Wassail Theatre are looking for two actors/actor-musicians with a playing age of 50+ to help us tell a new fairytale, Apples & Pears (working title). 

 

This project has been co-commissioned by The Octagon Theatre Yeovil.  Equality, representation & inclusion for all is one of our core values and as such we encourage applications from persons of any gender identity or ethnicity.

​

Please let us know if you play any instruments.

​

SYNOPSIS

​

Just as Pete is about to run his next Tour of Somerset, this time around Burrow Hill Cider’s orchards, Babs appears from the Underworld, where she has been imprisoned for eons.  She has lost her memory and he has lost his soul. Can Lil bring them together again?

​

Don’t worry folks, it all finishes with a happy ending.

 

Alongside a professional cast, we will also have a community ensemble of local non-professional performers to help guide the audience and tell our story, which brings together new and traditional myths, in an outdoor promenade production among the orchards of Burrow Hill (Somerset Cider Brandy) in Somerset.

​

Throughout the story, the characters and the audience are transported between different places: This Side, and The Other Side. As they move between space, the characters literally, physically change. There is magic in the air.

​

CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS

We are looking for two actors with a playing age of 50+.

​

PETE STEEL: Pete identifies as male. He’s a loveable cheeky chappy, salt of the Somerset soil kind of guy. He was born under a muck spreader, has pirate ancestry and restless feet as he moves around the county. He’s an Eelie, a reformed thief and deeply, deeply sad.

​

Pete earns a living by running Tours of Somerset, usually with his brother Ivan, often with Ivan’s horses and miller’s cart: The Somerset Charabanc. Today’s tour is solo.

 

He met Babs during a tour of Shepton Mallet prison, and proposed to her during a Spurs away game. Pete made a deal with The Gods to force their wedding through; without realising it, the price he paid for making the deal was Babs’ freedom.

BARBARA BEST (BABS): Babs identifies as female. She has a beaming smile framed through her positive outlook on life. She’s Somerset-born and bred, having lived in Kingsbury Episcopi for most of her life. She could walk the Somerset Levels blindfolded and still make it home in time for tea. She’s conscientious, quite outspoken and protective about her family. Her distant ancestors started the English Civil War, while more recently they ran the village pub and the post office.

 

Babs earns a living by fixing kitchen appliances, although she hasn’t worked for some time.

​

FURTHER DETAIL

Auditions, rehearsals and performances will take place in Somerset.  A Somerset base would be an advantage but is by no means essential. The performances (and many of the rehearsals) will take place outside.

 

Rehearsal: 16th August - 7th September (3 weeks)

Performance: 8th - 30th September (21 performances)

​

Writer: Nick White

Director: Joanna Procter

Designer: Julie Read

Producer: Joseph Cullen

​

FEE

£500 per week + holiday pay and other allowances where applicable (per diems, relocation costs etc)

​

COVID SAFETY STATEMENT

We’re working with partners to risk assess the rehearsal and performance for this project.  This will include the provision of PPE, and minimising movement around the building.  We’ll ask everyone working with us on this project to sign a C-19 declaration form.