Casting call for “The Call Is Coming From Inside The Home Is Where The Heart Is”

“The Call Is Coming From Inside The Home Is Where The Heart Is,” is a new collaborative piece of theatre that will appear in the 2026 Philadelphia Fringe Festival. The shows will be at the Northern Liberties Community Center (700 N 3rd street) on Friday Sept 11th at 6pm, Sunday Sept 13th at 2pm, Friday Sept 25th at 6pm, and Sunday Sept 27th at 2pm.

Summary: Lead paint, plaster, and real hardwood floors. A century ago there was a housing boom across our cities. Today, we have inherited the bones of these homes. Before the roofs cave in, we will commune with the words of 100 year old playwrights to uncover what’s still left in the cracks.

Our goal with this project is to interrogate American domestic relationships and the role of “the home” today, examined through 100 year old theatre. Inspired by 1920’s plays becoming public domain, and infamous artistic groups of the time (Provincetown Players, the dill pickle club, the S Street Salon, ect…). We are interested in exploring the intersections of 3-5 plays from the era being in conversation with one another. 

What the process will look like:

• We hope to rehearse 2-3 times a week starting at the end of July.
• Early rehearsals will include an exploration process where we examine various plays from the era then collectively choose the ones we are most interested in.
• The rehearsal process will be a blend of traditional scene work and devising with the goal that all on stage dialogue comes from one of our source materials. 
• We will tech the show on Friday, September 11th from 1pm - 5pm before the first performance.
• We hope for this to be a joyous and low stress process grounded in exploration and play.

A bit about us: Hayden Eric and M. Rayne Smith met in college at UArts where they became swift collaborators and friends. During their time in undergrad they self produced two productions, one of which traveled to Prague for the Prague Quadrennial in 2023. Since college, both have worked various theatre gigs around Philadelphia and the surrounding area. This is their first project together post-grad and they are thrilled to be working together once more!

What the audition will be:

• Auditions will take place on July 2nd, July 3rd, July 4th, and July 5th in two hour group time slots
• This will be a casual audition consisting of being partnered up with fellow auditioners and doing cold reads
• No need to prepare anything, if you happen to have a favorite play, poem, or song written in the 1920’s you are encouraged to bring it
• Please fill out this GOOGLE FORM to book an audition time slot

Who we are looking for:

• All levels of acting experience are welcome to audition
• Lgbtqia+ actors encouraged to apply
• People interested in political theatre
• Must be available for tech and all performances! For rehearsals we will work around each performers schedules