Auditions for THE OUTSIDERS at Vero Voce Theater

Auditions for S.E. Hinton’s, The Outsiders at Vero Voce Theater

(ST CHARLES) Vero Voce is pleased to announce auditions for The Outsiders, adapted by Christopher Sergel, from the book by S.E. Hinton. Auditions will be held at Vero Voce, 951 State Ave., Ste F, St Charles by appointment on Monday, February 15, 2016, 7:00-9:00 pm. Please register for an appointment on the Vero Voce auditions page at http://verovoce.com/children-s-theatre/young-actor-auditions.

The Outsiders will be directed by David M. Rodriguez (Vero Voce Artistic Director). The production will run April 15-24, 2016 at Vero Voce. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm and Sundays at 6:00 pm.

Vero Voce will cast 10 men and 8 women between the ages of 13-18. Actors are asked to prepare one monologue (30-45 seconds) and bring a headshot and resumé. Rehearsals begin the week of March 1, 2016 and will be held 2 week-day evenings and one weekend day until tech week. This is a tuition based program. All actor conflicts must be listed at the time of audition and will be taken into consideration in the preparation of the rehearsal schedule.

S.E. Hinton, who wrote this modern classic when she was 16 years old, comments: “The Outsiders, like most things I write, is written from a boy’s point of view. That’s why I’m listed as S.E. Hinton rather than Susan. (I figured most boys would look at the book and think ‘What can a chick know about stuff like that!’) None of the events are taken from life, but the rest—how kids think and live and feel—is for real. The characters—Dallas, who wasn’t tough enough; Sodapop, the happy-go-lucky dropout; Bob, the rich kid whose arrogance cost him his life; Ponyboy, the sensitive, green-eyed Greaser who didn’t want to be a hood—they’re all real to me. Many of my friends are Greasers, but I’m not. I have friends who are rich, too, but nobody will ever call me a Soc—I’ve seen what money and too much idle time and parental approval can do to people. Cool people mean nothing to me—they’re living behind masks and I’m always wondering “Is there a real person underneath?” This entirely practical stage adaptation deals with real people, seen through the eyes of young Ponyboy, a Greaser on the wrong side of life, caught up in territorial battles between the have-it-made rich kids—the Socs—and his tough, underprivileged “greaser” family and friends. In the midst of urban warfare, somehow Ponyboy can’t forget a short poem that speaks of their fragile young lives:

Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower; But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief,
so dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay.

“Robert Frost wrote it,” Ponyboy tells Johnny. “I always remembered it because I never quite got what he meant by it.” Cherry, a beautiful Soc, comes to share a special sensitivity with Ponyboy as she discovers that he remembers poems and needs to watch sunsets. At the same time, Cherry’s attracted to the older, tougher Dallas, and in a sense she’s caught in the violent space between the Greasers and the Socs. While the Socs appear to have everything, the only thing a Greaser has is his friends. As these young people try to find themselves and each other, as the sadness of sophistication begins to reach them and their battles and relationships reach a resolution, Ponyboy’s dying friend, Johnny, sends him a last message … I’ve been thinking about the poem that guy wrote. He meant you’re gold when you’re a kid, like green. When you’re a kid everything’s new, dawn. It’s just when you get used to everything that it’s day. Like the way you dig sunsets, Pony. That’s gold. Keep it that way. It’s a good way to be. This is a play about young people who are not yet hopeless about latent decency in the midst of struggle.

Vero Voce course offerings include all instruments, voice and theatre classes and a full season of adult musical and non-musical productions and young actors’ theatre productions. All performances and classes are held in our 7000 sq ft facility located at 951 State Avenue, St Charles, Illinois.

More information about the many offerings at Vero Voce can be obtained by visiting the website: verovoce.com, or calling (630) 584-0139.