OpenStage Theatre & Company’s
Auditions for The Merry Wives of Windsor | February 28th and March 1st
The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare, Directed by Kate Austin–Gröen
Performs June 4 – July 11, 2026, Outdoors (Location TBA). Performances are Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Performances are subject to weather cancellations as needed for actor and patron safety.
Rehearsals start the week of April 13th, schedule to be determined based on actor availability.
All roles receive a $400 stipend.
OpenStage is a non-equity theatre. No equity contracts are available at this time. OpenStage uses Standards and Practices in accordance with the Colorado Theatre Standards.
OpenStage is committed to providing a fair, professional, and welcoming environment.
We invite submissions from actors with a wide range of backgrounds and experience levels. Casting and participation decisions are made thoughtfully, with the goal of supporting the artistic needs of each production and fostering a respectful, supportive creative process.
OPEN AUDITIONS (if you have not worked with OpenStage previously):
Please submit your headshot, resume, and a video of your monologue to auditions@openstage.com. Audition requirements: A 1 minute or less comedic Shakespeare monologue, both prose and verse monologues are fine. Please send audition videos as a Google Drive video or video file attachment, resumes in PDF format, and headshots as a .jpg or .png. All audition submissions are due by Friday, February 13th at 5pm.
If you have conflicts with the callback schedule, please note them when you submit your audition.
Callbacks will be posted to the OpenStage website before callbacks occur. Please check the website to see if you got a callback.
Callbacks/Company Auditions are located at the Backstage Arts Warehouse, 720 East Vine Drive in Fort Collins.
Please, park on the East side of the building or across the street on the dirt lot.
OPENSTAGE COMPANY & ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
Company and associate members will soon be emailed a link to sign up for callbacks.
SCRIPTS ARE AVAILABLE FOR FREE ONLINE.
Auditioners called back should be prepared to attend Callbacks/Company Auditions and Final Callbacks (by invitation). See Schedule Below
Audition Schedule
PLEASE read the schedule carefully.
The Merry Wives of Windsor
Friday, February 13th at 5pm: Open Audition videos are due (sent to auditions@openstage.com)
Saturday, February 28th: 10am – 1pm: Callbacks/Company Audition (by invitation only, you may be asked to stay the whole time)
Sunday, March 1st: 10am – 1pm: Final Callbacks (by invitation only, plan to stay the whole time)
Callbacks/Company Auditions are located at the Backstage Arts Warehouse, 720 East Vine Drive in Fort Collins.
Director’s Notes and Character Descriptions
THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Kate Austin–Gröen
DIRECTORS’ NOTES / CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS
| Character | Gender | Age | Notes |
| Falstaff | Male-presenting | middle-aged or older | Bombastic, full of himself, but able to take a joke. Physically large and charismatic. |
| Master Quickly | Male-presenting | middle-aged or older | Host of the Garter Inn, bawdy and well-intended |
| Bardolph/ Simple | Any gender | 20-40 | Falstaff’s crew: loyal, funny, a drunkard |
| Nym/ John | Any gender | 20-40 | Falstaff’s crew: loves to talk about “humours;” thinks himself very proper, but is actually a harmless buffoon |
| Pistol/ Robert | Any gender | 20-40 | Falstaff’s crew: loud and brave until confronted with danger. |
| Robin | Any gender | Young to late teens | Falstaff’s page: wants to be loyal but isn’t very good at it. Sweet, naive, and easy to talk into things. |
| Justice Shallow | Any gender | middle-aged or older | Older gentleman, concerned for his cousin Slender’s well-being; pompous and foppish |
| Slender | Male-presenting | 20s | Goofy; Shallow’s cousin; Master Page’s choice of suitor for Anne |
| Sir Hugh Evans | Any gender | middle-aged or older | Welsh; a well-meaning busybody |
| Master Page | Male-presenting | middle-aged | More even-keeled than Master Ford. Remains calm in the face of calamity. |
| Anne Page | Female-presenting | 20s | Young lover– clever enough to devise a plan to ditch Slender and marry Fenton. |
| Mistress Ford | Female-presenting | middle-aged | A would-be lover of Falstaff. Quick-witted, knows how to have a laugh. Witty and strong-willed; not scared of tricking her husband. |
| Mistress Page | Female-presenting | middle-aged | Similar to Mistress Ford, except a little more practical. Concerned for her daughter Anne’s well-being. Practical and imaginative. |
| Mistress Quickly | Female-presenting | anywhere from 30+ | A great comic character of Shakespeare’s: bawdy, meddling, full of malapropisms. |
| Fenton | Male-presenting | 20s | Anne’s eventual match. Stately, proper, everything that Slender is not. He is the only character in the play to consistently speak in iambic pentameter. |
| Master Ford | Male-presenting | middle-aged | Jealous and hot-headed. Plays several scenes disguised as Master Brook. |
