Famous Character – Johnny Joseph

Johnny Joseph – an American, our hero, a James Dean type- age 17 to 26, singer, musician, writer – “Bring back the protest song”

CHARACTER BREAKDOWN

JOHNNY

His passion is music, writing and surfing. He comes from a different world than Maria. Johnny’s mother is dead. His father is a defense lawyer and partner in a firm. Johnny lives in the exclusive area of Atlantic Beach, on of the barrier islands that are a part of Long Island. Johnny is a loner, keeps to himself a lot- mysterious. Johnny is moody at times and has an anger problem. He doesnt suffer fools.

Johnnys mother was a  musician who died with huge regrets about never seriously following her dreams. Johnny got the Peace through Music idea directly or indirectly from her. Then when she died, she left all her money to Johnny, and he’s using it to pursue playing for change.

What does he want fundamentally? To change the world through music? To help people find passion through music? Music to him is life, love, passion, the reason he gets up in the morning. Maybe he’s quiet and a little socially inept because the only thing he truly gets, is music. The only real friend he’s ever had is his guitar/sax etc. He doesn’t understand people like he understands music. It’s the universal language. He uses it to communicate, to express himself and wants to share that with the world.

He doesn’t want to share his ‘talent’, for him its not about egotistical ambitions. He just wants to spread music around the globe. Maybe he doesn’t even want to be a conventional singer with a record deal. The rock star lifestyle holds no appeal to him, like it does for Tom. He would be perfectly content sitting in his house playing music for himself for the rest of his life. There is an urge to do more, to get out there in the world, but it’s not for selfish reasons. It’s just that he has a burning desire to change the world, help people, open people’s eyes to what they are and what they could be. What the world is and what it should be. There is no greater way to communicate than through music. It doesn’t matter what language you’re singing in, if the emotion is coming through, then everybody just gets it. There is nothing he loves more in the universe.

Except maybe Maria. And that’s where it gets complicated. Because he doesn’t do the boyfriend thing very well. He’s not used to giving anything other than music his full attention, so he generally fails in relationships. He does the wrong thing without knowing it, he lets her down without knowing why. All he knows is that he wants to protect her from Tom at all costs. But when he gets overprotective and she pushes him away, he lets her. He doesn’t realise he’s meant to fight for her, or even that she wants him to. That he is so adorably clueless is a huge part of his appeal to the audience, but he’s also not an idiot. Its just that he’s so distracted by music that everything else usually takes a back seat. His journey over the course of the season is so interesting because Maria starts becoming more and more important to him, and he doesn’t know quite what to do with that.

Ultimately he preaches about wanting to help people, to change the world… but he’s incredibly cut off from people himself. Maria changes that for him, and suddenly he has something else to fight for, and by the end, he’s totally prepared to fight for her.

She brings him out of his shell, as he does for her, and he’s a better man with her than without.

FAMOUS AUDITION MONOLOGUE

You may write your own monologue -

* Firstly you will do your performance piece with a brief introduction (in character – first names only when introducing your characters in your audition. ) Perform a solo musical number, dance or any performance piece – no more than 2 minutes long. Musical instruments allowed.
* Then you will talk directly to camera in the character you have chosen – its like a personal video blog – speak in any language or accent you choose.
* You can write the monologue to suit the character you have develo

See all Auditions for Johnny Joseph on YouTube by clicking here