FIRST LOOK SERIES
THE AUDITION
written and directed by Alex Ferris
Josh already has a Disney show, but now he wants to be a movie star. Coach thinks he can get him there, but they’re going to have to rebuild his craft from the ground up. And it’s going well—at least, that’s what Josh thinks. After all, maybe the problem is with his acting, but maybe it’s just him.
Drawing on the author’s experience as a former child star, The Audition explores the ins and outs of acting through a series of increasingly difficult exercises, auditions, and callbacks—turning the problem of “good acting” into a stunt to be executed onstage in real time, in order to answer the questions:
Does the stuff we do in acting class really make a difference?
Or is the difference between good and great actors mainly just luck?
How good are people at knowing what’s going on inside other people?
And what does it mean to convince a human audience that you, the actor, are also human?
Featuring Gus Reale and Pete Simpson*
*Actor appearing courtesy of Actor’s Equity Association
Equity approved Showcase
PERFORMANCES
Friday, September 18th @ 7:00pm
Saturday, September 19th @ 2:00pm
(followed by an audience Q&A)
Saturday, September 19th @ 7:00pm
Approximately 75 mins (no intermission)
TICKETS
General Admission: $30.00
MEET THE ARTISTS
ALEX FERRIS (Playwright/Director)
Alex Ferris is a playwright and multi-hyphenate artist. His first play, “The Final Flight of Annie ‘The Eagle’ Appleman’ debuted at the Wild Project in March, and is slated for a subsequent run at La MaMa. As an actor, he’s appeared in over 50 movies and TV shows, including RV (with Robin Williams), The Time Traveler’s Wife (with Rachel McAdams) and The Diary of a Wimpy Kid. As a documentarian, he collaborates with Douglas Keeve (Unzipped) on the upcoming fashion biopic, Polly. Alex works at NYU, where he teaches the Green World, a class about environmental issues, for artists. BFA: NYU Tisch, MFA: NYU Dramatic Writing.
GUS REALE (Josh)
Gus Reale just graduated from NYU Graduate Acting. Recent favorites include Angels in America (Dir. Sivan Battat), All My Sons ( Dir. Britt Berke) & Anne Frank in Mount Vernon, Ohio (Dir. Megumi Nakamura). He is thrilled to have the opportunity to stretch himself by playing an actor seeking training.
PETE SIMPSON* (Coach)
Recently wrapping Eliana Rodriguez’ “Indian Princesses” (Atlantic Theater), Simpson’s theater work has also included principal roles w/ some of NY’s most respected artists: Elevator Repair Service (“Gatz,” The Select” etc.), Annie Baker (“Infinite Life”–NYC/London), Tina Satter (“Is This a Room”–Broadway), the Wooster Group (“North Atlantic,” opposite Willem Dafoe), Young Jean Lee, (“Straight White Men,” “Lear,” etc.), Will Eno (“Middletown”), Sarah Gancher (“The Wind and the Rain”), Big Dance Theater, Richard Maxwell, Richard Foreman, Julia Jarcho, and others. He has also performed work w/ award-winning choreographers Susan Marshall, Dean Moss, Annie B. Parson and Faye Driscoll. Simpson concluded his 5,000+ performance run as the titular character in Blue Man Group (also serving as trainer, writer, director). For his NYC theater work, Simpson was awarded an Obie for Sustained Excellence of Performance in 2017, and the ND Charles Bowden Award in 2024. Film/TV: “Marriage Story,” “Morning Glory,” “Lincoln in the Bardo,” “Stefan,”; “Law and Order,” “Gotham,” Conan O’Brien, Jay Leno. Upcoming Work: Simpson can be seen this fall in Daniel Fish’s “Kramer/Fauci” (Philadelphia) and in principal roles in Dylan Guerra’s “The Grief Eater Near North Bender” (Roundabout Theater) and Elevator Repair Service’s “The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil” (Public Theater).
For more information on how to support new work – CLICK HERE