The Waiting Room
Project Overview
Inside a strange limbo known as the "Waiting Room", a cast of video game characters kill time between lives through gossip, insults, and donuts. But when buried feelings and secrets surface, they begin to question their purpose -- and everything they thought they knew about their players.
Check out one of our past audiodramas to get a feel on what this one will be like! This episode will be the nineteenth episode in the anthology.
https://open.spotify.com/show/18O4axVGBLq8rpTgM6aYit?si=484a7f5585724df9
Deadlines are fairly flexible, but would generally like to have lines by two weeks of casting (the quicker, the better!). If you don’t think you can meet this deadline, please don’t audition. Recording will be done remotely and asynchronously.
REQUIREMENTS
Must be 13+ to audition
Please be sure your recording doesn’t have any background noise. Good quality mic is recommended.
Must have discord to communicate (or be willing to create an account)
Please include your discord username in your audition.
When auditioning, please READ ALL THREE LINES.
Please feel free to experiment when recording. Do variations of the lines, ad-lib, all is welcome, interpret the characters your way.
Unfortunately at this time we cannot provide monetary compensation, but IMDB credit will be given!
CW: Profanity, violence, implied death. Please do not audition if these topics make you uncomfortable.
Join our discord server! https://discord.gg/ASJFpHJBKH
I am very excited for this project, thank you for the interest!
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Alaric, Hero of Hrunegandr
Male, 19
Video Game: Hrunegandr Series
Alaric is the Chosen Hero of Hrunegandr, a boy picked by the gods as oneof their two champions to battle the Demon Emperor Thordrig. (The other is the Grand Duchess Elspeth.) He came from a rural village and grew up a farm boy until his destiny was revealed by the design of the gods when he turned twelve. Alaric, now just nineteen, has struggled both in-and out-of-game to adjust to his new role as “The Saviour of Hrunegandr”, and is often a disappointment to those he meets when the desperate expectations of others meet with the reality of a real person who is doing his best but never asked for this life and doesn’t really want it, either. When not-in-game, Alaric is a reluctant hero who prefers to be a homebody, spending his hours cooking, crafting, and reading.
Although in the fictional Hrunegandr games Alaric and Elspeth are a loving, devoted couple, when they’re off-duty the pair are VERY far from that. In fact, they fight constantly—more like squabbling siblings than romantic partners.Curiously, though, each one is also jealously possessive of the other–if Alaric flirts with or gets too close to another lady in the Waiting Room Elspeth will freak out, and vice versa.
Voice: High-to-medium pitched male. He sounds young (he’s just 19) and heroic but also somewhat innocent in-game, and tired and shy out-of-game.
- male teen
- male young adult
(in-game, grimly. Re: "What's that sound?!") Evil Emperor Thordrig’s monster warhorse, Strona . (Beat, as he dramatically unsheathes his sword.) Don’t worry, Elspeth – I’ll protect you!
Oh come on, Elsie. Would you really pick me out of everyone who ever comes in or out of here if you had the choice?
(sudden determination) Okay, that’s it. We need to do something about this.
Grand Duchess Elspeth Skaldrin of Hrunegandr
Female, late teens
Video Game: Hrunegandr Series
The youngest child of the Skaldrin dynasty, Elspeth was whisked away from the ducal capital city as a little girl of just five when the evil Demon Emperor Thordrig’s horde arose to start slaughtering the living. She spent much of her childhood stuck in a remote monastic community where she was being kept hidden. The impetuous, adventurous, boisterous girl chafed at this upbringing, and grew to detest the constant silence of the mountain monastery... although she did learn to love its library and the books inside, which gave her the only entertainment she could find in the place. Elspeth also learned all the proper prayers to the gods, as well as being trained in the arts of magical healing and exorcism—skills that would in time prove crucial in the final battle with Thordrig.
But for the headstrong girl who never wanted to be a Chosen One of Hrunegandr and would rather spend her days out hunting or practicing with a longbow (her aim is excellent) than sitting around waiting for some fabled heroic counterpart to show up, these years were not happy ones. And to make matters worse, the clerics who sheltered her constantly hyped up the Hero, filling the impressionable, easily bored girl’s head with dreams of someone exciting and perfectly matched for her. When at last she met Alaric, heproved to be quite a disappointment. Yes, he was handsome and brave in combat... but quiet, shy, andfrankly quite boring in Elspeth’s eyes. Yes, when the pair follow the “script” of the game she instantly falls in love with him and is his perfect soulmate throughout the story. But when freed from the forced script of the Hrunegandr games and released back to the Waiting Room, she lets all that pent-up frustration and anger out with biting sarcasm and coldness toward Alaric. In fact, she much prefers to chat with the other characters there, particularly Captain Corvina, on whom she has a very obvious crush. Butat the same time, irrationally, she is also jealously possessive of Alaric—even if she doesn’t want him romantically, she is equally horrified by the idea that someone else might have him.
In-game voiceprint: Medium-pitch female, heroic and determined to a stereotypical degree.
Waiting Room voiceprint: Medium-itch female, but absolutely a “mean girl” in tone and inflection.
