Voices Festival Productions 2026-2027 Season EPA - Washington, DC

EPA NOTICE:

VOICES FESTIVAL PRODUCTIONS 

2026-2027 Season

Twin Festivals: “Voices From a Changing Nation” & “Voices From a Changing Middle East”

AEA: Independent Theatre Contract (ITC) Tier 4 (readings) or Tier 6 (production) 

Rate: $500 -$650/week including health & pension 

DC EPA: July 30, 2026 10 AM - 6 PM 

Universalist National Memorial Church/Spooky Action Theatre

1810 16th Street, NW, Washington DC – first floor

In Attendance: Daryl Eisenberg, CSA (casting) and Joey Bermudez (casting)

By Appointment - To schedule, email voices@ebcastingco.com

Subject Line: DC EPA - VFP [role] - AEA member

Please prepare a brief contemporary monologue or you may accompany yourself on your own instrument. There will be no accompanist at this audition.

I) WOODY SEZ: THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF WOODY GUTHRIE

Devised by David M Lutken with Nick Corley and Darcie Deaville, Helen Jean Russell and Andy Teirstein

Directed by Georgette Verdin

Performing at Dupont Underground (19^th & New Hampshire Ave. NW, DC)

PERFORMANCE DATES:  October 8 – 25, 2026

Part of Voices From a Changing Nation SYNOPSIS: The international smash hit brings its unstoppable spirit and foot-stomping energy to DUPONT UNDERGROUND this election season. David M. Lutken, winner of the Helen Hayes Award for his portrayal of Woody Guthrie, returns to Washington to kick off a new, 2026 production of the tour-de-force musical, from Voices Festival Productions and Woodrow Theatricals.  It tells the vibrant, true story of a uniquely American hero whose radical influence, and songs of defiance, hope and resilience endure.  Part of #WoodyGinDC SEEKING FUTURE REPLACEMENTS ONLY:

WOODY: Very strong actor and storyteller. Strong emotional and accessible quality. Excellent guitar player, some harmonica. ALREADY CAST WILL GEER / PROGRAM DIRECTOR / BLUES MAN / UNCLE JEFF / OKIE / HOBO / JACK* / WILLIAM Z. FOSTER / RUTH’S DAD / UNION MAN / PETE SEEGER / CISCO HOUSTON / NEIGHBORHOOD KID: Charming Character actor. Must play excellent fiddle. Also plays banjo, guitar, viola, harmonica, pennywhistle, spoons, jaw harp, and dulcimer.  ALREADY CAST

NORA / RADIO SINGER 1 / STREET SINGER / CLUSTER BAKER / RAIL RIDER / MOTHER BLOOR / RUTH’S MOM / CAMP SINGER 1 / UNION GAL / BESS LOMAX / MARJORIE MAZIA: Strong character actress with strength and warmth. Good Bass Player. Also plays guitar, and autoharp. Should have a wide vocal range with a warm soprano. ALREADY CAST

CLARA / RADIO SINGER 2 / BALLADEER / STREET FIDDLER / AUNT ALLENE / FREIGHT HOPPER / LEFTY LOU / ELIZABETH GURLEY FLYNN / BOY (RUTH’S BROTHER) / CAMP SINGER 2 / UNION MAID / SIS CUNNINGHAM / CATHY ANN: Spunky character actress. Excellent fiddle player. Also plays mandolin, dulcimer, guitar, and dobro. Should have a strong alto range. ALREADY CAST

II.  THE HALAL BROTHERS

by Alaudin Ullah

Director: TBD

At Universalist National Memorial Church (UNMC)

One week rehearsal begins: November 3 

Readings: November 6-8, 2026

ITC Tier 4

Part of Voices From a Changing NationSYNOPSIS: The latest from award winning filmmaker, comedian and playwright/performer, Alaudin Ullah, creator of DISHWASHER DREAMS. Set in Harlem on February 21, 1965, THE HALAL BROTHERS follows Mohammed and Haroun, two Bengali Muslim immigrant brothers struggling to keep afloat through their small butcher shop while preparing food for a gathering at the Audubon Ballroom, where Malcolm X is scheduled to speak – and where he is eventually murdered. Illiterate and overworked, Mohammed has sacrificed everything to bring his younger brother to America to attend City College, hoping Haroun will earn a business degree and build a future for the family and the store. But Haroun is secretly in love with Zuleika, an African American student who represents a life far different from the one his brother imagines for him. As news from the Audubon Ballroom spreads throughout Harlem, buried grief, divided loyalties, and conflicting ideas of race, faith, and belonging push the brothers toward an emotional reckoning on one of the most pivotal days in American history.

