Audition Excerpt for The Duchess

AUDITION NOTES:

The production team will provide you with a scene partner to read with.

Memorizing the text is not required.

Mr. Hopkins is requesting you perform two pieces:

The first will be of your choosing. (Our hope is that this will help warm you up and help you feel more comfortable before taking a pass at Webster's text, which can be challenging)
The second will be from our script and is printed below.

There are additional notes to consider in the column on the right. These are here to give you more context IF you find that useful. Don't overdo it! There will be no written exam! :)

And most importantly enjoy yourself. We do not expect a "perfect" performance. We merely want a sense of who you are and what you may be able to contribute to our production. Have fun and we appreciate everyone's efforts in advance.
It will be great to meet you all face to face!

Jordan Morris: Producer

THE EXCERPT:

DUCHESS
I sent for you; sit down.
Take pen and ink and write – are you ready?

ANTONIO
Yes.

DUCHESS
What did I say?

ANTONIO
That I should write somewhat.

DUCHESS
Oh, I remember.
After these triumphs and this large expense,
It's ﬁt, like thrifty husbands, we inquire
What's laid up for tomorrow.

ANTONIO
So please your beauteous excellence.

DUCHESS
Beauteous?
Indeed, I thank you. I look young for your sake:
You have ta'en my cares upon you.

ANTONIO
I'll fetch your grace
The particulars of your revenue and expense.

DUCHESS
O, you are an upright treasurer; but you mistook:
For when I said I meant to make inquiry
What's laid up for to-morrow, I did mean
What's laid up yonder for me.

ANTONIO
Where?

DUCHESS
In heaven.
I am making my will (as 'tis ﬁt princes should
In perfect memory) and I pray, sir, tell me
Were not one better make it smiling thus,
Than in deep groans and terrible ghastly looks?
As if the gifts we parted with procur'd
That violent distraction.

ANTONIO
Oh, much better.

DUCHESS
If I had a husband now, this care were quit;
But I intend to make you overseer.
What good deed shall we ﬁrst remember? Say.

ANTONIO
Begin with that ﬁrst good deed began i' the world
After man's creation: the sacrament of marriage.
I'd have you ﬁrst provide for a good husband;
Give him all.

DUCHESS
All!

ANTONIO
Yes, your excellent self.

DUCHESS
In a winding-sheet?

ANTONIO
In a couple.

DUCHESS
Saint Winifred! That were a strange will.

ANTONIO
'Twere stranger
If there were no will in you to marry again.

DUCHESS
What do you think of marriage?

ANTONIO
I take't as those that deny purgatory:
It locally contains or heaven or hell;
There's no third place in't.

DUCHESS
How do you affect it?

ANTONIO
My banishment, feeding my melancholy,
Would often reason thus-

DUCHESS
-Pray, let's hear it.

ANTONIO
Say a man never marry, nor have children;
What takes that from him? Only the bare name
Of being a father, or the weak delight
To see the little wanton ride a-****-horse
Upon a painted stick, or hear him chatter
Like a taught starling.

DUCHESS
Fie, ﬁe, what's all this?
One of your eyes is blood-shot; use my ring to't,
They say 'tis very sovereign. 'Twas my wedding-ring,
And I did vow never to part with it
But to my second husband.

ANTONIO
You have parted with it now.

DUCHESS
Yes, to help your eye-sight.

ANTONIO
You have made me stark blind.

DUCHESS
How?

ANTONIO
There is a saucy and ambitious devil
Is dancing in this circle.

DUCHESS
Remove him!

ANTONIO
How?

DUCHESS
There needs small conjuration when your ﬁnger
May do it thus. Is it ﬁt? [DUCHESS puts the ring on ANTONIO’s ﬁnger; he kneels.]

ANTONIO
What said you?

DUCHESS
Sir,
This goodly roof of yours is too low built:
I cannot stand upright in't nor discourse
Without I raise it higher. Raise yourself,
Or, if you please, my hand to help you; so.

ANTONIO
Ambition, madam, is a great man's madness
That is not kept in chains and close-pent rooms,
But in fair lightsome lodgings, and is girt
With the wild noise of prattling visitants,
Which makes it lunatic beyond all cure.
Conceive not I am so stupid but I aim
Whereto your favours tend; but he's a fool
That, being a-cold, would thrust his hands i' the ﬁre
To warm them.

DUCHESS
So now the ground's broke.
You may discover what a wealthy mine
I make your lord of /

ANTONIO
O my unworthiness!

DUCHESS
You were ill to sell yourself;
This dark'ning of your worth is not like that
Which tradesmen use i' the city: their false lights
Are to rid bad wares off, and I must tell you,
If you will know, where breathes a complete man
(I speak it without ﬂattery): turn your eyes
And progress through yourself.

