Joliet Drama Guild in partnership with the City of Joliet excitedly announce auditions for our inaugural Shakespeare in the Parks tour of Love's Labours Lost! Join Co-Directors Aaron Flynn and Jake Thomas as we present Shakespeare's classic romantic comedy in multiple parks across the city of Joliet.

Love's Labours Lost follows the King of Navarre as he and his three friends take an oath to for three years devote themselves to study and in that time not keep the company of women. This is immediately complicated by the arrival of the Princess of France and her three ladies in waiting. Add to this mixed up letters, forbidden love, and a few mistaken identities and you have the perfect formula for a hilarious comedy.

This production will take Shakespeare's beautiful language and set it against a late 90's/early 2000's backdrop turning the King and his gentlemen into a boyband, and the Princess into a pop diva with her three backup dancers. So be ready to bring your best 90's dance moves and dust off those JNCO jeans at the back of your closet.

Auditions will be held 2/26 and 2/27 from 7pm to 10pm at Bicentennial Park Theatre, 201 W Jefferson St, Joliet, IL.

If you are unable to attend either audition date you may audition by video. Send a video of yourself reciting two contrasting Shakespeare monologues to Co-Director Jake Thomas at jake.thomas9393@gmail.com by no later than 2/26 to be considered.

Our first performance will be 5/30 at 2 pm at Bicentennial Park with additional performances to be added. (We will have all dates confirmed by the time of auditions.

Rehearsals will begin in March with a virtual "language boot camp" and then move into the theatre starting March 31 from 6:30 to 10 Tuesday-Thursday, with Saturday afternoons potentially added later if needed.

Character Breakdown:

(Please note, while all characters were written in the gender binary we are open to seeing people of all genders, races, ages, sizes, abilities, and body types for pretty much every role.)

Ferdinand, King of Navarre: An ambitious, scholarly, and very impractical man.

Berowne: An argumentative and witty nobleman, and one of the three lords who take the king's oath.

Dumaine: One of the three lords who swears to the King of Navarre's oath to avoid women, but he falls in love with Katherine and sends her a very simple ode expressing his love.

Longaville: One of the three lords who joins the King of Navarre's oath to avoid women, but he falls in love with Maria and sends her a love sonnet.

The Princess of France: Arrives in Navarre for political reasons but soon finds herself the focus of the King of Navarre's romantic intentions.

Rosaline: One of the Princess of France's ladies and the object of Berowne's affection.

Katherine: One of the ladies who accompanies the Princess of France and is romantically matched with Dumaine.

Maria: One of the ladies who accompanies the Princess of France and is romantically matched with Longaville.

Don Armado: A Spaniard with a tendency to use overly elaborate speech, falls in love with the dairy maid Jaquenetta.

Jaquenetta: A simple dairy maid with whom Armado falls desperately in love.

Costard: An uneducated, unrefined character whose lack of sophistication is mocked yet endearing.

Dull: The constable, lives up to his name as he generally fails to understand what is going on, including the other characters' wordplay.

Boyet: An older French lord who accompanies the Princess of France on her diplomatic mission to Navarre and acts as her advisor.

Moth: A witty boy who acts as Armado's page, relentlessly mocking Armado at every opportunity.

Holofernes: A pretentious schoolmaster who, impressed by his own learning, uses such complicated and Latin-infused language he is nearly impossible to understand.

Nathaniel: The curate (clergyman) of Navarre, is impressed by Holofernes's amazing intellect and tries to keep up with the schoolmaster's displays of verbal prowess.

Ensemble: Messengers, Foresters, Groupies, Attendants, Officers, Others.

Note on casting: In an attempt to further reach the community we are presenting this production as a "no cut" show, meaning that anyone who auditions who is willing to dedicate their time to the production will be cast. We cannot promise a speaking role to everyone, but we will find something for you to do on stage. We also understand this is a significant time commitment so we will be looking at casting a few internal understudies.