SEEKING: 

HAROUN: 22, Male - From tiny village in East Pakistan (Now Bangladesh) called Noahkali. He is a closet poet, impressionable, innocent full of life. He is in America to fulfill a promise he made to his brother. He must go to City College to get his degree to help out his older brother run the Halal store. The other part of that promise is once he has that degree they both will return to their village to have arranged marriages. The Problem: he’s fallen in love with his classmate which will throw a wrench in the entire plan.

MOHAMMED: 38, Male. Older brother of Haroun. He arrived in America at 16 years old. He worked on a ship as a lowly tender shoveling coal in oppressive conditions. He was treating horribly and jumped ship. He arrived with no skills. Being illiterate the only job he was able to get was as a dishwasher and cook in a kitchen under horrible conditions working for racist bosses. He fell in love with a Black Puerto Rican as she encouraged him to open a store of his own. The love of his life, she passed away giving birth to his son which he gave away for adoption. This left him heartbroken and bitter. Now that Mohammed has finally got his store, he’s relying on his younger brother with this last chance of chasing the "American Dream."

ZULEKA: 22. Female. Beautiful African American classmate of Haroun, born and raised in Harlem. She's a City College senior about to graduate. A 100 percent Harlem girl with a swagger and bounce in her step. She has just received her acceptance into City College Graduate program for Afro-American Studies. She is part of a new progressive movement to have African studies be part of the New York curriculum. She envisions herself a teacher who will inspire her students to move forward in a world that will be filled with Black Power inside the classroom and not full of street rhetoric. She is full of unlimited potential; a trailblazer and a take-no-shit kind of young lady. She believes education is the best weapon to fight as she encourages Haroun to follow his heart and not his older brother's demands on him. She is Haroun's champion even though he's scared to display how much he is smitten by her.

MALIK: 29. Male.  Older brother of Zuleka. A former Columbia University student that got kicked out for constantly protesting the Ivy league's Eurocentric curriculum. He has joined Malcolm X's congregation and been a loyal sidekick to him. He is part of the Malcolm X's new organization the OAAU (organization of Afro American Unity). He is constantly trying to get people to attend Malcolm’s speeches in hopes of recruiting members.

JOSE: 37.  Male. Puerto Rican (More on the Nuyorican side). Lovable, sweet, heart of gold

Mohammed's first and oldest friend in NY. He is a Korean War vet suffering from PTSD.

Mohammed urges Jose not to mention his late sister who was the love of his life. Mohammed wants no reminders of the past despite Jose mentioning her occasionally. Jose is the only one who knows of Mohammed's secret but can feel the dilemma Haroun is in. Jose wants to just be connected to anyone because he has no one.

III. TAKES ALL KINDS

Written and performed by Dan Hoyle

Directed by Aldo Billingslea

At UNMC

November 12 – 22, 2026

SOLO SHOW - ALREADY CAST.

Dan Hoyle’s hilarious, essential new piece of shape-shifting Journalistic Theater channels powerful, funny and complex people caught in the social forces roiling the country.  In tender portraits of everyday Americans turned unlikely changemakers, it offers hope and ways forward in deeply challenging times. See why the San Francisco Chronicle calls Hoyle’s work, “Stunning… mind-blowing metamorphoses. No character is a stereotype. Everyone surprises and everyone has wisdom,” as Hoyle becomes a Gen Z working-class Christian socialist from Colorado using humor to disrupt the grievance-based politics of his co-workers; a former gang-member from Chicago turned social worker who deradicalizes violent extremists in Missouri; a preacher’s son who switched to the religion of Phish and finds purpose in Florida school-board activism after his daughter comes out; and Atlanta voting rights canvassers who win over the apathetic and apolitical with riveting family stories and a penetrating, comic honesty.

