CASTING CALL / AUDITIONS

Auditions will be held this Sunday through Tuesday for the Conejo Players’ upcoming production of Jane Anderson’s “The Baby Dance.”

First performed last year at the Pasadena Playhouse, the play, director Lucien Jervis explains, is about two couples. One is poor, living in a mobile home in Louisiana; the other is a Los Angeles couple who want to adopt the Louisiana couple’s soon-to-arrive fifth child. The play’s title notwithstanding, it’s a strong drama, Jervis warns, and “especially relevant in this year of family values.”

The Players have fairly specific ideas of who they’re looking for: a “dishwater blonde, very pretty” Linda Purl type in her early 20s to early 30s; a tall Ed O’Neill type for her late 30s husband; a brunette, Stephanie Zimbalist type (“attractive in a polished way”) in her mid-to-late 30s; someone resembling Paul Reiser or Rob Morrow to play the Zimbalist type’s husband, and a Ron Leibman type to play the slick lawyer. Hope this helps.

Jervis will hold auditions at the Conejo Players Theater, 351 S. Moorpark Road in Thousand Oaks at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday and at 7:30 p.m. Monday and Tuesday.

The play opens Jan. 22, 1993, and continues on Thursday through Saturday evenings through Feb. 27. For further information, contact Jervis at 499-3912.

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The Conejo Players are also auditioning for their upcoming production of “Tartuffe” by 17th-Century French satirist Moliere, set to run on Sunday afternoons from Jan. 31 to Feb. 21. Director Gary R. Romm is searching for actors with “excellent comedy timing, a flair for humor both sophisticated and broad, and an ability to handle heightened language.”

Not just that; he wants a “wily fraud and con man,” (age open), to play the religious hypocrite Tartuffe; a woman between 50-70 to play Madame Pernelle, “a tough old battle-ax full of pretentious morality”; a man 35-45 as Orgon, Madame Pernelle’s son: “foolish, pompous, gullible yet good-hearted”; a “charming, vivacious, beautiful and bright” woman 23-35 to play Elmire, Orgon’s second wife; a “fiery, passionate, handsome and hotheaded” man 18-25 to play Orgon’s son, Damis; a “gorgeous, young, innocent and timid” woman 18-25 to play Mariane, Orgon’s daughter, and a “handsome, youthful and naive” man 18-25 to play Mariane’s suitor, Valere.

Romm is also looking for a “wise, thoughtful and worldly” man 25-35 to play Cleante, Elmire’s brother; a “spunky, sharp-tongued, beautiful” woman 25-35 to play Mariane’s maid, Dorine, and an actor to double as Monsieur Loyal (“sarcastic, flippant and foppish”) and a policeman (“fair, kind and opposite” from Monsieur Loyal).

Auditions will consist of cold readings from the Richard Wilbur translation. They will be held at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14, at the Conejo Players Theater, 351 S. Moorpark Road in Thousand Oaks.