"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" Audition for the Theater
Equity actors for roles in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". Refer below for more details. About the project: SYNOPSIS: Reimagined in a small fishing harbor on the North Cornish Coast, eleven strangers, twenty characters and twenty instruments tell the curious story of Benjamin Button, a man whose life flows in reverse. From his extraordinary birth as a seventy-year-old man in 1918 to his equally extraordinary death in 1988, Benjamin embarks on a universally recognisable journey - to find a place that he can call home. Against the backdrop of Cornwall’s distinctive Celtic culture, our whimsical, magical strangers (aptly representing the wild Cornish elements) function as the engine of storytelling, and guide us through the emotional and musical rhythm of his life. To tell this curious tale, each actor will undertake multiple roles – fluidly shifting between age and gender identity as they play both the strangers narrating the story, and the characters that Benjamin meets along the way. Rate: Off Broadway $1,929 weekly minimum (cat. EE) Additional info: Audition day break: 1:00PM - 2:00PM. PREPARATION: Please come prepared to self accompany, and choose from one of the following options. A) If you are playing an instrument that allows you to play and sing at the same time, please prepare a short (under 2 minutes) song in a folk style. If you would like to demonstrate 2 instruments, please prepare two 1-minute cuts. B) If you play an instrument that is impossible or challenging to play while singing (i.e. cornet, whistles, etc.), please prepare a 1-minute (or under) folk song (bring sheet music for accompanist) AND a 1 minute (or under) instrumental piece to play on your instrument. Please bring your headshot and resume stapled together. NOTE: With the exception of REVERTHI (BENJAMIN BUTTON) & STERENOW (ELOWEN/THE SHEEP), all roles will potentially be understudying additional characters or instruments. First Rehearsal: August 19th, 2026 Tech: September 29th, 2026 First Preview: October 8th, 2026 Potential Closing: November 22nd, 2026 Furthest Possible Extension: December 13th, 2026 EPA Procedures are in effect for this audition. An Equity Monitor will be provided. Equity’s contracts prohibit discrimination. Equity is committed to diversity and encourages all its employers to engage in a policy of equal employment opportunity designed to promote a positive model of inclusion. As such, Equity encourages performers of all ethnicities, gender identities, and ages, as well as performers with disabilities, to attend every audition. Always bring your Equity Membership card to auditions. If you are interested, please apply.
15 roles
Plays violin AND piano. Female identifying. Vocal range - Mezzo-Soprano. To play MARY BUTTON, Benjamin’s mother. Astounded by the old man she gives birth to, wearing a three-piece suit and a pipe in his pocket Mary realises that the only thing worse than being the monster, is to be the monster’s mother. MILLIE DYER is a young woman in the village. She is trying to grow her garden gnome Gerald, into a husband.
Plays Violin, Accordion AND Piano. Female identifying. Vocal range - Mezzo-soprano. LOWEN is Benjamin and Elowen’s daughter, an energetic and hopeful little girl, who dies tragically after slipping off the harbor wall. MR GLADSTONE is the village baker and man about town, who regularly enjoys a dip in the Cornish sea. Although married, he is a little too fond of the ladies.
Plays Violin AND Mandolin. Any vocal range. TRENLEE SENIOR, a fishing boat skipper, gives Benjamin his very first job. Gruff and easily agitated. CAPTAIN CARRICK who is frequently found at the village pub, The Pickled Crab, where he spends his days drinking pints and waiting for his wife, who has been gone for 21 years, to come home.
Plays Bass Guitar AND Upright Acoustic Bass. Any vocal range. LOCRYN is Benjamin and Elowen’s son who ages from 3 to 24 years old over the course of the play. He has a complicated relationship with his ever transforming and sometimes absent father. MRS. BENNETT is a newlywed with some very big expectations, and a very short temper.
Plays Guitar, Upright Acoustic Bass AND Bass Guitar. Male identifying. Vocal Range - Bari-Tenor. The LANDLORD who runs the village pub, The Pickled Crab. This role musically leads the song that represents Benjamin and Elowen’s journey to falling in love. MRS GLADSTONE’S SISTER is the village florist, a vivacious, lusty woman, who longs for a married man. Unfortunately that man is her brother-in-law! Possesses great comedic abilities.
Plays a handheld instrument confidently. Male identifying. Vocal Range - Bari-Tenor. Any White, AAPI, First Nations, Indigenous, Latine, MENA, Multiracial or Native ethnicity. To play from 70 years old to birth. BENJAMIN BUTTON is born at age 70, wearing a three-piece suit and a pipe in his pocket. Shamed into secrecy by his parents, Benjamin longs for a life of normalcy and a place, or even a person, who he can call home. Possesses an expansive emotional range and a well-honed funny bone.
Plays piano OR violin OR guitar. Female identifying. Vocal Range – Mezzo-Soprano. To play 21 to 63. ELOWEN KEENE, the local barmaid at The Pickled Crab. Effortlessly grounded, warm, and fearless, Elowen has little regard for what people think of her. Desperate to leave the village she grew up in. She has an innate ability to take others exactly as they are. Also plays THE SHEEP, who is a four footed humorist in the village. Possesses a vast emotional range, a natural warmth and groundedness.
Plays Cello, Bass Guitar AND Upright Acoustic Bass. Male identifying. Vocal Range - Bari-Tenor. ROGER BUTTON is Benjamin’s father. A traditional Cornish man who longs to be a father, we first meet him on his way to greet his newborn son – who turns out to be a seventy-year-old man. Roger is able to convey the spirit and physicality of a thirty-eight-year-old and a seventy-eight-year-old; possessing an expansive emotional range.
Plays Drums, Percussion AND Cajon. Any vocal range. MRS. GLADSTONE is married to the local baker, Mr. Gladstone, who catches the eye of various women in the village with his open sea swimming… specifically, Mrs. Gladstone’s own sister. BILLY TYNE is a fisherman who Benjamin briefly meets later in his life, whilst he is in America looking for work.
Plays Accordion AND Piano. Any vocal range. JACK TRENLEE is 11 years old when we first meet him. He is a fisherman on the boat Benjamin first works on. JACK is naïve, optimistic. Not a great sailor, he deals with the constant disappointment of his father, the fishing boat skipper. Although not so smooth with his words, Jack is wise beyond his years in his treatment of Benjamin. We see the JACK between the ages of eleven and forty-two. MR. BENNETT is a newlywed and the local tailor.
Plays Cornet AND Whistles. Any vocal range. MORWENNA KEENE is Elowen’s mother and the local midwife. Much to her horror and confusion, she delivers Benjamin, who is born an old man. She longs for her free-spirited daughter to stay at home, get married, and become a midwife like her. MISS MONCRIEF is the proprietor of the local tea shop but you’re much more likely to find gin in her cup than tea.
Plays Violin, Mandolin, Accordion, Piano, Whistles and Cornet. Female presenting. Vocal range - Mezzo Soprano. Extremely versatile actor/musicians to cover multiple ensemble tracks.
Plays Violin, Mandolin, Accordion and Piano. Female presenting. Vocal range - Mezzo Soprano. Extremely versatile actor/musicians to cover multiple ensemble tracks.
Plays Guitar, Drums, Upright Acoustic Bass, Bass Guitar, Whistles, Cornet, Percussion and Cajon. Male presenting. Vocal range - Bari-Tenor. Extremely versatile actor/musicians to cover multiple ensemble tracks.
Plays Cello, Guitar, Upright Acoustic Bass and Bass Guitar. Male presenting. Vocal range - Bari-Tenor. Extremely versatile actor/musicians to cover multiple ensemble tracks.