Wonderlust Productions is producing Season 2 of our Hidden Herald audio play series about the hidden stories of people and places in St. Paul's Downtown Cultural District. This year, we’ll also be adding stories about the Payne-Phalen neighborhood on the east side of St. Paul.
WE NEED WRITERS AND ACTORS!
To be considered:
Writers: Submit two different 10 page writing samples, a resume, and a one paragraph description of why this project interests you.
Actors: Submit your resume and a pre-made voice acting reel or three short, recorded monologues with distinctive contrasting voices. Because we are producing audio drama, please demonstrate your ability to alter your voice effectively; you are welcome to read rather than memorize the monologues. Your submission can be video or audio-only. Also, in one paragraph, please describe something in a specific place downtown or the east side of St. Paul where you think there’s a story to tell.
This is an audio drama that will be recorded for podcasting (under a SAG-AFTRA contract). Both union and non-union actors are encouraged to apply.
Several in-person activities and visits to downtown St. Paul will be expected for this project. Specific dates and date ranges are listed below.
Submissions are due by Monday, February 10.
Writers follow this link to submit.
Actors follow this link to submit.
Compensation: Actors will be paid $18/hour plus a one-time fee of $250 for permission to make the play available via QR codes on posters and sidewalk stickers in St. Paul as well as online for one year after the project is launched (with an option to renew the fee each year the project continues). Actors can expect to be in 3-5 plays for between 16-25 total rehearsal/meeting/recording hours.
Writers will receive $500 for writing 8-12 minutes of text--which will be between 2 and 4 episodes of recorded drama. Writers will also be compensated at $18/hour to attend 2 group meetings and some rehearsals.
Unique Information About this Project:
Writers will be asked to include specific elements in their texts like references to visual markers in St. Paul, clues for where other QR codes can be found, and/or techniques that make audio drama work. They will also be asked to pick their subject and locations based on a list provided by Wonderlust. For Season 2, we are looking for writers who can work in at least one of these genres: musicals, mysteries, family-friendly, history plays, or scavenger hunts.
Actors will be asked to participate in choosing the subjects that make that list. Actors and writers will be assigned to each other before the plays are written.
Writers will be asked to write specifically for and collaborate with the actors they are assigned.
We think this all sounds fun. Please only apply if this sounds fun to you too.
Diversity, in all its forms, is essential to the success of this project. Wonderlust is actively seeking representation across aesthetic, ethnic, racial, age, gender, and economic backgrounds.
Timeline: Actors and writers will be notified before the end of February, if they are selected. Rehearsals and recording will occur between May 6-26. Please let us know your availability from May 6-26. The project will launch for the public in mid-July.
We will have a kick-off event where actors and writers meet and trade ideas on Sunday evening, March 2 and a reading of the first draft of all scripts together on Saturday afternoon, April 19. Reserve those dates.
More about Wonderlust and this project:
Wonderlust Productions mission is to activate imagination and illuminate community stories to create a more inclusive world. We believe that community-centered, high-quality artistic experiences can transform how people interact with their world and what they imagine for the future of it. For all our work, we start by selecting a community of people we think have stories fascinating and essential to who we are, but often unknown, misunderstood, or left out.
For this project we seek stories of people who make our city tick: small business entrepreneurs and parking lot attendants; eccentric lifelong residents and skyway walkers; late-night cleaning crews and utility personnel; police officers and sidewalk buskers and beggars. We want to explore and reveal the connections that pull the city together, whether the people who clear the streets after big events or big snows or long-term residents who have seen the district change over time.
The result will be a series of short, high-quality, professionally produced audio dramas that employ and highlight local artists while providing audiences with an experience that augments their conventional view of reality. An artist-designed map, a virtual map and in-person QR codes will make the experience equally appealing as a planned activity or an accidental discovery, to locals and visitors, individuals and groups. Available online, it can also be a virtual experience that invites people to discover downtown from home (and get enticed to visit later).
Our goal is to create a compelling, high quality art experience that delights and provokes audiences with a new view on the world and the people around them.
Visit wlproductions.org for more information about past productions and art that is online now.
Questions? Contact Alan Berks at [email protected] or (651)-212-5075.