The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company will hold auditions for its March 2025 production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Patience, on Saturday, December 7, 2024, from 1:00 to 4:00 pm and Sunday, December 8, 2024, from 5:00 to 8:00 pm.
Auditions will be held at the Golden Valley East office building, at 820 Lilac Drive North, in Golden Valley. Please park in the West Lot and enter the building through the building’s main doors.
This production will be directed by Gary Briggle, with Music Direction by Dr. Randal Buikema.
The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company presents its shows at the Conn Theater, 1900 Nicollet Avenue South, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55403.
The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company welcomes and strongly encourages people of all races, identities, and backgrounds to audition. We believe that our shows are brought to life when the stories unfold onstage within a fully realized community, with both lead and chorus characters having distinct identities and relationships.
Sign up for auditions Patience Audition Sign-Up.
Patience
Patience opens with all the well-born young ladies in the local village, rapturously caught up in aestheticism, and in love with two aesthetic poets. The poets, however, are both in love with Patience, the simple village milkmaid, who cares nothing for poetry. Patience learns that true love must be completely unselfish … it must wither and sting and burn! The young ladies’ military suitors don’t see the point to aestheticism, but they decide to give it a try to win the women’s hearts. It is “touch and go” for a while, but everyone ends up with a suitable partner, even if it is only a tulip or lily.
Patience satirizes England’s “aesthetic craze” of the 1870s and ’80s, when the output of poets, composers, painters and designers of all kinds was indeed prolific, but, some argued, empty and self-indulgent. This artistic movement was so popular, and so easy to ridicule as a meaningless fad, that it made Patience a big hit in its day. The operetta, however, remains relevant as it can be understood to satirize the adherents to all fads and cults of personality!
Roles in Patience
Principals
Patience (a Dairy Maid) (soprano)
The Lady Angela (Rapturous Maiden) (mezzo-soprano)
The Lady Saphir (Rapturous Maiden) (mezzo-soprano or soprano)
The Lady Ella (Rapturous Maiden) (soprano)
The Lady Jane (Rapturous Maiden) (mezzo-soprano, contralto)
Reginald Bunthorne (a Fleshly Poet) (comic baritone)
Archibald Grosvenor (an Idyllic Poet) (lyric baritone)
Colonel Calverly (Officer of Dragoon Guards) (bass-baritone)
Major Murgatroyd (Officer of Dragoon Guards) (baritone)
Lieut. The Duke of Dunstable (Officer of Dragoon Guards) (tenor)
Ensemble
Chorus of Rapturous Maidens and Officers of Dragoon Guards
Casting
All principal roles for the production will be cast through these auditions. No principal roles are pre-cast.
In addition to casting the principal roles, the directors will cast covers (understudies) for each principal role through these auditions. These covers (understudies) will be cast as members of the chorus, but will be offered the opportunity to appear in the principal role in one performance, by mutual agreement with the person cast in the principal role.
While approximately a fourth of the ensemble is already filled by performers who are company members, the remaining ensemble vacancies, all voices, will be filled through these auditions.
All performers will be offered a stipend of $200.00.
To Audition
You will sign up online to audition at a specific time Patience Audition Sign-Up.
When you submit for an audition appointment, you will be prompted to submit your performance resume and your head shot or another good photo of yourself, both of which will be required to audition, as noted above.
We prefer that you audition with a song or aria in English, but other languages are acceptable. Your selection may be an opera or operetta piece, a Gilbert and Sullivan song, a show tune, etc. No pop or rock music, please.
An accompanist will be provided. We strongly recommend that all those auditioning prepare an accompanied piece rather than something unaccompanied.
You do not need to prepare a monologue. The Directors may provide you with sides during your audition. If they do so, you will rehearse the sides privately with others who are auditioning and then present it to the Directors.
Call Backs
Call Backs will be held only if deemed necessary by the Directors. Some or all roles may be cast based on the auditions – without Call Backs.
If Call Backs are held, they will be scheduled for Monday, December 9, 2024, starting at 7:00 pm. All those who will be called back will be notified via email on Sunday, December 8,2024, after Sunday’s auditions have been completed.
Those being called back will be notified of which role or roles they’ll be asked to read and sing. Sides will be provided at Call Backs. The music and sides that will be used for specific roles will be available on this page in the future.
Notification
We intend for casting to be completed by Monday, December 16, 2024.
We will call those being offered principal roles first. They are given a limited amount of time to accept or decline the offer before the offer goes to the next candidate. After the principal roles have been filled, those being offered Ensemble roles will be called. Finally, we will notify via email those whom we are unable to cast. This process may take up to two weeks, but everyone who auditions will be called or notified via email.
Rehearsals
Rehearsals will be held at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, from Monday, January 20, 2025, to Saturday, March 1, 2025.
Rehearsals are held on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, from 6:30 to 9:30 pm, and Saturdays from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm.
Typically, the chorus rehearses on Mondays and Thursdays. The Directors, however, may call the chorus to rehearse on Tuesdays and Saturdays as necessary.
Typically, the principals rehearse on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Principals will be added to the Monday and Thursday rehearsals, as scenes which include them are rehearsed.
All cast members must understand that they might be called and should be available all Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
All cast members are expected to attend every rehearsal to which they are called unless their absence has been approved in advance or due to illness or emergency. Those who miss more than two rehearsals may expect a reassignment of blocking and business on stage. Excessive absenteeism and/or an unexcused absence may result in dismissal from the production.
Rehearsals will be held at the Conn Theater, 1900 Nicollet Avenue South, Minneapolis, from Monday, March 3, 2025, to the Thursday, March 13, 2025 Preview Performance.
Performance Schedule
Performances will take place with a 14-show production schedule, including the Preview Performance.
The performance schedule is as follows:
Thursday, March 13, 7:30 pm, Preview Performance
Fridays, March 14, 21, 28, April 4, 7:30 pm, Evening Performances
Saturdays, March 15, 22, 29, April 5, 7:30 pm, Evening Performances
Saturday, March 29, 2:00 pm, Matinee Performances
Sundays, March 9, 16, 23, April 6, 2:00 pm, Matinee Performances
Attendance for Tech Week rehearsals and all performances are mandatory, except for only the most serious circumstances of illness or emergency, or in the very exceptional event that the role has been cast with the understanding that a person will be missing a specific performance. Without any exception, however, the Directors or Stage Manager must be notified by the cast member of a pending absence. Failure to do so may result in dismissal from the cast.
Sign Up to Audition for Patience
If you would like to audition for Patience, please sign up Patience Audition Sign-Up.
Sign Up to Be Notified About Auditions
If you would like to receive direct notification for our auditions when the opportunity to do so begins in late May, please sign up for our audition mailing list.