CALL TO AUDITION:
DANCING AT LUGHNASA
by Brian Friel
“I want to dance, Kate. It’s the Festival of Lughnasa. I’m only thirty-five. I want to dance.”
It’s the summer of 1936 in County Donegal, Ireland, during the pagan festival of Lughnasa, and young Michael watches his five aunts (the Mundy sisters) navigate the fragile joys and looming hardships of rural Irish life. Brief moments of freedom, hope, and love flicker through the household only to be threatened as economic pressures and family upheaval close in.
Widely regarded as Brian Friel’s masterpiece, this semi-autobiographical memory play is a haunting and affectionate portrait of five unmarried sisters whose fierce spirit and resilience shine even as their world begins to change forever.
Winner of the Tony Award for Best Play and Olivier Award for Best New Play.
“Exquisite… a finely crafted memory play… an exploration of nostalgia… the way we choose to reconstruct the past.” The Guardian
CREATIVE TEAM & CREW
Director Isabella Milkovitsch
Dramaturg & Singing Coach Naomi Belet
Choreographer Avalon Ormiston
(Full team tbc)
SHOW DATES
Production Week: 12 – 20 April 2026
Season: 21 April – 16 May 2026
REHEARSALS
Preliminary Rehearsals
Three to four preliminary rehearsals for accent, singing and movement work. Scheduled late Feb/early Mar, exact times/dates tbc, subject to cast availability.
Rehearsal Period
Five weeks part-time, commencing in Mar at New Theatre, Newtown. Exact time/dates tbc, subject to cast availability. Availability to attend two to three evenings per week and one day per weekend is essential.
AUDITIONS
It is essential to read the script BEFORE applying. There is a perusal copy of the script available for viewing here.
The initial round of auditions will be done using self-tape. Call-back auditions will be held at the theatre in person after self-tape submissions close, exact dates tbc. If you are unable to submit a self-tape, please email the Director at dancingnt26@gmail.com to arrange an alternative means of audition.
Your filmed audition should include:
• A very brief self-introduction, including your name
• A brief introduction to your chosen audition piece
• Your audition piece: a monologue of your choice from a contemporary UK or Irish play or the suggested monologues below. If you are auditioning for the roles of the Mundy sisters, Michael or Father Jack, you are encouraged to audition using a north-western Irish (Ulster) accent. If you are auditioning for the role of Gerry, you are encouraged to audition using a Welsh accent.
Once you have captured your audition, upload it as either a private and password-protected Vimeo or a YouTube video using the password ‘Dancing26’ and email the link with the below information to dancingnt26@gmail.com.
In your email, please:
· Include an up-to-date headshot and cv
· Indicate which role/roles you are interested in
· Indicate if you are currently a New Theatre member
· Indicate your rehearsal availability (days and/or evenings)
Self-tape submissions close: Sun 25 Jan, 5pm
ROLES AVAILABLE
Michael
Male-identifying. 20s – 30s.
Michael is Chris and Gerry’s child.
Michael narrates the story, and speaks the lines of the boy, i.e. himself when he was seven.
Now a young man, he is revisiting a defining period from his childhood.
Kate Mundy
Female-identifying. 30s – 40s.
A schoolteacher, Kate is the family’s main source of income. She is a devout Roman Catholic, but well-meaning.
Maggie Mundy
Female-identifying. 30s – 40s.
In spite of their circumstances, Maggie is energetic, witty and unashamed.
Agnes Mundy
Female-identifying. 30s – 40s.
Though she loves all her sisters, Agnes shares a special, gentle bond with Rose. Unbeknownst to the family, she quietly nurtures a growing defiance and an unspoken longing for Chris’s lover, Gerry.
Rose Mundy
Female-identifying. 30s – 40s.
Rose’s joy and innocence are accompanied by a naïveté born of her learning disability, yet she remains steadfast, capable of holding her ground with resilience.
Chris Mundy
Female-identifying. 20s – 30s.
Cannot keep herself from falling in love again and again with Gerry.
Gerry
Male-identifying. 20s – 30s.
Michael’s father.
Charismatic and very loveable, but dishonest and lost in the world.
Father Jack
Male-identifying. 40s – 60s.
The sister’s uncle and a missionary priest. Father Jack is starting to lose his memory, but returns to Bally Beg having been deeply moved and enlightened by his experience as a missionary in Uganda, so much so that he is losing his Catholic beliefs.
We very much encourage and welcome submissions from people who identify as First Nations, PoC, CaLD, queer and/or gender diverse, neurodiverse and/or disabled.
PLEASE NOTE
New Theatre an amateur theatre company and a volunteer-based organisation – there is no for payment for this production.
If cast, you will be required to wash your own costumes and assist with production bump out.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Isabella Milkovitsch is a highly dedicated and ambitious Director and Producer. Having achieved a First Class Honours result in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Sydney, Isabella now works as a Producer and Teaching Artist at Sport for Jove Theatre Company, and a freelance Director for the independent scene, and in high schools. Her directing credits include: BiPolar Express (Sydney Fringe), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (co-Directed alongside Damien Ryan), The Real Inspector Hound, Knock Knock and The Day the Internet Died. As an Assistant Director Isabella worked alongside Cristabel Sved on SFJ’s production of Betrayal and she has worked regularly at the New Theatre on shows such as Twelfth Night, Banging Denmark and Shakespeare in Love. Isabella independently produced Much Ado at Flight Path Theatre (Attractive, Not Model Attractive). Isabella began her career as Stage Manager; for Sport for Jove she stage managed Romeo and Juliet (touring production), Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Summer Season) and Timon of Athens (Summer Season).
AUDITION MONOLOGUES
Male-Identifying Monologue
When I cast my mind back to that summer of 1936 two memories – of our first wireless and of Father Jack’s return – are always linked. So that when I recall my first shock at Jack’s appearance, shrunken and jaundiced with malaria, at the same time I remember my first flight, indeed my awe, at the sheer magic of that radio. And when I remember the kitchen throbbing with the beat of Irish dance music beamed to us all the way from Dublin, and my mother and her sisters suddenly catching hands and dancing a spontaneous step-dance and laughing – screaming! – like excited schoolgirls, at the same time I see that forlorn figure of Father Jack shuffling from room to room as if he were searching for something but couldn’t remember what. And even though I was only a child of seven at the time I know I had a sense of unease, some awareness of a widening between what seemed to be and what was, of things changing too quickly before my eyes, of becoming what they ought not to be.
Female-Identifying Monologue
I had arranged to meet Danny Bradley there, Kate. He brought me out in his father’s blue boat. I don’t want anything to eat, Maggie. I brought a bottle of milk and a packet of chocolate biscuits with me and we had a picnic on the lake. Then the two of us went up through the back hills. He showed me what was left of the Lughnasa fires. A few of them are still burning away up there. We passed young Sweeney’s house -you know, the boy who got burned, the boy you said was dying. Well, he’s on the mend, Danny says. His legs will be scarred but he’ll be all right. It’s a very peaceful place up there. There was nobody there but Danny and me. He calls me his Rosebud, Aggie. I told you that before, didn’t I? Then he walked me down as far as the workhouse gate and I came on home by myself. And that’s all I’m going to tell you. That’s all any of you are going to hear.