Casting Breakdowns for Fall 2025 Theatre Productions
All students who audition will be considered without regard to physical ability, age, race, national/ethnic origin, sexual orientation, or gender.
We welcome students from across the university, no matter what your major.
Everyone is welcome!
Also attending the casting sessions will be MFA in Television, Film and Theatre students working on casting special projects. You will have the opportunity to indicate if you are interested in being considered for these on the audition form.
Airness
When Nina enters her first air guitar competition, she thinks winning will be easy. But as she befriends a group of charismatic nerds all committed to becoming the next champion, she discovers that there's more to this art form than playing pretend; it's about finding yourself in your favorite songs and performing with raw joy. Will Nina be able to let go and set herself free onstage? Following her mission to shred or be shredded, Airness is an exuberant reminder that everything we need to rock is already inside us. A comedy about competition, completion, and finding the airness inside yourself.
Cast of Characters
SHREDDY EDDY
GOLDEN THUNDER
FACEBENDER
CANNIBAL QUEEN
THE NINA
D VICIOUS
ANNOUNCER / SPRITE EXEC / HOODED FIGURE
Character Notes
Each character represents one of the pillars of air guitar. This pillar is reflected in performance, song choice, approach to the competition, and personal interactions with others while in character. Mostly, the characters go by their noms d'air.
Ed "Shreddy Eddy" Leary: artistic merit
Gabe "Golden Thunder" Partridge: originality
Mark "Facebender" Lender: feeling
Astrid "Cannibal Queen" Anderson: technical ability
Nina "The Nina" O'Neal: airness
David "D Vicious" Cooper: charisma/stage presence
Announcer/Sprite Exec/Hooded Figure- These parts are played by the same actor; sometimes his/her voice may be heard, without the actor being onstage.
This Land
Over 150 years, four families with ancestry in different parts of the world make their home on one particular plot of Southern California land now known as Watts. Their stories intertwine as a host of old curses and blessings, traditions and recipes, loves and betrayals travel down family lines from the 19th to the 21st century, forcing each successive generation to ask in times of hardship, “Should I stay, or should I go?” Los Angeles native Evangeline Ordaz crafts a rich and complex web of diverse characters who through triumph and despair discover how deeply they are rooted in the dreams of their ancestors and the land on which they stand.
CHARACTER LIST:
Toya - teen to 20s daughter of Tongva Tribal Chief (same actor plays Della Avila, 27)
Enrique Avila - teen to 20s scion of Californio ranch.
Jose Maria (Pepe) Neri - 40s Mission Guard (played by the actor who plays Mel Miller) *
Leola Piqueray - 30s African American immigrant to California
Leslie Piqueray - teen-age daughter of Leola Piqueray (same actor plays Mel Miller)
Mel Miller - 20s daughter of Leslie Piqueray (same actor plays Leslie Piqueray)
Sharon Curtis - 30s daughter of Leslie Piqueray and granddaughter of Leola Piqueray (same actor plays Leola Piqueray)
Tomas/Tomasajaquichi - 40s Tongva Village Chief (same actor plays Fidel)
Patrick Dalton - 20s U.S. Calvary infantry soldier from Ireland (same actor plays James Hilman and Dalton Hill)
Maeve Hilman - mid-40s, Anglo immigrant to California
James Hilman - 20s, son of Maeve Hilman (same actor plays Patrick Dalton and Dalton Hill)
Fidel Avila - 30s Mexican immigrant (same actor plays Tomas)
Ricardo Reyes - nephew of Fidel at 15 years old and at 43 years of old (same actor plays Enrique)
Della - 27, Mel’s daughter (same actor plays Toya)
Dalton Hill - 50s Developer/Landowner grandson of Maeve Hilman and son of James Hilman (same actor plays Patrick Dalton, James Hill, and Dalton Hill)
Milkman, Dydee Diaper Deliveryman, Glass Repairman, Huunar, and Muuhut