"Upgrade" Audition for the Theater
Equity actors sought for 2027 Winter Season show "Upgrade". ONLY LOCAL TALENT WILL BE CONSIDERED. Please see the information provided below. About the project: SYNOPSIS – A DARK ROMANTIC COMEDY. "Lorraine and Stu are Upper West Side empty nesters who have made a comfortable life together built on personal and professional success. But, as their 25th wedding anniversary looms, something isn’t sitting right. Maybe it’s just a little boredom—but maybe it’s a more significant discontentment. Attempting to explore and alleviate this unnamed restlessness, both turn to technology—to A.I. What begins as a darkly funny foray into the awkward particulars of building an online companion quickly becomes a treacherous exploration of the tenuous interplay between technology and humanity." Rate: LORT Non-Rep $889 weekly minimum (LORT D) Additional info: All roles will be understudied. PREPARATION: For the musical or musical and plays, please prepare a 32 bar cut in the style of the show and a short monologue with a total audition time under 3 minutes. If interested in plays only, please prepare two contrasting monologues (one should be comedic) with a total audition time under 3 minutes. An Equity Monitor will not be provided. The producer will run all aspects of this audition. 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. Rehearsals begin January 12, 2027 Previews are February 3, 2027, and February 4, 2027 Show opens February 5, 2027 Show closes March 28, 2027 **NOTE: The below roles may also be double as the voice over roles of STU'S ASSISTANT, JOSIE, and PODCAST HOST. If you are interested, please apply.
6 roles
Female-presenting. Married to STU for nearly 25 years. A celebrated career photographer, mother, and Upper West Side empty nester who loves her family but is quietly shaken by how disconnected she feels from the life she has built. Smart, perceptive, restless, funny, and emotionally guarded. Skeptical of A.I. at first, she is nevertheless drawn toward the possibility of being seen, desired, and understood by something—or someone—outside the familiar patterns of her marriage.
Male-presenting. Married to LORRAINE for nearly 25 years. An Upper West Side empty nester who believes he is mostly content with his marriage and family life, even as he fails to recognize how far Lorraine has drifted from him. Anxious about technology, suspicious of the rise of A.I., and easily pulled into online rabbit holes, Stu nevertheless finds himself tempted by the same digital intimacy he fears. Funny, defensive, affectionate, and vulnerable beneath his dread.
Male-presenting. Married to TACY. Stu and Lorraine’s neighbor and Stu’s best friend. Blunt, comic, candid, and a little rough around the edges, Gerald has weathered difficult chapters in his own marriage and is more willing than Stu to talk openly about desire, disappointment, and unconventional “solutions.” His confidence may mask hard-earned lessons, but he genuinely wants Lorraine and Stu to find their way back to each other.
Female-presenting. Married to GERALD. Lorraine’s neighbor and closest friend. Opinionated, warm, sharp, and unflappably loyal, Tacy prides herself on having an honest marriage and is not shy about saying exactly what she thinks. She wants to support Lorraine without enabling choices that disturb her, and her comic directness should sit alongside real concern for the people she loves.
Male-presenting, around Lorraine’s age. The theatrical manifestations of Lorraine’s A.I. companions—tailored projections of attention, charm, wit, flirtation, and emotional availability. These roles should feel seductive, specific, and slightly uncanny: not robots, but heightened versions of the connection Lorraine longs for. Moves quickly between comic precision, romantic allure, and the unsettling artificiality beneath the fantasy.
Female-presenting, around Stu’s age. The theatrical manifestations of Stu’s A.I. companions—responsive, disarming, flattering, and calibrated to bypass his skepticism. These roles should not feel mechanical; they are vivid, human-seeming projections that expose Stu’s loneliness, curiosity, vanity, and fear of being left behind. Possesses comic agility, warmth, and an ability to suggest something slightly destabilizing beneath the charm.
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