Do You Feel Anger
Do You Feel Anger?
Written by Mara Nelson-Greenberg
Directed by Dr. Bridgett Vanderhoof
*Michigan Premiere*
Audition Dates/Times: Open auditions are Saturday and Sunday, July 11–12, from noon to 3 p.m.. If you are unavailable at one of the listed days/times, please email us at info@atgr.org and we'll make accommodations for a video audition submission or other in-person day/time.
Location: Spectrum Theater at 160 Fountain NE.
Callbacks: TBD at auditions based on auditionee availability.
Rehearsals: Take place at Spectrum Theater and are generally weekday evenings for 3 hours. Rehearsals will most likely begin the week of July 20. There will be no rehearsals over Labor Day Weekend.
Performance Dates (2026): September 10-12 and 17-19 at 7:30; September 13 at 3pm
Audition Requirements: No material needs to be memorized for the audition, but you should familiarize yourself with the script/characters/etc. Headshots and resumés are encouraged. Please be prepared to list any potential schedule conflicts throughout the rehearsal process.
Perusal Script and Sides: An online perusal copy of the script can be viewed here and sides which will be used during auditions can be viewed here.
Characters:
All roles are open to individuals of all races and ethnicities (aside from where prescribed by the playwright), abilities, body sizes, sexual orientations, and socioeconomic statuses. Trans, nonbinary, and genderqueer actors highly encouraged to audition.
- Sofia: 20’s-30’s, female presenting. A newly hired empathy coach at a debt collection agency. While initially optimistic, she grows tired of their absurd lack of compassion and becomes complicit in their behaviors.
- Eva: 20’s-30’s, female presenting. She uses intense defense mechanisms to make it through her day, often seeming cheerful and bubbly in opposition to her trauma.
- Jon: 30’s-60’s+, male presenting. The boss at the agency; Likes to play the nice guy until his machinations are frustrated.
- Howie: 20’s-30’s, male presenting, white. Male employee of the office that represents the severely angry aspect of toxic masculinity.
- Jordan: 20’s-30’s, male presenting. Male employee of the office that represents the “poetic, gentle” mask that toxic masculinity puts on.
- Sofia’s Mother & Janie: 40s’-60’s+, female presenting. Sofia’s Mother leaves desperate voicemails for Sofia, expressing her personal struggle with her divorce from Sofia’s father. Janie is a mysterious missing figure from the office. She is described to have “snapped” and gone “crazy”.
- Old Man: A 130 year-old man who represents classic toxic masculinity, expressing why he is unable to describe emotions and why he must then express them through violence.
Synopsis: What happens when empathy becomes another workplace skill some people are allowed to fail?
Sofia has been hired as an empathy coach at a debt-collection agency, and the job is going about as well as you might expect. Her new clients can barely identify an emotion, much less practice compassion (and let’s just disregard the fact that someone keeps mugging Eva in the kitchen), and the office culture is a nightmare wrapped in corporate language and dead-eyed professionalism. While the employees stumble through lessons in feeling, listening, and basic human decency, something more sinister keeps breaking through the absurdity.
Mara Nelson-Greenberg’s outrageous dark comedy is sharp, bizarre, and deeply unsettling - exposing the danger of a world where harm is normalized, accountability is optional, and some people’s feelings matter far more than others.
About the Director: Dr. Bridgett Vanderhoof is a freelance theatre educator, director, and costume designer based in Grand Rapids, MI. She holds a Ph.D in Interdisciplinary Theatre Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as a BA in Theatre from Grand Valley State University. Previously at Actors’ Theatre: CULLUD WATTAH (Asst. Costume Designer), POTUS (Costume Designer), PARADISE LOST (Astoreth/Urania), COLLECTIVE RAGE: A PLAY IN FIVE BETTIES (Director/Costume Designer), WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME (Director/Costume Designer). Since 2019, she has worked on multiple productions for GVSU, Grand Rapids Community College, Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company, Aquinas College, Grand Rapids Civic Theatre, and Actors’ Theatre of Grand Rapids. Outside of the West Michigan community, Bridgett has worked for Interlochen Center for the Arts, Children’s Theatre of Madison, The International Performing Arts for Youth Festival, and The Kennedy Center for Performing Arts (Theatre for Young Audiences Division). In addition to her theatre work, Bridgett serves as the Publicity & Recruitment Coordinator for the Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance at Grand Valley State University.