- female teen
- female young adult
(in-game, determined) No! I will not allow you to battle this horror alone...! (Beat as she draws back her sacred bow and nocks an arrow onto the string.) We’ll protect each other, my love – no matter what!
Oh please – she’s nice to everyone , no matter what we say or do. It' s like she never has any other emotions at all! She’s just a doormat we all walk all over!
Eww! Eww eww eww, I don’t want to be a tattoo for this gangly guy with hair that looks like a mop! That’s so creepy and gross!
Hildegard von Lichtenthal, Vampire Hunter
Female, early to mid 20s
Video Game: Sangrelac Series
Hildegard is a Swiss alchemist and vampire hunter of the Roquetaillade (pronounced “roh-QUE-tie-AHD”) Circle, and the protagonist of the fictional Sangrelac (pronounced“SAWNG-lahck”) game series. She wields a blessed warhammer, called Minervius, imbued with holy power and made from a secret alloy of Damascus steel and pure silver. With this weapon she fights all the armies of Sangrelac, making her way to confront the evil vampire, the Marquis de Sangrelac, and put an end to his vampiric evil once and for all! (Or at least until the next game in the series...)
While Hildegard is both brilliant and perceptive, she lacks the natural curiosity of a scientist because she’s so mono-focused on revenge and on destroying the undead menace in-game that she doesn’t let herself indulge her curiosity otherwise. Her personality can best be described as cold and grim. A life spentmourning her murdered family and preparing to exact revenge has left her with little time for softerfeelings (at least on the surface). Deep down, though, she’s still got that bereft, wounded little girl who watched a vampire butcher her beloved parents and elder brother inside of her, although she locks that part of her psyche down so tight it’s pretty much hermetically sealed. She doesn’t form attachments easily and isn’t really “friends” with the others in the Waiting Room, but Hildegard secretly enjoys their antics because they make her feel less alone and give her something to focus on that isn’t her tragic past or the existential dread that gnaws away at her about the pointlessness of defeating the Marquis when he’ll always return for another game. She plays a sort of self-appointed “peacekeeper” role in the Waiting Room, breaking up fights (since she’s frankly more of a badass than anyone else in there), helping to clean up the messes they make in their scuffles, and generally taking care of the place when she’s not busy smashing zombies, ghouls, and other baddies in her game.
Voice: low, mildly-to-moderately textured and slightly husky. Since she’s Swiss, a consistently believable German or French accent would be a bonus, but it’s not absolutely necessary for the character.
- german
- female adult
- french
Loneliness is for the weak. I need nothing and no one, so long as I can count on myself, my blessed warhammer, and my alchemical formulae.
All of you just STOP!! (beat) I’m so sick of the constant bickering in here. We deal with more than enough ugliness in-game as it is, why do some of you insist on dragging it into the Waiting Room as well?!
Don’t be so bitchy, Elspeth. Pat’s trying to be nice to you, Heaven knows why. It’s not as if you do the same for her.
Captain Calvin "Cal" Corvina, Admiral of the Buccaneers
Male, mid to late 30s
Video Game: Plankwalker 3
In Plankwalker 3, the fictional pirate-themed fighting game series, the Buccaneer faction’s leader is Captain Calvin (“Cal”) Corvina, a man of mixed background: half-British and half-Spanish. He is a dashing and fearless sailor, adventurer, and pirate, as deadly with his fists as with cutlass or gun, determined to recover the great treasure that’s the game’ maguffin not to abuse its power but to destroy it once and for all so that no one can benefit from its mystical strength.
Like a stereotypical pirate, inside the Plankwalker games he’s fond of rum, tobacco, gambling, carousing, and adventure, and all his lines are basically catch-phrases or combat dialogue.And while that is a part of his character, he’s not just some drunken, violent bad boy. Captain Corvina—“Cal” to his friends—also reads and writes poetry, sings (and not just sea shanties), and is as focused on romance as he is on treasure-hunting inside the game setting. He is sensual, surprisingly soft-spoken, and gentle, particularly towards women. Towards men he tends towards a breezy charm that is almost but not quite dude-bro in style. (He despises Ethan MacMaster, both for his attitude and how the latter speaks to others in the Velvet Room, particularly Puzzle Princess Patricia.)
Voice: Cal speaks like a VERY stereotypical pirate–he uses a Cockney or West Country British accent that’s gruff, deep, and very gravelly. (Think Pirates of the Caribbean-style British, maybe with a little bit of Spanish accent flair thrown in occasionally to reflect his mixed heritage.) But there’s also a softness that comes out when he speaks to certain characters, especially Puzzle Princess Patricia, who he considers a friend, and a melancholy note to his lines when appropriate.
- west country british
- male adult
- pirate
- british (cockney)
- spanish
Oh? What be troublin' ye, Yer Highness?
That was uncalled fer, ya boozy barnacle. It’s not Pat’s fault she be s tuck in ‘ere all th’ time – and yer game only gets dusted off once a year or so either, if me memory be right!
