06/04/2026
SANTA PAULA THEATER CENTER PRESENTS AUDITIONS FOR STUPID F**KING BIRD BY AARON POSNER
Santa Paula Theater Center announces auditions Sunday June 21st from 11-1 PM, TUESDAY June 23rd from 7 PM - 9 PM, and TBA callbacks Wednesday June 24th from 7 PM - 9 PM for their fourth Main Stage show of Season 2026. Auditions will be held at The Santa Paula Center. 125 S. Seventh Street, Santa Paula, CA 93060. Phone # 805-525-4645. www.santapaulatheatercenter.org.
STUPID F**KING BIRD will play from August 28 - September 27 2026 with performances on Fridays at 8:00 PM, Saturdays Matinees at 4:00 PM and Sunday Matinees at 2:30 PM. No appointments necessary, cold readings from the script. This is a non-equity production. THERE IS NO PAY. Taylor Kasch directs and inquiries about auditions and play may be directed to him at [email protected].
Aaron Posner’s STUPID F**KING BIRD is a sharp, funny, and deeply aching reinvention of Chekhov’s The Seagull — a play about artists, lovers, and the desperate need to matter. Blurring the line between comedy and collapse, it follows a group of people wrestling with ambition, intimacy, and the fear that nothing they create will ever be enough. With direct audience address, brutal humor, and startling vulnerability, the play dissects both art-making and modern loneliness in real time. At once irreverent and emotionally raw, STUPID F**KING BIRD asks what we owe to our art, to each other, and to ourselves. Fearless, contemporary, and wildly human.
"Aaron Posner's savvy, petulant blitz through Anton Chekhov's The Seagull [is] less an adaptation of Chekhov's landmark drama than a funny, moving slugfest, a ripe mashup of mock and awe... sometimes it blows Chekhov up, and sometimes the play explodes with a genuinely Chekhovian release of emotion. The show is smart enough to have it both ways: It mines The Seagull for classical heft even while giving it the bird." - Washington Post.
"STUPID F**KING BIRD, Aaron Posner's splendid, irreverent adaptation of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull [is] a refreshing splash of cool water on dry, well-trod terrain... STUPID F**KING BIRD is what you get from a writer who not only adores the material he's adapting, but understands it precisely." - DCist.
CHARACTERS:
Conrad — 20s–30s. An aspiring experimental playwright consumed by the need to create something honest and revolutionary. Intense, intelligent, funny, volatile, and emotionally exposed at all times. A role requiring tremendous vulnerability and emotional range.
Nina — 20s-30s. Ambitious, hopeful, and hungry for artistic and emotional transcendence. Beneath her openness is a deep resilience and an almost dangerous willingness to sacrifice herself for art and love.
Emma — 40s–60s. A celebrated actress at the height of her powers. Brilliant, charismatic, self-involved, and devastatingly funny. Fiercely committed to preserving both her relevance and her image.
Trigorin — 40s–60s. A successful novelist whose charm masks exhaustion, detachment, and quiet opportunism. Observant, seductive, and deeply uncomfortable with intimacy despite craving admiration.
Dev — 20s–30s. Conrad’s loyal best friend. Grounded, sincere, compassionate, and often the emotional center of the play. Struggles to balance kindness with his own longing to be truly seen.
Mash — 20s–30s. Dryly funny, existential, and emotionally sharp. Uses wit and irony as armor against profound disappointment and unrequited love.
Sorn — 50s–70s. A doctor confronting aging, regret, and mortality with humor and honesty. Wry, compassionate, and deeply aware of time slipping away.
Audition monologues are available at http://www.santapaulatheatercenter.org/auditions.html
