[e-drive][AUDITION: VANCOUVER]

[Kaethe Yanovsky]

~~~~~~~~~~e-drive~~~~~~~~~~

WHERE ARE VANCOUVER's LATINO ACTORS, and their allies!?
aqtvancouver is casting for the Canadian Premiere of Clint Jefferies TANGO
MASCULINO (currently playing off-broadway); Please send pictures/resumes for
talent (equity and emerging artists) that may suit the following roles.
Successful candidates will be contacted with audition information. Talent
must be prepared with a 2-3 minute contemporary monologue in a Spanish or
Italian accent depending on the role. Also, sides will be provided in
advance. TANGO MASCULINO, a play with music, is not available for public
reading. Check us out on the web: www.queertheatre.com
Mail resume/photo before May 31st: aqtvancouver 460 East 48th Avenue,
Vancouver BC V5W 2E5

aqtvancouver is a member of the Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre
Alliance, the Alliance for the Arts+Culture and GLBA. Equity members will be
hired under the jurisdiction of the CAEA. Production dates yet to be
announced. All applicants must be at least 18 years of age.


TANGO MASCULINO by Clint Jefferies. The beginning of the 20th Century,
Buenos Aires.

Rosendo
El Compadrito (30's)  Lunfardo: A flashy street tough.  He might be a thug,
thief, pimp, hustler - or all of the above, depending on the day.  His
flashy dress is an affected aping - both envying and thumbing his nose at
the upper classes.  A short-bladed knife (a sign of courage) is always
handy, tucked in the waistband of his trousers.  The compadrito is the
archetypal - and in Argentine lore, almost mythical -- street-tough of the
period.  His code is strict: Courage and machismo above all else - and fuck
anything that moves - respectable women, the prostitutes he owns, men who
pay him, men he can 'put one over on'.  Among the lunfardo (thief) class,
there's no stigma attached to fucking another man; it's something of a badge
of honor.  Any man who allows himself to be fucked, however, is a marica or
maricon - a queen or queer.  To the compadrito, to be the submissive partner
would be a matter of unimaginable shame.

Our compadrito carries much baggage.  His love/hate relationship with an
abusive father has left him with emotional scars - an overcompensating need
to dominate those around him, and a gnawing, silent need to finally confront
a person stronger than himself and to find a sort of welcome release in
surrendering control.  And the need is growing.

Jorge
El Chico (16-19) The Boy.  He is a young man from the Palermo Arrabal (a
slum on the outskirts of Buenos Aires).  He's the youngest son of an
out-of-work gaucho, now deceased, and a protective and adoring mother.  He's
drawn to men sexually, but terribly torn.  He very much wants a father
figure and lover to protect him and to adore, but is also aware of the
stigma attached to 'maricon.'  He has inherited too much of his father's
pride and machismo to ever be seen as less than a man.  He's now
increasingly desperate to find an identity he can live with.  He's also of
an age where one may still retain the hope of a knight in shining armor.


Manon
La Marica (20-35) Lunfardo: Queen The term used by Argentine men of the
period who self-identified as homosexual.  As an admitted passive partner in
male-male sex, the marica was scorned by and ostracized from normal Latino
society.  However in the Lunfardo world of brothels and slums they were a
common and even accepted part of the outcast mix - though certainly not
having the status of a 'real' man.  As part of La Confrada (their own term
for the subculture) they were becoming a visible minority in the city at
large, often as drag hustlers, and were a matter of growing concern for
civic authorities.
Manon, like most of her period, has embraced the rather rigid role defined
for her.  Once 'out' as a passive homosexual, she has lost any claim to
masculinity and sees her identity as largely female.  There was no middle
ground.  She lives the Latina feminine stereotype - probably more then most
women.


Lorenzo
El Sindical (20-30) The union man. He is an Italian immigrant.  He is a man
of strong convictions, but a will that can't withstand the pressures around
him.  Workers had zero rights in turn of the century Argentina and labor
organizers were regularly beaten and murdered by both hired thugs and
police.  The class divide was huge and oppression of the worker very real.
Lorenzo is fast nearing the end of his rope.  He sees little hope for change
and is slowly giving up the fight, using sex and drugs as an escape from the
seeming hopelessness of his crusade.


