For Performers
CASTING AND AUDTIONS
We sometimes cast directly from the pool of performers who are known to us but most roles are filled after an audition process. In the past this has been on a show-by-show basis but we are now moving to a process of casting the entire season at once.
Auditions for this Season (Uncle Vanya and Shakespeare in Love) will take place in the third week of September. Full details will be posted very soon - please subscribe to our mailing list to get the information as soon as it is released.
For details of the parts available in the shows and the rehearsal commitments, please click below:
UNCLE VANYA
SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE
(Shakespeare in Love will also utilize a small choir of on-stage singers. Details will follow soon.)
For our inaugural Williston One Acts festival, we will not be holding auditions given the short amount of time we have to set this up. If you are interested in being considered as a performer by one of our three directors, please send an email to admin@vermontrep.com - you never know what they will be looking for…
SCHEDULING
We recognize that people have lives outside theatre and that most people who work with us depend on day jobs to live. Having said that, we aspire to high theatrical outcomes which rely on appropriate rehearsal time and commitment from everyone involved. Attendance at rehearsal is mandatory.
We rehearse 3 to 4 times a week in evenings and weekend afternoons over the course of 12-15 weeks at our own rehearsal studio in Williston. We find this is an appropriate pace to get the work done, while at the same time ensuring a fun process that fits comfortably within the parameters of everyday life.
We create a schedule in advance of the rehearsal process, which is based entirely on the times people have agreed to be available. No rehearsal is ever scheduled at a time when a performer has a declared conflict. That is our commitment to you. Your commitment to us (and everyone else in the show) is that once the schedule has been published, you remain available for all scheduled rehearsals. You will therefore know at the beginning of rehearsal exactly when you will be required to attend, you will have already told us that you have no conflicts on those days, and all other days then become free for you to make whatever plans you want.
We find that this system works extremely well, allowing people to understand exactly what the commitment is, keeping it manageable, and giving them the maximum opportunity to schedule their lives around it as much as possible.
COMPENSATION
No one at Vermont Rep gets paid to be here - not the people who run the company, nor those who perform in it (with the exception of pit musicians). This is a labor of love and it is exclusive to people who wish to spend their free time coming together to create theatre of the highest caliber.
We have come to the conclusion that “compensation” for the creation of art exists in many forms, and the financial variety is only one. A different form of compensation is the creative fulfilment that comes from being part of a company of people who aspire to something great, to something bigger than themselves, and importantly, being part of an organized structure that is set up to actually be able to deliver that. That is why most of us got involved in theater in the first place.
Our shows are expensive to stage - they have bespoke period costumes, lavish and detailed set designs, large casts, exquisite props, exceptional sound and lighting and extensively supported rehearsal periods. The practitioners who work with us are experienced and excellent - many are ex-professionals from the industry - but the budgets have to exist in order for them to be able to demonstrate their skills. Because we do not pay ourselves or our participants, we have the ability to provide these budgets and our productions are elevated as a result. What we earn goes straight out onto the stage, and our audiences value the difference it makes, as is demonstrated by the full houses we have come to expect.
We recognize that this is not a choice that will work for everyone, but for a great many of the talented performers, artists and practitioners in our area, the opportunity to participate in an enterprise that is truly outstanding in its aspiration is as valued a form of compensation as the financial version.