Auditions – One Crowded Hour

The Tasmanian Theatre Company are inviting interested performers – no experience necessary – to submit self tests for an upcoming production. The pre-filmed multimedia roles will be utilised in Terence O’Connell’s One Crowded Hour: Neil Davis, Combat Cameraman.

Neil Davis was a daring Tasmanian filmmaker and news cameraman, immortalised in Tim Bowden’s 1987 biography. He was best known for his coverage of various conflicts in Southeast Asia. “A cool, utterly dedicated professional, a legendary gambler who often relied on his intuitive sixth sense to stay alive, and a man who was equally at home with presidents and street beggars,” is how Booktopia describes him.

Dates

Filming will take place between 11 and 14 August. Actors will only be called for a maximum of four hours but must have reasonable and/or flexible availability during business hours of this week.

EOIs are due by Friday 17 July. Invitations to second round auditions and role offers will take place across 20 – 24 July.

Remuneration

Remuneration is dependent on the size of the role and time required. All rates are slightly above MEAA Equity minimums.

Should the production go on to tour, residuals will be payable.

The Roles

FILMED CHARACTERS

Neil Davis.

o   AUNT LILLIAN: Caucasian woman. Age range: 60-70. Ex WW1 Army Nurse. Warm, wise, adventurous.
o   CHOU PING (‘JULIE’) YEN/DAVIS: Taiwanese woman. Age range: 25-35. Preferably able to speak/sing Taiwanese Mandarin.
o   PRINCE OF UBUD: Balinese man. Age range: 40-50. Preferably able to speak a small amount of Bahasa Indonesia or Balinese.
o   GENERAL DUONG VAN MINH: Vietnamese male. Age range 50-60. Final President, for a matter of days, before the fall of Saigon.
o   DANG VAN: North Vietnamese Male. Age range: Early teens.
o   TRAN THAI SA: South Vietnamese girl. Small, Age range: 10-12. A child street hawker who sells cigarettes to soldiers in Saigon.
o   U.S. TV NEWSREADER: Caucasian Male. Age range: Middle aged.
o   AUSTRALIAN TV NEWSREADER: Caucasian Male. Age range: Middle aged.
o   COMMUNIST SOLDIER: Vietnamese Male. Age Range: 20’s. Preferably able to speak Vietnamese.
o   MR. MINH: Vietnamese Male. Age Range: 60’s. Tailor who made Neil Davis’ correspondent’s suits.
o   PALACE BUREAUCRAT: Vietnamese Male. Age Range: 20’s.

PORTRAIT CHARACTER MODELS

o   ADAM FEATHERSTONE: Caucasian Male. Age Range: 50-60. Haunted looking small town eccentric.
o   TROOPER CHILCOTT: Caucasian Male. Age Range: 40-50. Small town policeman.
o   GREAT GRANDFATHER DAVIS: Caucasian Male. Age Range: 50-60. Newspaper Editor.
o   MARJORIE DAVIS: Neil Davis’ mother. Caucasian Female. Age Range: Middle Aged. Farmer.
o   GEOFF DAVIS: Neil Davis’ father. Caucasian Male. Age Range: Middle Aged. Farmer.
o   JIMMY DAVIS: Neil Davis’ brother. Caucasian Male. Age Range: Early teens.
o   JOHNNY WRIGHT: Neil Davis’ mate. Caucasian Male. Age Range: Late 20’s. Cameraman, larrikin.
o   VINCE TUCKER: Caucasian Male. Age Range: 50-60. Tradesman, tool sharpener.
o   VIOLIN TEACHER: Caucasian Female. Age Range 50’s-60’s.
o   NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOURS: Chinese Family, at least two parents (one male one female) and two children, older generations also welcome.

The Show

“Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife,

Throughout the sensual world proclaim,

One crowded hour of glorious life

Is worth an age without a name”

The legendary combat cameraman Neil Davis wrote the last two lines of Mordaunt’s verse in the flyleaf of every work diary he kept in Southeast Asia. It was his motto and summed up his philosophy. One Crowded Hour, adapted from Tim Bowden’s bestselling biography, evokes the ‘glorious life’ of the boy from Tasmania who brought enduring reports of modern warfare direct from the battlefront to the world’s television screens.

Seen through the lenses of Davis’ Sorell boyhood Box Brownie, the 35 millimetre camera he used at the Tasmanian Government Film Unit and the 16 millimetre Bell & Howell he used to capture the fall of Saigon, One Crowded Hour uses monologue, historical footage, created imagery and an atmospheric soundtrack to explore the ‘crowded hour’ of the likeable larrikin, the student of Asian cultures, the confidant of major political figures and the seemingly fearless war correspondent who was Neil Davis.

APPLY NOW!