EDC is one of the world’s leading nonprofit research and development firms. EDC designs, implements, and evaluates programs to improve education, health, and economic opportunity worldwide. Collaborating with both public and private partners, we strive for a world where all people are empowered to live healthy, productive lives.

READ II is a five-year program (2018-2023), funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), with the overall objective of supporting the Ethiopia Ministry of Education (MOE) to improve the reading proficiency and educational attainment of 15 million children, so that they can lead productive lives and drive Ethiopia’s economic, social, and political development. Working in collaboration with the MOE, READ II operates in six target regions: Addis Ababa, Amhara, Oromia, Tigray, SNPPR, and Somali.

READ II is supporting the MOE and Regional State Education Bureaus (RSEBs) in their efforts to strengthen the ability of Colleges of Teacher Education (CTEs) to better prepare future educators. As part of the READ II Project, the Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) is writing and producing 20 interactive audio instruction (IAI) programs to support the upgrading of English language speaking and listening skills for students and instructors at the CTEs. The IAI programs include songs, activities, dramas, and dialogues. In order to write and produce these programs, EDC is collaborating with the Center for Educational Information & Communication Technology (CEICT).

Audition Location: CEICT (formerly known as Educational Media Agency) – In front of the entrance of BGI Ethiopia beer factory.

Google maps address:  https://goo.gl/maps/pGuGorMt8fWA511bA

Casting Director: Mekdes H/Selassie Gebru

Contact Information: 0961255290, [email protected], [email protected]  

Compensation: Yes

KEY DATES

Interested applicants should attend the auditions on the following dates. Preference will be given to experienced actors, but it is not a requirement.

Audition date:

Monday November 4, 2019 (Morning starting at 10am)

Tuesday November 5, 2019 (Morning starting at 10am)

Call Backs: November 6, 2019

Recording Begins: November 7, 2019

General Story Line:

Sara is a CTE instructor in a town near Hawassa, southern part of Ethiopia. She is the chief breadwinner of her household because her husband passed away in a car accident 7 years ago. Her first born, Zekarias is an 11-year-old who loves to play football. Elias, a first year CTE student and a science major, met Sara in school. He is terrified of speaking English but wants to improve. Sara helps him practice his speaking skills and in return he coaches her son in football.

In the drama segments of each episode, Sara often flashes back to a time when she learned to speak English when her cousin Beth (short for Bethlehem) visited from the US 17 years ago. Beth stays with Sara and her mother Sofia for a year during her gap year and doesn’t speak the local language. Their uncle Adam is the one who brought Beth to Sophia’s house. Sofia doesn’t speak or understand English, but she tries to speak.

CHARACTER BIOS – Auditions held for the following characters below: 

*NOTE: All actors must have basic English skills.

Elias: (MALE, 15 - 25 years old, preferably from Eastern or Southern Ethiopia)

CTE student. He is very thin, tall, with protruding teeth and with long hair (has a habit of twisting it). He is sociable, active and eager to learn new things. He gets made fun of for being thin which he pronounces as “tin”. He is a brave person but terrified about needing to speak English. Always uses a wooden toothbrush. The instructor always jokes with him about using this just to get him speaking. He is a very good student, normally gets good grades, but the one subject he can’t seem to pass is English. He needs to broaden his English-speaking skills because he wants to be the gold winner of the campus in order to get a good job. His background is natural science education. He comes from a poor farmer family which is the reason education is so important to him. Growing up he had some role models to watch in his community who, after getting educated, went to the nearby towns to get better jobs.

Sofia: (FEMALE, 55 - 65 years old)

Sophia is Sara’s mother with very little English skills. She has very little or no formal education but she tries to speak English. She makes mistakes all the time trying to speak English but she makes a lot of progress throughout the IAI program.

Zekarias: (MALE, 10 – 15 years old)

He is the 11 year old first born of Sara. He is in the 5thgrade. He lost his father when he was 4 so he doesn’t know him much. He loves to play football. He is confident, curious, asks questions about his father and is very sensitive. He has good English skills for his age. He is outgoing and easy to communicate with older people especially males in his community.

Aman: (MALE, 13 – 18 years old)

He lives with his father Adam and goes to the same school as Sara in the flashback stories.  

Incidental Characters:

Additional male and female characters of various age groups needed for incidental characters.

Preference will be given to experienced actors, but it is not a requirement.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.