 “Hoyle mines the heart and humor of each American he interviewed – with authenticity and specificity in each portrayal – offering invaluable insight to our current national convergence.” (–Charleston City Paper, South Carolina)

V. ZIONISTA RISING   

A workshop reading By Alexa Derman

Directed by Will Steinberger

Winner of the 2023 Jewish Plays Project

One week rehearsal begins: December 8, 2026 

Readings: December 11 – 13 Part of Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival

SYNOPSIS: Two Gen Z interns working at a Jewish American media organization compete on a daunting assignment: to rebrand Israel and Zionism in the American mind as a #girlboss #progressive #diversity-win via an AI-generated Instagram influencing avatar. Meanwhile, a Jewish American playwright wrestles with a question she can't escape: Who are we if not a nation? SEEKING: LIZ:  White, Jewish, 40s, female. The president of JewToo. RHONDAL: White, Jewish, 40s, female. The co-president of JewToo.

DAVID: Black, Jewish, college-aged, male. An intern at JewToo. Wears a yarmulke.

ELLA: White, Jewish, college-aged, female. An intern at JewToo. A

VA THE ZIONISTA:  Late 20s. Mizrahi, Jewish female. A fiction. Also plays ALEXA DERMAN, STAFF REPORTER and FLIGHT ATTENDANT.

MAX THE CONSULTANT:  Not White, male.  Also plays A COMMENTER / HIP LIB REPORTER / EIC / ANNOUNCER / MEGHAN MCCAIN1. A Gentile.

VI.  APEIRGON: RAMI AND BASSAM

Based on the 2020 National Book Award winning novel by Colum McCann

Adapted by Avner Ben-Amos

Arab-Hebrew Theatre of Jaffa Production

Originally directed by Sinai Peter • VFP staging, Kathryn Chase Bryer

First Rehearsal: January 4, 2027

Previews Begin: January 27 

Press Opening: February 1, 2027

Closing: February 21, 2027

Part of Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival

A theatrically distilled adaptation of the acclaimed 2020 National Book Award winning novel by Colum McCann that tells the fractured story of two fathers, one Israeli and one Palestinian, brought together by the loss of their daughters. Despite being raised to hate one another, they find common ground in their grief and form an unlikely friendship. The novel, inspired by the real-life stories of Rami Elhanan, an Israeli, whose daughter, Smadar was killed by suicide bombers, and Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian whose daughter, Abir was killed by a rubber bullet shot by the IDF.  Despite their backgrounds and the hatred ingrained in their societies, the two fathers accidentally connect and, through their shared grief and trauma, recognize the humanity in each other's stories and history to begin a difficult journey of healing and reconciliation.  A week of workshop readings in English were presented last winter in Washington, following the world premiere staging in Hebrew and Arabic at the Jaffa Theatre in where the work continues to play in repertory to sold out houses. VFP’S American Premiere production offers updated material to account for so many newly unfolding realities. 

SEEKING: 

BASSAM ARAMIN: Male.  40s. Arab.  Carries depression and a determination, not to succumb to hopelessness.  Steadfast. Soft spoken. Strong. With an impish humor too. Also plays Soldier. ALREADY CAST

NURITH ELHANAN: 30s.  Rami’s wife.  Also plays Abir Aramin (Bassam's daughter), Mother of Salwa, Yigal Elhanan, Soldier, Nurse, Israeli Physician, Prison Warden, Vendor, Commander of Border Police unit, Combatant for Peace A, and Security Guard at BG Airport A.  ALREADY CAST.

RAMI ELHANAN:  Male. 40s.  Israeli. More effusive, emotional, but weary from war and loss. Despite aging, hasn’t lost his youthful rebelliousness.  Also plays Soldier, and Senator John Kerry. ALREADY CAST.

