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emBODY Project Theatre is now accepting auditions for The Bacchae: Body, Rebellion, and Collective Liberation — a physical theatre reimagining of Euripides set in a composite feminist world, drawing from the theatrical direct action of W.I.T.C.H. and the collective choreographic practice of Las Tesis.Punk rock music is integral to this production. The ensemble generates the musical world. Every role sings.
This is a chorus-driven production built from the collective body outward. The work is physically demanding, consent-forward, and generated entirely through the emBODY Performance Method. We are centering women, femmes, and gender-expansive folx. We are looking for performers whose lived relationship to feminist collective practice, embodied rebellion, or the specific experience of having your body policed, surveilled, or pathologized brings something real into the room. That lived knowledge is the research.
What to Prepare
A monologue — one to two minutes. Any source material.
A song — any genre, but bring something that lives in your body. Punk, rock, folk, protest, or any song where the commitment matters more than the technique. A cappella or backing track. Sheet music not required.
Everyone stays for the movement call. This is a facilitated physical theatre portion led at the audition. Nothing to prepare — just bring a body ready to work at full intensity.
Available Roles
Dionysus (Singing Required — Lead Vocal)
The spirit that cannot be contained. In this production Dionysus is not a god in costume but a principle already present in the room — the force the Bacchae's collective practice generates when it reaches sufficient intensity. This role requires magnetic presence, genuine punk energy, and the ability to hold the ensemble's collective attention without dominating it. Dionysus leads the production's musical world and sets the sonic tone for everything that follows.
Agave (Singing Required — Most Demanding Vocal Role)
The mother. The Bacchae's most devastating role. Agave leads the ensemble's collective practice on the mountain and participates in the sparagmos before coming back to herself to discover what her hands have done. This role demands full physical and vocal commitment at extreme intensity, and a performer who can hold liberation and destruction in the same body simultaneously. This role will be developed with rigorous care and full consent infrastructure throughout rehearsal. It is not for the faint-hearted and it is not for anyone who hasn't thought carefully about what they're signing up for.
Pentheus (Singing Required)
The body that refuses. Pentheus is composite institutional authority — the specific physical language of a body that has fully internalized patriarchal control and built an identity around enforcing it on others. His arc from control to surveillance to breakdown is the production's central body culture argument made visible. Pentheus's vocal world is rigid, controlled, and institutional where the Bacchae's is raw and collective. His body is the court. His destruction is the argument.
Tiresias (Singing Required)
The prophet who sees everything and is heard by no one. In this punk feminist world Tiresias is the voice of those who have always known what institutional patriarchy produces. The production's most explicitly political speaker. Strong presence, strong voice, comfort with the specific power of being right and ignored.
Cadmus (Singing Required)
Agave's father. The elder who tried to navigate between Pentheus and Dionysus and failed to protect either. Carries the aftermath. The specific body culture of someone who has lived long enough to know what is coming and cannot stop it. Physical weight, emotional depth, and the voice of hard-won experience.
The Messenger (Singing Required)
The witness. The figure who moves between the city and the mountain and reports what cannot be unsaid. In this production the Messenger is not passive — they carry the weight of having seen the Bacchae's practice at full intensity and survived it. Strong storytelling presence, strong voice, comfort with bearing witness as its own form of power.
The Bacchae Chorus (Singing Required)
The show. The collective body of women, femmes, and gender-expansive performers whose practice is the production's primary research instrument and artistic argument. The chorus generates the physical scores, carries the punk rock musical world, and performs the collective ecstatic practice the production investigates. This is not a supporting role. This is the production. The chorus holds the highest level of physical demand and the most sustained vocal work in the piece.
All experience levels are welcome. Comfort with high-intensity physical work, collective ensemble practice, and a consent-forward research process is essential.
Auditions — January 28, 6–10PM
Rehearsals — February 1 through April 1
Sundays 10AM–1PM · Mondays and Thursdays 6–10PM
Tech --- April 3- April 8
Performances — April 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18
95 Washington Street, Canton, MA
Questions? Email [email protected] · embodyprojecttheatre.com
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Event venue
95 Washington Street, Canton, MA, United States, Massachusetts 02021
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