Francisco Vallon
El niño mal
de familia bien (18-25)  Literally, 'bad child of good family,' he's a black
sheep who ventures out of his wealthy home to go slumming and whoring among
the lower classes.  Because of the danger of the slums, the 'bad children'
almost always made the rounds in packs and were a regular sight in the
brothels on the outskirts of the city.  He is wild, likable, proud and macho
with an arrogance less affected than inbred.  While friendly and reasonably
comfortable among the thugs, pimps and drag hookers with whom he mingles at
night (possibly still in the white tie and tails he wore to the opera
earlier) he certainly considers himself superior.  He's not 'bad' any more
than the thieves he's befriended.  Both are simply products of their own
time and society with a class structure and prejudices so immutable they are
hardly questioned by either.


Julia
La China Criolla (16-25) Creole, woman of mixed blood.  A dark-skinned
mulata prostitute.  On the whole, less brazen than the Italian or Spanish
immigrant prostitutes, the Criollas were generally better thought of by the
authorities because they tended to be more modest and 'womanly' in the
Latina stereotype - also because they were Argentinas - not outsiders.  She
is a prostitute not out of choice, but out of poverty and tends to treat her
johns in the same way she would treat a husband.  She has a very real
attachment to La Madre, but also a very real desire to get out of 'the
life.'


Rufino
El Guapo (30-45) Good-looking, brave man, bully.  Our guapo is employed as a
thug for the local political boss.  He enforces proper voting, suppresses
organized labor and keeps the workers in line, generally at knifepoint.  He
doesn't do any of this for ideological reasons; it's merely his job and
gives him a certain status and fear-inspired respect among the rabble.  He
doesn't pick a quarrel unless it's in his self-interest, but he does have a
slight streak of mean.

Alejandro
El Langa (25-35) Lunfardo: show-off, pimp Tough, has a friendly rivalry with
Rosendo, tinged with a certain amount of jealousy.  Like all the men except
Manon, the Latino code of honor and machismo is unquestioned.

Sophia
La Italiana (18-30)  The Italian.  An Italian immigrant prostitute.  She is
brash, loud, aggressive - one who might be unflatteringly termed "a real
ball-breaker."  She dominates anyone she can, easily eviscerates with her
tongue and has a colorful vocabulary.  She earns her living the way she does
at least partly by choice - it's one of the few ways a woman can be truly
independent.  She's not at all evil, but she takes shit from nobody.

La Madre (40-60)  The mother.  The madam of the bordello, but also very much
its mother.  She is both disciplinarian and protector to her girls - most of
whom she truly cares for.  Our madam is of ambiguous sexuality.  Her
preference for masculine dress is perhaps part lesbian penchant, part as a
symbol of her dominant role in the house, and part a way to thumb her nose
at upper-class conventions.  She is a retired hooker, has certainly had
relationships with men, and is now the dominant partner in a special
relationship with Julia.  The sexual nature of the relationship is less
important than La Madre's selection of a masculine role in society.  The
contemporary terms for lesbian - uranista and invertida - seem to have had
less to do with sexual preference than with a woman who took on a job or
role traditionally reserved for men - in business, society or in her
affections.

El Organillero (60-80)  The Organ Grinder.  Shabbily dressed, only a few
teeth left, he makes a living with a street organ and tin cup.  He has few
cares, is satisfied with his place in life, and gently rules the family in
his tiny shack in the barrio.

El Cantor / Juan (over 30) The singer.  A male Argentine tango singer of the
'30's.  Impeccably dressed, hair slicked back.  He is elegant and macho,
with deep, resonant, voice that sings with an honest and heartfelt drama is
yearning for something lost.  (The same actor plays Juan, an anonymous tango
dancer/john)

La Canta (over 30) The singer.  A female Argentine tango singer of the
'30's.  Stylishly gowned with heavy makeup, she exudes both elegance and
sexuality.  Dietrich-like, a playful half smile gently mocks both herself
and those who desire her.  In a deep, smoky alto, she too croons a sincere,
almost tragic longing for all that is gone.

www.queertheatre.com Mail to: aqtvancouver 460 East 48th Avenue, Vancouver
BC V5W 2E5