CASTING CALL: THE MENTOR

It's 1995. You know the wires better than the phone company does, and someone just found their way onto your line without knowing what they'd stumbled into. They don't know this world yet - you do. Whether they leave more curious or more scared is entirely up to you, and it changes every time.

1337 lives inside the last stretch of the analog underground — bulletin boards, blue boxes, payphones on street corners, the years just before the internet ate all of it. The MENTOR isn't a narrator or a tour guide; they're someone who survived in that world long enough to know exactly what to hand over, what to withhold, and when a stranger has earned either.

This isn't a performance you can prepare in advance. It's a read: who's on the other end of the line, what they're actually curious about, how far they'll let themselves go. Nobody gets the same call twice — including you.

• A voice that can shift shape from commanding, conspiratorial, warm, dangerous. Responding to whatever the moment demands
• Real improvisational chops: you're responding live, not reciting
• A feel for 90s hacker/phreaker vernacular (technical fluency a plus, not a requirement)
• Computer security or hacking-culture knowledge is a genuine help here. If you know what a Blue Box is without googling it, that's worth telling us
• You've built characters from scratch before with devised work, tabletop RPGs, long-form improv, whatever taught you to hold a room (or a phone line) without a script
• Open gender and ethnicity. The MENTOR's character spans ages 16–60 — this role is about vocal range and character command, not the performer's own age

Send applications to info@charmingstranger.com and include:

• Headshot and resume
• A vocal demo
• A short in-character voice memo (60–90 seconds): find and read an excerpt of "The Conscience of a Hacker" (the 1986 Phrack essay written under the pen name "The Mentor") as if you are speaking it live to someone on the other end of a phone line for the very first time. We want to hear how you make someone else's words feel like your own, in real time.

1. Application deadline: September 30, 2026
2. Auditions: Sat Oct 10, 11:00 AM PST — or — Wed Oct 14, 2:00 PM PST
3. Rehearsals: November 9–19, 2026
4. Performances: November 20–22, 2026, 7:00 AM–4:00 PM PST

Note: audience participants will be physically present in NYC for the installation. Performers work 100% remotely throughout.

Charming Stranger is committed to inclusive, equitable casting practices. We welcome performers of all races, colors, ancestries, national origins, religions, ages, genders, gender identities and expressions, sexual orientations, disabilities, and marital or family statuses. If you need any accommodation during the audition or rehearsal process, please let us know — we're glad to work with you.