OpenStage Theatre & Company’s
2026-2027 SEASON AUDITIONS
Audition announcement for the first two shows in our 54th Season:
Dracula by Steven Dietz, Based on the novel by Bram Stoker
Performs October 31 – November 28, 2026 | Rehearsals start the week of September 7, 2026
POTUS: Or Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying To Keep Him Alive by Selina Fillinger
Performs January 9 – February 6, 2027 | Rehearsals start the week of November 2, 2026
Auditions for In The Next Room (Or The Vibrator Play) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream will happen later in the season, watch our social media for those announcements.
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 audition video to auditions@openstage.com. Audition requirements: a pair of contrasting monologues not to exceed a combined length of 2 minutes. Please send audition videos as a Google Drive video or video file attachment, resumes in PDF format, and headshots as a .jpg or .png. Include in your email which shows you would like to be considered for. If you have conflicts of any kind with callbacks, please note those when submitting your audition.
All audition submissions are due by Thursday, July 16th at 5pm.
Callbacks will be posted to the OpenStage website by 7/20. 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 be emailed a link to sign up for a five minute audition slot for each show they wish to audition for. Open auditioners who receive a callback will be emailed a link to sign up for a 5 minute slot for the callbacks on July 25.
Scripts will be available for perusal beginning July 1 for current and former Company and Associate Members, and for those invited to callbacks. Please contact jacob@openstage.com to request access.
Audition Schedule
Please read the schedule carefully.
Auditioners called back should be prepared to attend Callbacks/Company Auditions and Final Callbacks (by invitation). See Schedule Below
Thursday, July 16 by 5pm: Audition submissions are due for actors who are not current associate or company members.
Saturday, July 25– Callbacks/Company Auditions
POTUS: 10:00 am –12:00 pm
Dracula: 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Sunday, July 26 – Final Callbacks (By Invitation Only)
POTUS: 11:00 am – 1:00pm
Dracula: 6:00pm – 8:00pm
Callbacks/Company Auditions are located at the Backstage Arts Warehouse, 720 East Vine Drive in Fort Collins. Free parking is available on the east side of the building or in the dirt lot across the street.
Director’s Notes and Character Descriptions
DRACULA
DIRECTORS’ NOTES / CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS
Time and Place: 1897, London and Transylvania
HARKER – A young man in his late twenties. Good looking, well bred, good heart. Characteristics that have brought him a certain ease and confidence in making his way in the world of 1897 London. He has established himself in his profession as a solicitor; and in his personal life, he has happily found his future wife in Mina. Nothing has prepared him for the dark presence that invades his charmed life. His role in the playing out of Dracula’s plans, shatters his spirit, leaving him psychologically scarred and at odds on how to confront the peril he has brought upon himself and Mina.
MINA – Her character arc takes her from a happily engaged young woman of substantial means, into the swirling vortex of a demonic storm that threatens everyone she holds dear: her cherished friend, Lucy, and the man she hopes to marry, Harker. Remarkably, when she realizes that she has become the eye of the storm, she summons the moral strength, the heroic courage to exorcise the evil, and in the aftermath of the ordeal, comes to an understanding rooted in deeply felt compassion.
LUCY – Mina’s closest friend. A counterbalance to Mina’s naturally reserved demeanor, Lucy displays an unbridled energy, indulging herself in girlish erotic fantasizing. Tragically, she is the first to fall victim to the sickly transformation of vampirism. She dies only to resurrect as a taunting, devilish seductress and murderer of children.
SEWARD – A brilliant psychiatrist. At age 29, he is in charge of a prominent hospital treating the insane. He is an intense man of science devoted to solving the mysteries of the mind. But the mystery of the heart is another matter. What to do with his feelings of affection for Lucy? How to express himself when in her presence? With her, he cannot ground himself in the scaffolding of science. His science is useless in circumscribing his desire. Peeling back the layers, Seward is a man who fears failure, and failure rushes at him from all directions as desire and death commingle in Lucy’s demise, as the unfathomable madness of his patient, Renfield, spirals out of control. Enigmas both for Seward. Enigmas that gnaw at the core of his being.
