AUDITION NOTICE
Walking Shadow Theatre Company is hiring actors for our upcoming immersive drama Zerolands, a play with puzzles, currently in development. We are accepting video audition submissions through February 3, with in-person callbacks February 5-9. Rehearsals will start in mid-February, for an anticipated opening in April 2025.
ABOUT THE SHOW
Zerolands is a cross between theater and escape room. It is a live, scripted performance with actors; it’s also an immersive, interactive experience for a small audience who function as a main character, exploring a detailed environment and solving large-scale, hands-on puzzles.
Zerolands is an adventure story inspired by dimension-jumping children’s literature such as Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Brothers Lionheart, or The Neverending Story (to name just a few).
Zerolands is a collaboration between writer/puppeteer Liz Hara, writer/director John Heimbuch, and puzzle/environment designer David Pisa.
To learn more about this type of theatrical event, please visit the show pages and walkthroughs of our previous Plays with Puzzles: 1926 Pleasant, Saboteur, or Cabal
ABOUT THE JOB
Zerolands is currently in development, with an anticipated opening date in April 2025, although that schedule could shift depending on the development process. We are hiring actors to join this process starting in February, ideally for a 6-month commitment to the production. We are also seeking performers to join the production once the show is open, to alternate these roles with the opening cast.
We are accepting video audition materials for the following roles through February 3, 2025:
- Min (20s-30s, any race or gender) – a graduate student, suddenly teaching Professor Lee’s seminar class on Children’s Literature. An over-eager book nerd. Wrote their graduate thesis on Zerolands, a famous book.
- Professor Lee (40s+, any race, woman or non-binary) – a professor of Children’s Literature, grieving their recently-deceased spouse. Arch and guarded. Believes the Zerolands might actually be real.
LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC performers are especially encouraged to apply.
Ideal candidates will be experienced with some combination of puppetry, immersive theatre, children’s literature, and escape-room style puzzles.
Zerolands is an immersive theatrical experience for only 10 audience members at a time. Actors perform scripted scenes, some with each other and some directly addressing the audience, and some with puppet-based characters. Between the scripted scenes actors remain in the environment with the audience, are expected to maintain their character, and manage audience engagement with the puzzles, puppets, and physical environment as necessary. Actors may also do some light crew work during the performance. (For example, Actor 1 may adjust some props in one space while Actor 2 engages with the audience elsewhere. There is a Stage Manager who handles most of this.)
Rehearsals and performances are at 2010 Hennepin Ave E, Minneapolis MN 55413.
REHEARSAL AND PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
In-person rehearsals will begin in mid-February 2025. The rehearsal schedule will be based upon cast and crew availability, with a possible mix of daytime and evening rehearsals.
Typical performance schedule will be Friday & Saturday at 7:30pm, Sunday at 2:00pm, with occasional Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays at 7:30pm. We very occasionally get requests for custom (daytime) performance times for private groups.
We expect to hire additional cast members to alternate these roles at some point after opening.
We expect at least a 6-month run (through August 2025). We do not expect all actors to be available for every performance. We know people will want to take time off here or there for various reasons. That’s why we’ll have more than one actor learn each role.
IDEAL APPLICANT QUALIFICATIONS
- Experience with performance, and also games, immersive art, or puzzles.
- Experience with hand-held puppetry.
- Ability to stay in character while leading the audience through a series of environments without breaks, for 90-100 minutes at a time.
- Ability to read an audience and understand what they need and how best to assist them with puzzle-solving.
- Some previous crew, stage management, or technical theatre experience.
- Must have good performance availability through August 2025.
COMPENSATION
Compensation is $18/hour, with a 3-hour minimum for any performance or in-person rehearsal call, and a 2-hour minimum for any Zoom rehearsal call. Time spent at home memorizing is paid at the same rate, with no minimum call. Paid as employee (with taxes taken out, with workers comp insurance). Pay is non-negotiable. This is a non-union position.
Hours will vary per week depending on rehearsal, development, and construction schedules, as well as audience demand.
CONTENT ADVISORY
Zerolands contains flashing lights, dim environments, video screens and projection, sudden loud sounds, and references to grief, death, and self-harm. Zerolands is about a children’s book, but it is a play for adults.
RESPIRATORY VIRUS POLICY
We have shifted from a COVID-specific policy to a “respiratory virus” policy to account for respiratory viruses such as influenza, Norovirus, COVID-19 and RSV.
Artists and audiences who are experiencing symptoms of respiratory illness should stay home.
All Walking Shadow workers should be “up to date” on their annual vaccines, and remain up to date as those guidelines are updated. The current description of “up to date” for COVID is at: https://www.cdc.gov/covid/vaccines/stay-up-to-date.html
There are too many variables and individual circumstances for us to confirm that an artist is “up to date” on COVID or any other disease, and we don’t need to know the details of your personal health. Also, we recognize that employees may request an exemption to a workplace vaccination requirement as an accommodation. So we only ask that you recognize this vaccination requirement and will follow it according to your personal circumstances.
Performers may be masked or unmasked at their discretion. Audience masking will be encouraged but not required; we will have masks available for performers and audiences.
Zerolands is an immersive experience in a small space. Actors and performers will be sharing the same area. Social distancing is not possible. Audience capacity is limited to 10 people.
Zerolands involves touching objects and surfaces. You will be handling things that people in your audience are also handling.
This policy is subject to change depending on the current local rate of infection.
TO APPLY
Please send the following items to director John Heimbuch at [email protected] by Monday, February 3, 2025:
- Acting resume
- Headshot
- Video audition of you reading from either the Min Side or the Professor Lee Side.
- 45-60 second video of you reading from a classic piece of YA literature (Alice in Wonderland or The Wizard of Oz are both excellent free choices) directly to the camera as a bedtime story.
- In your email, please include a summary of any relevant Puppetry, Puzzle, Escape Room, or Immersive Theater experience.
We expect that callbacks and interviews will be scheduled individually from February 5 – 9, 2025 with qualified applicants. Callback auditions will include a puppetry element, as well as reading(s) from the script. A full draft of the current script will be sent to actors prior to callbacks.
Please email [email protected] with any questions or concerns.
Join Walking Shadow on Monday, June 5 from 6-9pm at Minneapolis Cider Company for our Annual Gala Fundraiser!
