-fast pace and hilarious banter serve to tell a story of rampant political corruption and the motley band of journalists who uncover the truth. The Front Page skillfully blends farce, romantic comedy and social consciousness into a rich theatrical experience.
​
Characters:
Find sides for these roles at Sides
​
[Hildy Johnson]
Female
Age Range: 28-40.
Fast-talking, smart-as-a-whip ace reporter for the Chicago Examiner. In her comparatively brief career, Hildy has scaled the heights of the journalism profession, having exposed scandal after scandal in corruption-plagued Chicago, circa 1928. She's now ready to live a normal and quiet life with her fiance, but the scoop bug keeps biting
and Hildy is drawn back in.
[Walter Burns]
Male
Age Range: 35-45.
Crafty, charming and smart, Walter Burns, editor of the Chicago Examiner, will do anything for a story. He's not above getting involved in the news in order to report it and scoop his many competitors. He's sacrificed practically every aspect of his personal life and some of his credibility, for his success in the newspaper field. Once
married to Hildy, his ace reporter, he's never found anyone who can live up to her brilliance.
[Bruce Baldwin]
Male
Age Range: 28-40.
Fiance to ace reporter Hildy Johnson, Bruce is the calm to Hildy's storm. He's a well-adjusted, kind, hard-working sort, who has never before walked on the wild side, as he does with his larger-than-life fiance. Walter works in insurance, and is gradually climbing the corporate ladder. He's devoted to his mother who lives and travels with
him.
[Sheriff]
Male
Age Range: 35-65.
Corrupt and blustery, the Sheriff is deeply embroiled in the political corruption of the city of Chicago. He's not a bad man, inherently, but a cog in the whole sleazy system. Protective of both his position and those who turn the wheels to keep him in it, he's defensive about any hint that he's not on-the-level.
[Murphy]
Male
Age Range: 25-65.
Reporter for the Chicago Journal of Commerce. A Hemingway-type journalist, Murphy is a war hero with little formal education, who taught himself to write while working his way up from copy boy to ace crime reporter. His adventurous life strongly colors his writing.
[Bensinger]
Male
Age Range: 25-65. Reporter for the Chicago Tribune. Distinguished police reporter, who investigated some of the most storied and significant crime cases. He's a tightly-wound person, a hypochondriac, rather neurotic, always on-edge. One of those folks who is always on the job, even when relaxing at home.
[Mayor]
Male
Age Range: 35-65.
A corrupt and weaselly career politician (mayor of Chicago) whose primary skill is balancing the city's many scandals, dirty dealings and corrupt officials. The mayor is king of his kingdom, except when the governor of Illinois steps in, in which case he grudgingly capitulates.
[Diamond Louie]
Any Gender
Age Range: 25-55.
Small-time street hustler, whose primary territory is Chicago city politics. Louie's the sleaze-behind-the-scenes, digging up dirt on anyone, for anyone who pays him, being the “legs" behind illicit transfers of cash or goods and even
framing innocent people for crimes, when his bosses find it politically necessary. Has a friendly, but slimy demeanor.
[Earl Williams]
Male
Age Range: 25-50.
A small man in stature, Earl has played by the rules most of his life, until hearing speeches by political activists and becoming convinced he'll amount to something by becoming a revolutionary. He's meek and mild-mannered, making him a highly likely character to be charged with, and convicted of, a murder.
[Mollie Malloy]
Female
Age Range: 25-40.
Tough-talking, rough-around-the-edges Irish lass whose been dealt a bad hand by life, but manages to maintain hope. She's been mistreated by men all her life, but fell for convicted murderer Earl Williams when he treated her as a human being not as a sex object.
[Mrs. Baldwin]
Female
Age Range: 50-75.
Excitable and easily-rattled mother to nice-guy insurance salesman Bruce Baldwin, Mrs. Baldwin is constantly dubious of the worldly nature of her daughter-in-law to-be, and very frightened of the evils of the big city. She is a perpetual pearl-clutcher, all the more so when she's surrounded by folks who delight in shocking her.
[Wilson]
Female
Age Range: 25-65.
Reporter for the Chicago Evening American. Unlike her colleagues in the courthouse press room, Wilson is new to the crime reporting game. A former travel editor, she's covering hard news for the first time. Despite her new surroundings,
she's savvy, feisty and can hold her own in male-dominated undertakings, be they writing about murders or winning at poker.
[Endicott]
Female
Age Range: 25-65.
Reporter for the Chicago Post. Crime reporter who is pretty much all talk. She's a ringleader among her colleagues on the crime beat and always one of the loudest voices in the room, but she cribs info from other reporters, never really has a scoop, but is such a strong presence you would think she's tops in her field.
[McCue]
Female
Age Range: 25-65.
Reporter for City News Bureau. Smartest person in the room, a font of knowledge on any subject. Long-winded in both speech and reporting, McCue is one of the few in the press room who isn't in it to win, but who actually believes she can affect positive change though her journalism.