SALWA ARAMIN: Female. Arab. 20s. Bassam's wife.  Also plays Smadar Elhanan (Rami's daughter), Araab Aramin, Yitzhak Elhanan, Palestinian physician, Security Guard , School Principal, Judge, and Senator Kerry's Secretary, Combatant for Peace B, Security Guard at BG Airport B, and Adolescent. ALREADY CAST

VII. IN THE CROSSING (20.0)

By Leila Buck

originally developed with Shana Gold, Yuval Boim, Adam Green, Kathryn Grody, Lameece Issaq and Maya Serhan

Director: TBD

One week rehearsal begins: February 6, 2027 

Readings: February 9 – 10, 2027

At UNMC

SYNOPSIS:  In 2006, as Lebanese-American writer/performer Leila Buck was introducing her Jewish husband Adam to her family in Lebanon, war erupted between Israel and Hezbollah, and the couple found themselves caught in the crossfire. Now, 20 years and many trips back to the region Israel later, they've been asked (by Adam's aunt) to share their experiences at a conference of the "Society for Intercultural Dialogue and Education." And you're invited to join them!  Blurring the line between truth and fiction, theater and town hall, In The Crossing (20.0) returns to probe the messy intersections of family and politics—the boundaries between us, and what happens when we choose to cross them.

SEEKING: 

MAYA:  40s. A Lebanese-American writer/performer based in New York.  ALREADY CAST

ADAM:  MAYA’s husband. Mid-40s. Photographer and filmmaker based in New York.  American - from a Jewish family.

JOAN: ADAM’s maternal aunt. 60s-70s. Jewish American, lives and works in Philadelphia.  A mediator by personality, and profession.

NOURA:  MAYA’s cousin. Mid-late 40s. An elegant, vibrant Lebanese woman.

VIII. SHARIF

By Tomer Aldubi

Translated from Hebrew by: Shir Freibach

Director: TBD

One week rehearsal begins:

Readings: February 16 - 17, 2027

In collaboration with Dirty Laundry Theatre Company

CHARACTERS/TIME & SETTING:

The play takes place over two years, predominantly in a Palestinian village near

Ramallah, Palestine; and in Tel Aviv, Israel.

SEEKING: 

SHARIF NASSAR (18) – Youngest child of his family. ALREADY CAST

NOUR (25) – Sharif’s boyfriend. ALREADY CAST

DANIEL SHMUELI (27) – A volunteer at an Israeli charity that supports LGBTQ+ Palestinians. ALREADY CAST

AMAL NASSAR (50s) – Sharif’s mother. ALREADY CAST

OFFICER (30s) – An army Major in the COGAT unit of the Israeli Army’s Civil Administration 1. ALREADY CAST

LIAT (40s) – The owner of a bakery in Israel. ALREADY CAST

SUBCHI NASSAR (50s) – Sharif’s father, the owner of a bakery in Palestine. ALREADY CAST

KOBI (50s) – The manager of a small convenience store in Israel. ALREADY CAST

IX. IN THE SPACE BETWEEN

By Mona Kasra and Adam Kassim

February 21-22, 2027 @ UNMC

In the aftermath of a shattering crash, a child carrying a handful of seeds sets out on a journey across the Middle East in search of a grandparent’s lost garden. Longer Blurb:

Created by Iranian-American new media artist, projection designer and interdisciplinary scholar Mona Kasra and Palestinian-American theater maker and director Adam M. Kassim, In the Space Between explores migration, wars, displacement, resilience, and the friendships that help us carry what cannot be repaired.

Blending humor, magical realism, and multimedia performance, two storytellers move between characters, memories, dreams, and generations as they struggle to piece together a fractured world of family stories, languages, and places left behind. Memories unravel and the boundaries between past and present, storyteller and story, slowly dissolve, revealing unexpected connections shaped by the complexities of Middle Eastern diasporic life, including longing, belonging, and the search for home across generations.

SEEKING:

A: Female, Iranian American (Immigrant), 30s - 40s

Storyteller who portrays: Daughter, Father, Homeland Security, Cab Driver, Podcast Interviewee, Grandchild, Friend, Museum Guide. 

B: Male, Palestinian American (US Born), Gay, 30s - 40s

Storyteller who portrays: Son, Mother, Podcast Host, Grandmother, Homeland Security Officer, Iranian Intelligence Officer, Reflection, Friend, Traveler.