Matinée

Daniel Kincaid

Stephie

Suzanne

Katja

Stage manager

Talent agent

Danielle

Jennifer Lyon Bell:  Appears briefly in the last scene.

Actor Steven McAlistair didn't originally plan to audition for Matinée, but - in a classic "discovered" story - came to keep an actor friend company when the friend auditioned. A trained ballet dancer, Steve did not think of himself as an actor. Once at the audition, however, he read through the script and thought the lead character of Daniel might be right for him. He decided to give it a try, and after meeting with director Jennifer personally and going through the multi-stage audition process, ended up walking away with the lead role.

Because of its combination of scripted acting and explicitly sexual performance, the audition process for "Matinée" was carefully crafted. In order to make sure that all the actors and actresses would be comfortable and fully understand the challenges of the role, director Jennifer Lyon Bell needed to create a multistage audition process. After reading the script, every actor and actress had an initial private conversation with director, and the chance to ask detailed questions. Subsequent auditions involved increasing involvement with the role: plain readings followed by improvisations followed by an improvisation involving nudity. Then finalists were paired and auditioned together. Finally, each finalist was asked which other partners he/she most preferred to work with. Steven McAlistair and Alicia Whitsover - who had never met each other before the auditions - turned out to be the couple with the right combination of acting talent, bravery, spontaneity, and sexual authenticity.