The GCA’s auditions are scheduled for Saturday, November 9th at 2:00 PM, Monday, November 11th at 7:00 PM, and Wednesday, November 13th at 7:00 PM. Auditions are set in Mid-November because the final production of the GCA 2024 Season, “Beauty and the Beast,” opens in early December and late November rehearsals prevent later audition date opportunities.
Before there was “The Play That Goes Wrong,” there was Michael Frayn’s “Noises Off!” Well, technically, farce has been around as long as Western theatre has existed - some historians have traced its roots back to Aristophanes. Since then, a whole lot of farce throughout history has brought us slamming doors, mistaken identities and convoluted misunderstandings. But there is some modern farce that stands out above others, and “Noises Off” is one of them.
“Noises Off” premièred at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, London in 1982. It opened to excellent reviews and shortly after transferred to the Savoy Theatre in the West End, where it ran until 1987 with five successive casts. In December 1983, it opened on Broadway at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, where it ran for 553 performances. It starred Dorothy Loudon, Victor Garber, and Brian Murray, among others. It earned several Tony Award nominations, including Best Play, and won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble.
Like “The Play That Goes Wrong,” which the GCA produced in 2022, “Noises Off” shows its audience what happens when a series of events undermines a play being produced. In this play-within-a-play, Frayn takes a fond and hilarious look at the follies of theatre folk and their on and offstage issues, including out-of-control egos, passionate affairs, memory issues, props mishaps, missing items – all of these things can turn a performance into a high-risk adventure. In “Noises Off,” the adventure level is at maximum decibels.
It captures a touring theatre troupe’s production of a sex farce, titled “Nothing On,” in three stages. Act One of “Noises Off” is the dress rehearsal for “Nothing On.” Act Two of our show is a performance of “Nothing On” several weeks into its run, and a performance near the end of the debilitating run of “Nothing On” is our Act Three. In its now-famous Act Two, which takes our audience backstage when egos and personal grudges are getting in the way of the show, the audience is treated to a ballet of near-silent slapstick, with laughs-on-top-of-laughs firing quickly.
The GCA’s auditions are scheduled for Saturday, November 9th at 2:00 PM, Monday, November 11th at 7:00 PM, and Wednesday, November 13th at 7:00 PM. Auditions are set in Mid-November because the final production of the GCA 2024 Season, “Beauty and the Beast,” opens in early December and late November rehearsals prevent later audition date opportunities. “Noises Off” will begin rehearsals just after “Beauty and the Beast” opens. Performances for “Noises Off” will run for three weekends, opening Feb. 21st, 2025 and running through March 9th.
There are audition instructions and character descriptions the Director would like actors to be aware of. This information can be found on the Garfield Center’s website on the “Auditions” page, or by going to: https://www.garfieldcenter.org/gcaevent/open-auditions-noises-off/all/. Character descriptions may also be found by visiting the Garfield Center’s Facebook page and viewing the post about auditions there. For any additional questions about auditions, contact Director Steven Arnold by email at sarnold@garfieldcenter.org.
