AUDITIONS: SATYRICON by Stuart Bousel @ SF Eagle Players, SF (non AEA)

[Andrew Calabrese]

SF Eagle Players announces auditions for SATYRICON by Stuart Bousel, directed by Andrew Calabrese (non-AEA)

Founded in 2022 by Andrew Calabrese, the company began as an open invitation from the owner of Eagle Bar in SOMA (Lex Montiel) to create a space where queer artists could experiment, collaborate, and make work together. That spirit lives in ScripTease, our monthly queer performance incubator where playwrights share works-in-progress, hear them out loud, and develop them in real time with artists and audiences. It’s messy, electric, and rooted in process.

And NOW SF Eagle Players is looking forward to producing our first fully staged show in August of 2026.

Stuart Bousel's SATYRICON is a new work developed at ScripTease especially for the Eagle's multi-stage performance venue!

Stuart Bousel is a playwright, poet, director, actor, and journalist who has been working in the Bay Area since 2002. He’s been adapting the classics ever since he made his directing debut with a Tucson production of LYSISTRATA back in 1997 and has wanted to bring his own spin to the SATYRICON ever since he read it on a flight to New Zealand. Outrageous, sexy, hilarious, observant, and bittersweet, this epic tale of three men navigating love, loss, and meaning in a decaying empire has never been more poignant and finds new life gazing up at the stars of California, from the gutters of San Francisco.

SATYRICON CASTING REQUIREMENTS

5 men, 2 women

All actors must have robust comic timing, be comfortable with sexual content, adult language, and onstage intimacy (including possible mimed sex acts). Some stage combat is also required of pretty much everyone. It’s a high energy show for smart people who are also kind of trash. All performers must be over 21 years of age.

The Leads- who must have excellent chemistry between all three of them.

Actor 1: Encolpius

Young-ish (30-45), handsome-ish, rich-ish, he is a wickedly smart upper middle-class philosophy student who probably should have graduated ten years ago but did not. Refined but sarcastic, he is thoughtful and passionate but hampered by existentialist tendencies, insecurities about his attractiveness, and a self-indulgent nature. He is partnered with Ascyltos, who he has been with for over a decade, but he is desirous of Giton, who he has been having sex with for about a year. He knows how to hold his wine, but rarely his tongue.

Actor 2: ASCYLTOS

Young-ish (30-45), handsome-ish, rich-ish, he is a little bit younger (2-3 years) than Encolpius but also a little bit better looking and much more self-assured. Cheerful by nature, sentimental, he’s an unrepentant hedonist but not at all a bad guy. The son of a Senator, he is an aristocrat but devoid of any real snobbery when it comes to people (wine, clothes, manners, money, etc. however he is a total bitch about). He loves Encolpius dearly but is very blasé about sexual monogamy and feels the more the merrier, so long as they stay together. He’s bright but not as smart as Encolpius, whose intelligence and wit are huge turn-ons.

Actor 3: GITON

Young (21-30), very good looking, possibly a slave, origin unknown really. Giton loves and lives for sex. With pretty much everybody. The most DTF Roman of his generation, he’s not very bright, or very nice, but people can’t seem to help falling in love with him (or hating him). Genuinely cares for Encolpius, sort of prefers Ascyltos, but would rather be with both (and everyone else if he can be). Deep, profound attraction to Tryphaena, but honestly maybe he’s just always the most attracted to the unattainable? Kind of a thief.

Ensemble

Actor 4: OLDER (45+) plays LYCHAS, TRIMALCHIO and QUARTILLA

LYCHAS is a middle-aged rich man, old school aristocracy, greedy and superstitious, lecherous and given to thinking everyone is after his money. He’s married to Tryphaena, but is desirous of Circe, with whom he’s been carrying on not-so-secretly. TRIMALCHIO is a former slave who has bought his way to freedom and become a successful merchant and farmer. He’s regarded as trash-garbage bourgeois filth by all the “right people” which is a sticking spot for him because he wants to be liked by all the “right people”. It’s his birthday, and he’s wasted which is not good because he’s a terrible drunk, by turns belligerent and depressed. QUARTILLA is a priestess of Priapus, the God of Sex, and so basically a hooker. She has recently been “cheated” by Ascyltos, who had sex with two of her henchwhores but couldn’t pay them. Powerful, no-nonsense and very much on the rampage, this role is a drag role and played as a woman.

ACTRESS 1: YOUNGER (21-35) plays TRYPHAENA, OENOTHEA, and PSYCHE

TRYPHAENA is young, pretty, romantic but not without her pragmatic side. An aristocrat married to Lychas but in love with Giton, she has no illusions about what it means to be a woman in Roman society, especially the upper classes. Intelligent, she is a gifted speaker but a bad liar and while nobody’s fool her preciousness about her attachments makes her somewhat easy to manipulate. OENOTHEA is a sex witch. Genuinely spiritual, but also a sex witch. Her principal sphere of influence is Vesta, the goddess of fire, but she embodies the divine for whoever and whatever. Her tone is New Age, but she delivers everything like a dominatrix. PSYCHE is a young hooker, newish at the game, but not out to be screwed over by Ascyltos.

ACTRESS 2: OLDER (40+) plays CIRCE, FORTUNATA, VESTA, and PENNYCHRIS

CIRCE is a middle-aged woman who has been around the block so many times she’s lost count. She’s good at astronomy and schemes, so naturally people assume she’s kind of a witch. She’s Tryphaena’s handmaiden, technically, but she’s been dallying with Lychas and together they’ve been plotting to betray her mistress. A total survivor, she’s loyal to nobody but also doesn’t carry a grudge. FORTUNATA is the wife of Trimalchio. A former hooker, she still managed to marry beneath her station but would never admit it. Materialist, easily flattered, she loves her husband, their station in life, and pretty much nothing else. VESTA is the goddess of fire, which also makes her the goddess of the hearth and home. She’s super powerful, but as one of the oldest and most essential of the gods, she’s also totally over it. Still a pretty nice lady, underneath it all. PENNYCHRIS is a male prostitute, very strong, and totally stupid. A drag role played as a man.

ACTOR 5: ANY AGE plays EUMOLPUS, TRITON, PRIAPUS, and A SATYR.

EUMOLPUS is a poet and a drunk- but a fun one! A complete libertine, he has slept with Encolpius, of whom he is rather fond, and also Giton, who he thinks is a waste of time but a hot one. He is deeply, irrevocably in love with Ascyltos, who can’t stand him, but the question of “is it sincere?” vs. something Eumolpus does just so he can have someone to pine over is completely up for debate. He is genuinely talented, quite wise, and pretty much unserious about everything except sex and poetry. TRITON a merman, he is the son of Neptune and a minor god of the sea. That pisses him off. Likes to sing and play the harp, like all merfolk. PRIAPUS the god of sex. He has a permanent hard on and zero refractory time. A SATYR, half goat, half man, all good times.

Headshot and resume for auditions

No monologue required, sides will be provided to read

Audition Dates: May 16, May 17

Location: Phoenix Theater, 414 Mason St, SF, CA

Callbacks (by invitation) May 18, May 19

Location: To Be Announced

First Read Thru June 10

Rehearsal (tentatively) Saturdays, Mon- Wed evenings

Actors per diem $600 all-inclusive for rehearsals and performances

Performances Aug 4, 5, 11, 12

Performances will be at the SF Eagle BAR, 398 12th St. San Francisco

All performers must be over 21 years of age.

Sign Up:

https://www.signupgenius.com/.../10C044BA5AD2BA7F8CF8...

Questions: SFEagle...@gmail.com

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Andrew Calabrese

415-215-8774