Auditions
Auditions will proceed in two stages: the three principal roles — Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and the Player — will be cast first, followed by all remaining characters.
Principal Roles
Auditions for the roles of Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and the Player are by invitation only.
If we have not previously worked together and you are interested in one of these roles, please send a full theatre résumé, headshot, and a brief statement of what draws you to the role.
Contact: sh.theater@icloud.com
All Other Roles
Open auditions will be held at Actors Theatre on the following dates:
No appointment necessary.
Calendar
Key Dates
Open Auditions
Actors Theatre
Rehearsals Begin
11 Performances
Actors Theatre
Production Notes
A Few Things to Know
This production operates on a profit-sharing basis, should there be any. Shares will be determined by the level of time contributed.
Casting for the roles of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern will be gender blind.
Production Staff
Simon Hayward
Simon Hayward had the opportunity for involvement in a wide range of theatrical activities while studying at the University of Oxford. This including touring in the US (through the Midwest in midwinter!) with a production of As You Like It, plus directing Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author and Ibsen’s The Doll’s House (at the Oxford Playhouse). However the desire for a career in the professional theater was cut short by the need to earn a living…
While working in the tech industry, he was involved in many technology conferences, both as a paid presenter and director or producer of large scale events, with greater or lesser degrees of theatricality…
Since retiring he has been able to return to directing on a “real” stage, initially with Mountain Community Theater’s production of The Odd Couple (Female Version) in 2024. In 2025 he directed Balloon Release as part of the 8x10s@8 Festival of New Short Plays at Actors Theater, and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime for MCT. He then directed a murder mystery (Final Checkout by Kathy Perrin) in conjunction with the Friends of Santa Cruz Libraries. In 2026 he returned to 8x10s as co-director of Best of the Rest. He is now delighted to have the opportunity to present this production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead — which he confesses does make him feel a bit like a philosophy undergrad again. But he hopes you also enjoy the jokes.
In Memoriam
Tom Stoppard
1937 – 2025
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is one of Tom Stoppard's earliest plays and probably his best known.
It is based around two minor characters in Hamlet, and imports the relevant scenes directly from Shakespeare's story. However it probably has more in common with Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot than Shakespeare. It certainly shares Beckett's mid-century (Twentieth, that would be) absurdist style, although Stoppard insists it was written as a comedy — which is hard to claim for either Hamlet or any of Beckett's works.
Comedy it may be, with plenty of laugh lines, albeit a black comedy — but the comedy serves a deeper purpose. Like most of Stoppard's work it asks us to reflect on the meaning of life and doesn't give us any easy answers. It has the character of a young man's play — later works have a more nuanced tone, notably Arcadia and his final play Leopoldstadt. But youthful philosophical fireworks are on full display — Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are, after all, university buddies of Hamlet. A lot of words for sure, but with the verbal dexterity in which Shakespeare also delighted. If you enjoy ideas and language, wielded by a master, worthy to stand in the footsteps of Shakespeare, then this is for you.