ANTONIO
Were there nor heaven nor hell,
I should be honest: I have long serv'd virtue
And ne'er ta'en wages of her.

DUCHESS
Now she pays it.
The misery of us that are born great:
We are forc'd to woo, because none dare woo us;
And as a tyrant doubles with his words
And fearfully equivocates, so we
Are forc'd to express our violent passions
In riddles and in dreams, and leave the path
Of simple virtue, which was never made
To seem the thing it is not. Go, go brag.
You have left me heartless; mine is in your bosom;
I hope 'twill multiply love there. You do tremble;
Make not your heart so dead a piece of ﬂesh
To fear more than to love me. Sir, be conﬁdent;
What is't distracts you? This is ﬂesh and blood, sir;
'Tis not the ﬁgure cut in alabaster
Kneels at my husband's tomb. Awake, awake man!
I do here put off all vain ceremony,
And only do appear to you a young widow
That claims you for her husband; and, like a widow,
I use but half a blush in't.

ANTONIO
Truth, speak for me!
I will remain the constant sanctuary
Of your good name.

DUCHESS
I thank you, gentle love,
And 'cause you shall not come to me in debt,
Being now my steward, here upon your lips
I sign your Quietus est. This you should have begg'd now:
I have seen children oft eat sweetmeats thus,
As fearful to devour them too soon!

ANTONIO
But for your brothers-

DUCHESS
-Do not think of them:
All discord without this circumference
Is only to be pitied and not fear'd;
Yet, should they know it, time will easily
Scatter the tempest.

ANTONIO
These words should be mine,
And all the parts you have spoke, if some part of it
Would not have savour'd ﬂattery. [CARIOLA reveals herself from a hidden place - ANTONIO reacts.]
Ha!

DUCHESS
Be not amaz'd: this woman's of my counsel.
I have heard lawyers say a contract in a chamber,
Per verba de presenti, is absolute marriage.
Bless, heaven, this sacred gordian, which let violence
Never untwine.

Some context:

This is known as "The wooing scene"

Seconds prior to the start of our excerpt, The Duchess has her faithful servant Cariola hide from view and listen in on her playful sparring with Antonio. The audience is treated to a glimpse of her at her most passionate and vulnerable. Here, safe from the controlling eyes of her brothers, she literally lets her hair down and opens her heart to the man she has chosen to love. She makes the choice to embrace all of the pleasures that her life and status afford her.

"The Duchess is seen right from the start as a passionate character who is pursuing the affection of Antonio. Her dialogue is full of sexual innuendo, and is (sometimes simplified and seen as being) in the category of the renaissance stereotype the 'lusty widow'. (We suggest she is much more complex than that.)

She is presented as a powerful woman with a dominant will and right to the moment of her death is portrayed as strong and independent. Defying her brother's warnings not to remarry is clear proof of this.
The Duchess's defiant insistence on marrying Antonio, her second husband, is an action which shows that she has her own desires, and a more dominant will than anyone else around her. Webster has given her all the qualities that Antonio, her spouse, lacks, qualities which were not thought to be desirable in a woman of that era; she plots, schemes and has a bold and impetuous nature.
It is critical to note however, that she is also a fundamentally good character, (and she displays a great dislike of the darkness):

Duchess: They that enter there,
Must go upon their knees [Act 4, Scene ii]

(This shows how) she is an opposite of her brother Ferdinand who moves about her in a black disguise.
The Duchess of Malfi hinges around a female protagonist, and, like Antonio's, her predicament shows how the play's themes are underpinned by Webster's thinking about social issues of his day. Ironically, he is making points about women's rights at a time when only men were allowed to act on the stage. Like many playwrights of the time Webster had a legal background, and this served to make him more aware of the inequalities of the law involving women. He has a sensitive awareness of these inequalities and the play illustrates the ridiculous views of his time"

Most of the above section is reprinted from the essay
"The Duchess of Malfi:
The Principal Characters and Their Roles"

by Jenia Geraghty 2002

As you study the excerpt and prepare for your audition, also consider the following questions that Mr. Hopkins may ask you:

If I justify the action are you prepared to appear nude in one scene?

Are you comfortable with the idea of sharing a scene with naked male dancers?

Do you think she is confident in this scene?

What do you think it costs her to pull the ring trick?

How long has she known Antonio?

How long has she been in love with him?

[Untitled]

JordanMorris	Latest page update: made by JordanMorris , Jun 6 2010, 1:42 PM EDT (about this update About This Update Edited by JordanMorris 1 word added 2 words deleted view changes - complete history)
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