RENFIELD – a madman. At times, seeming vitally young and strong. Other times, old enough to be scarred from years of living on the fringes of society. He is the one patient under Seward’s care that defies analysis. In the fissures of Renfield’s mind, there lurks untold suffering. Unloved and abandoned in childhood? Perhaps. A victim of abuse? Likely. Some secret woundedness leaves him open, vulnerable to psychic intrusion and manipulation. His moods shift wildly in an instant. One moment manic. Another moment keenly lucid with razor-sharp wit. In yet another moment, he collapses into a broken child-like man crying out to be saved.
VAN HELSING – Mentor and fatherly figure to Seward. He is largely responsible for instilling in his young student a great zeal for scientific inquiry. But unlike Seward, Van Helsing has dared to venture beyond the scope of science and into the realm of the occult, scrutinizing causation through the lens of religion. In symbolic acts, and in incantational utterance, he is instrumental in confronting, and eventually defeating Dracula.
DRACULA – As an old man, he is sadly nostalgic, living in isolation in a remote corner of the world, weary of the unending years his deathless life has spanned. When he becomes young, he charismatic malevolence which is strangely fused with fervent romantic longing.
AN ENSEMBLE OF FIVE:
2 FEMALE VAMPIRES – ideally the actors will have considerable dance training and adequate height to be imposing.
ASYLUM ATTENDANTS/TRANSYVANIAN GYPSIES and COACHMAN to be played by Two Men.
LONDON MAID/FEMALE ASYLUM ATTENDANT and a GYPSY (ideally someone able to play the violin or viola)
NOTE ON DIALECTS:
Standard British for Harker, Mina, Lucy and Seward.
Working Class British for Renfield, Asylum Attendants and Maid.
German or Dutch for Van Helsing.
Hungarian or Rumanian for Dracula.
POTUS
DIRECTORS’ NOTES / CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS
HARRIET – Late 40s-60s. Any ethnicity. Chief of Staff. A political bulldog who has chosen every aspect of her life, appearance, and personality in service of her career. A sexless, humorless woman who lives and dies by the polls. Everything is a means to the end.
JEAN – Late 40s-60s. Any ethnicity. Press Secretary. A hawk in a turtleneck. High-strung, quick-witted, can handle any pressroom and sterilize any scandal. A single working mom. Harriet’s more polished and more tactful counterpart. CJ from The West Wing, but with more cynicism and paranoia.
STEPHANIE – 20s-30s. Any ethnicity. Presidential secretary. An obedient and diminutive millennial, terrified of failure and perpetually on the edge of breakdown. Deeply brilliant, just suffers imposter syndrome. So much potential just waiting to be set free.
DUSTY – 20s-30s. Any ethnicity. President’s plaything. A glowing, curious, sex-positive girl with a multitude of skills and a bright future. Loves civic duty! Loves democracy! Determined to make the world better!
BERNADETTE – Late 30s-50s. White. President’s sister. A dumpster fire. Strife and mayhem. A coked-up tornado with raw sexual charisma, fiery temper, and fantastic sense of humor. Jean’s kryptonite.
CHRIS – 30s-40s. Black. A journalist. Overburdened, under-slept, postpartum, newly-divorced, on the brink of irrelevancy. A dogged reporter with much to gain and everything to lose.
MARGARET – Late 40s-60s. Black. The First Lady. An impeccable combination of high fashion, corporate experience, and legal savvy. Regal, sophisticated, brimming with bitterness and pent-up rage. Goes for the jugular.
POTUS is a farce. It is wild, dirty, and unhinged. However, these characters must be believable as people to unlock the comedy. If we can’t see truth in these characters, it’s hard to relate the disaster to our own current state of untrustworthy leaders, unabashed liars, and ethical dumpster fires. In the auditions, play these high-stakes situations honestly. Each character is living in their worst stress dream, but 95% of the time, they can see the way out. These women solve problems (well, most of them) for a living. Make them believable and real by honing in on their objectives.
