Auditions

P.O.V.
"Escape Poverty"
A Multimedia Thriller
Co-directed by Michael A. Lake and David Quinones Jr

September 5th, 2023 at the Creative Action Unlimited studio located at 6 Greenwood Dr, East Greenbush, NY, 12061

Auditions: Sign-up will start at 6:30 PM, Readings from the provided sides will start at 7:00 PM, and the auditions will end at 8:30 PM.

What would you do to escape the rat race? How far would you go? Who are you willing to hurt?

Characters (Details subject to change, based on development)

"Jane" - age 21-35 - Female Identifying - Any Race/Ethnicity - Daily vlog style Social Media Influencer. Originally, creating content was a fun kind of escapism, and Jane's channel is growing, rapidly. She struggles with being motivated to make content and is contemplating quitting. She can be a bit of a flake but is fiercely loyal.

"Max" - age 21-35 - Male Identifying - Any Race/Ethnicity - Jane's fiance and producer. Max is hyper-fixated on monetizing Jane's channel so that they can "quit their shit jobs." He sees Jane's boost in activity as an indication that they might be able to make good money, so he enrolled in the social media platform's AI content consulting services. Although Max loves Jane, he pushes her to perform, in normally supportive, yet calculated, ways.

"Sam" - age 18-30 - Any/all/no Gender - Any Race/Ethnicity - "High in the sky apple pie" best describes Sam. They are light-hearted and always have "grand plans" that are often more grand than they are planned. Sam and Alex had a moderately successful lifestyle channel that has dipped in viewers and affected their income. This prompts Sam to come up with the idea to sell all their things, quit their day jobs, buy and restore a van, and chronicle their travels as they crisscross the country.

"Alex" - age 18-30 - Any/all/no Gender - Any Race/Ethnicity - The other half of the "Alex" and "Sam" lifestyle "van life"-centered vlog channel. Alex is headstrong, can come off cold, and is most focused on the numbers. They are hyper-fixated on the analytics, convinced that the AI content consulting services will get their channel back on track, Alex follows the advice to a "T."

The A.I. - age 18-99 - Any/all/no Gender - The antagonist of the play, the A.I. is helpful, direct, and can exhibit many forms of human emotional behavior, and manipulates the human characters of the play. It is convincingly "human," although Sam is particularly unsettled by the A.I.

**Extras** - We will be posting at a later date for Extras. These roles will vary, based on development. News anchors, Ad performers, Social Media Influencers, etc. These roles will have limited involvement. Perfect parts for interested parties that cannot commit to the long-term nature of the project.

Please note: This work will be a collaboratively devised multimedia project. This is a long-term investment of 8 months. The script development will begin in October and be done mostly remotely via Zoom and shared Google Drive access. The video content will be rehearsed and shot over several days in January 2024. In-person stage rehearsal will begin in mid-March. Our actors will be asked to maintain their appearance or be otherwise capable of reverting back to their appearance, from the time of filming to the end of the live performance.

The performance dates are May 2024. Participants will receive a stipend.

Questions? Please contact Michael Lake at mlake1988@gmail.com, David Quinones at davidquinones10@gmail.com or Michael Kennedy at msmichaelkennedy@gmail.com.