The Medical History and Bioethics Department at UW – Madison is putting on a staged reading of a new play, Homo Ex Machina, written and directed by Prof. Karola Kreitmair, as part of its 2025 Bioethics Symposium. The event will take place in the afternoon of April 5th, 2025, at the Play Circle Theater at Memorial Union. (There will be only one performance.) Prior to the event there will 3-5 rehearsals, scheduled to accommodate actors’ availability. This staged reading will involve some production elements (e.g., lights, sound, minor blocking), but no memorization of lines.
Please sign up for an audition slot using this form. Plan to spend the entire 30-minute timeslot at the audition. Auditions will take place March 4th and 5th, between 5:30pm and 7:00pm. The location is Room 1210 (Conference Room) in 1300 University Ave, Madison WI 53706. This is the Medical Sciences Center. Once you have signed up, you will receive an email with directions to the location.
You may prepare a one-minute dramatic monologue, but this is not necessary! There will be sides from the play to read. Please bring a resumé. All four roles (see breakdown below) are available.
Cast members will receive $300 in compensation after the performance.
Synopsis of Homo Ex Machina, a new play by Karola Kreitmair:
Charlie is a brilliant scientist whose life is upended when she is diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease that leaves her stuttering, shaking, and forgetful. Charlie’s wife Maggie selflessly plunges into a new role as Charlie’s caretaker. Over the years, both settle into their new identities. When Charlie finds out about an experimental neurostimulation brain implant, she is determined to undergo the procedure. Charlie’s transformation, however, is more than either she or Maggie bargained for, and the two suddenly become strangers in their own home. Impelled by the vainglorious neurosurgeon Ava and the adoring graduate student Tyler, Maggie and Charlie are pushed to their breaking points. As they negotiate the problematic gift of Charlie’s Faustian bargain, they must each confront themselves in excruciating and disorienting ways. Entangled in each other’s identities, the lives of Charlie and Maggie crescendo into a devastating climax that leaves their marriage incapable of being like it was before.
Characters: (3 F, 1M)
Charlie Gage (F, mid 40s) – Charlie is a professor of biology who is suffering from a neurodegenerative disease. She spends the first third of the play speaking with a stutter and shaking. She then receives a brain implant, which causes her symptoms to disappear, but which also affects her personality. For the latter two-thirds of the play she is grandiloquent, monomaniacal, and brilliant.
Maggie Lazare (F, early 40s) – Maggie is Charlie’s wife, a filmmaker turned caretaker, who puts her life on hold to care for Charlie. She is caring, smart, and funny.
Dr. Ava Frank (F, early 40s) – Ava is a neurosurgeon and a long-term friend of Maggie and by extension of Charlie. She is power-hungry, vain, but insecure.
Tyler Milligan (M, 20s) – Tyler is a vibrant young man who becomes Charlie’s PhD student. He is good-hearted, but possibly a bit naïve.
Any Questions? Please email: kreitmair@wisc.edu.