Harbinger Theatre‘s second production of 2024 is the non-Equity Capital Region Premiere of “The Squirrels” by Robert Askins (“Hand to God”).
Email white.patrick1963@gmail.com to schedule auditions.
Monday, 2/19 and Tuesday, 2/20
319 Hamilton Street
Albany, NY 12210
6:30-9:30pm.
The Squirrels by Robert Askins
Directed by Patrick White
Harbinger @ Sand Lake Center for the Arts
2880 Rte 43, Averill Park, 12018
6/21-6/30, FREE Preview 6/20
“Winter is on the way and the squirrels are restless. Mistrust is growing between the rich Gray Squirrels and the outcast Fox Squirrels. When a wily outsider gets in the mix, he ignites an epic animal kingdom soap opera teeming with rebel armies, conspiracy, love and family loyalties. No squirrel will go unharmed in this deliciously-demented new comedy from Tony Award nominee Robert Askins.”
“The fast-paced 90-minute play…is a witty black comedy about a mixed-race squirrel family decimated by prejudice and greed. Writ large, it’s an apocalyptic tale of America’s cultural divide…[Askins] drops a thought bomb…about our responsibility for the destruction of the environment and for the care of one’s fellow squirrel (and otherwise).” —San Diego Union-Tribune
“The Squirrels is [an] allegory that launches salvos at current events, framed by a potential apocalypse…Beneath the satire, the play raises serious questions, in particular, why does inequality reign?” —San Diego Reader
ALL ETHNICITIES, GENDERS AND AGES CONSIDERED…we’re casting squirrels.
Scurius-Great old grey squirrel. Big. Fat-ish. The greatest gatherer of nuts the forest ever saw. Now gone to seed. Father to Chordata. Partner to Mammalia. Adopted father to Rodentia.
MAMMALIA HAS BEEN PRECAST
Mammalia-Scurius’s wife who puts up with his idiosyncrasies and tries to keep him from doing anything stupid.
Chordata-Squirrel sexy, squirrel smart. She knows the forest is changing. Their daughter is in love with a red squirrel. Naive teenager who leads with her heart.
Carolinensis- Idealistic red squirrel torn between love for Chordata and the hunger of his comrades, being starved by Sciurus’ overly zealous nut hoarding. It is the dead of winter and mating season is coming.
Rodentia-Red squirrel adopted daughter of Scurius. She swims with the tide that raises her boat.
Sciuridae/Scientist-A manipulative opportunist, out to make the tree great again — for gray squirrels. He plays on Sciurus’s pride and insecurity to create a rift between gray and red that spins out of control. The scientist is not a real scientist. He’s a cartoon scientist. Make of that what you will.
Squirrel Ensemble-2 or 3 actors to bring the squirrel world to life with movement and nut changes.
Contact Patrick White for sides. white.patrick1963@gmail.com
20 rehearsals will be Sunday through Wednesday 6:30-9:30.
“We’re going to bite and claw and scratch until today looks like yesterday.”