Tis not as though we’re complete strangers ta each other by now, is it, Fraulein?
Ethan MacMaster, Private Eye
Male, adult
Video Game: Crime Factory
The protagonist of Crime Factory, a fictional point-and-click adventure game that was famous in the late 1980s, is Ethan MacMaster, P.I. Originally from Canada, in the game MacMaster is implausibly ejected from the Mounties after being framed for a crime he didn’t commit, and ends up fleeing south of the border to Detroit with nothing but his top-notch detective skills, a bad attitude, tortured backstory, and an alcohol problem. (In the original 1980s game he’s drunk and belligerent in about half the scenes he appears in, although the remake was forced to tone that one aspect of the O.G. game down to avoid falling afoul of legal safeguards in the EU and other countries.) His dialogue also leans into bad noir tropes of being sarcastic and cold, especially towards women.
Unlike most of the other characters, whose personalities are actually rather different in the Waiting Room than in-game, Ethan is absolutely the same over-the-top grimderp jackass no matter where he is. He chain-smokes incessantly, mocks other characters, and is generally an unlikeable jerk. The only major difference between in-game and out-of-game Ethan is that the latter is also insufferably proud of his “celebrity” status because of his dialogue and actions in the O.G. game being so controversial.(He knows about this because the remake of Crime Factory has a “History of” section the player can read through which proudly preens itself about how much it offended the “pearl-clutchers”, as it calls them, back in the day.) Puffed up with this knowledge, Ethan incessantly mocks the other characters for being “corporate”or “bougie” and has a big hipster vibe about him when it comes to his own game.
Voice: Ethan’s biting, sarcastic, and gravelly from way too many cigarettes and cigars for his own good. Since he’s Canadian and based in Detroit, he should optimally have either a Canadian or Upper Midwest accent.
- american (midwest)
- male adult
- canadian
Tch, that’s BloodyMarliyn for you. *I* can dodge better than that, and there isn’t even real-time combat in Crime Factory. (smugly) Not that it NEEDED any, of course...
(angrily) He was a serial killer, and the Detroit police we re too incompetent to stop him, so someone had to! Don’t act like you don’t know the plot of my game, you brat!
Hah, look at the kid using his spine for once! There’s been so much “yes Elsie” this and “whatever you want, Elspeth” that, I was beginning to think you were her lapdog!
Puzzle Princess Patricia
Female, mid to early 20s
Video Game: Puzzle Princess Panic!!!
The protagonist of one of the most brutally frustrating puzzle games ever made, “Puzzle Princess Panic!”. Sadly, Patricia is more or less a permanent resident of the Waiting Room, and it’s very unlikely that she will get out anytime soon... if ever. The original Puzzle Princess Panic! was a very popular game series back in the early 8-bit console days—back when gamers were used to being driven insane by frustrating mechanics and incredibly difficult brain-bending puzzles. Sadly, an attempt toreboot the franchise a couple of years ago—Puzzle Princess Panic!!!—was a terrible flop because the devs went way too hard for nostalgia and made no effort to make the game fun to younger and less patient audiences.
On this console, Patricia’s only here in the Waiting Room because the new Puzzle Princess Panic!!! was actually a gift to HeroFace97 from a favorite aunt who remembered HeroFace97 liking the original as a small child. Now that they’ve grown up, HeroFace97 only installed it and played it once—when the favorite aunt came to visit—and has yet to uninstall yet simply out of guilt because the aunt died soon afterwards. So poor Patricia spends all her time stuck in the Waiting Room, watching everyone else’s games get played while she can only eat jelly donuts, drink tea, and solve sudoku and jigsaw puzzles as she waits forlornly for her turn. To make matters even worse, all those donuts and being stuck in the Waiting Room all the time have done no favors to her figure, and more unkind other characters cruelly refer to her as “Fat Pat” (sometimes even to her face) on account of her now rather rotund physique. (She was quite thin when she first showed up on the console, but that was quite a while ago now, so...)
Even though she never gets to have her game played, Patricia is still a real person with very real and sometimes raw emotions. Sensitive and sweet by nature, she struggles with low self-esteem and depression and tends to be shy, only speaking up either when someone talks to her or when she feels like she has something to say, which is usually just to be encouraging to other characters when they pop into the Waiting Room again. Although they don’t really show much interest in her, Patricia is in fact both a genius and also very emotionally perceptive–she understands a LOT more about their inner struggles and desires than they realize. She’s also secretly in love with Alaric, and finds the way Grand Duchess Elspeth treats him to be horrible but is too polite to say so most of the time... unless Elspeth pushes him too hard, then she REALLY lays into the Grand Duchess and scares the hell out of everyone else present.
Voice: Medium-to-low female. Warm, soft, and motherly, even when she allows her bitter, sad side out.
- female adult
- female young adult
Oh, Elspeth... are you alright? I’m sure you must be in pain, can I help at all?
I-It’s not my fault that my out-of-game figure has changed because I can’t leave here and have nothing to do!
It’s because I’m miserable, and I don’t want the rest of you to be as miserable as I am. That’s the real me, Elspeth.
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