Where & When
WED MAY 13 + THU FEB 14
6-9PM | MEMAUD 129
Performance Info
THU OCT 29 – SAT OCT 31
8PM | PIGOTT THEATER
Important Resources
Must be logged in on an @stanford.edu account to view
Accessibility
If any accessibility accommodations with auditions or callbacks are needed please email tapsinformation [at] stanford [dot] edu for assistance.
Sponsors
This production was made possible in part by the Pigott Fund for Drama and the May Ellen Ritter Production Fund.
About 404 Not Found
By Lucas Baisch
We find ourselves at the back of a clay building that signals ‘stay away, stay awake.’ Slack has a bad habit of holding people captive. Now he’s the one shackled to a metal grate. Ro makes ends meet via drag-play for a truck-stop benefactor. She leverages her wages to travel down the neck of the Americas, making herself invisible along the way. Her cousin Cameo retreats to La Barranca, a digital landscape of his own invention, where he encrypts documentation for asylum-seekers. A twisting, twisted work of mischief and despair netted in kidnap, virtual utopias, upended borders, and Freddy Krueger cosplay.
404 Not Found has been developed with The Kennedy Center (2020), New Dramatists (2022), and the Magic Theatre (2025). It is available for purchase through 53rd State Press.
Stanford TAPS seeks to build a diverse cast for this production and encourages members of any race, gender identity, and ability to audition. If any accessibility accommodations are needed please email tapsinformation [at] stanford.edu for assistance.
About the Director
Lucas Baisch is a playwright, artist, and educator from San Francisco. His plays have been read and developed at the Goodman Theatre, the Playwrights’ Center, the Magic Theatre, the Bushwick Starr, the Mercury Store, Playwrights Horizons, Clubbed Thumb, Cutting Ball Theater, The Neo-Futurists, Stanford University, Chicago Dramatists, Links Hall, SF Playground, Ars Nova, the Fisher Center at Bard College, The NNPN/Kennedy Center MFA Playwrights’ Workshop, etc.
Full-length plays include: REFRIGERATOR (First Floor Theater), On the Y-Axis (The Bushwick Starr Reading Series), Dry Swallow (Brown University), 404 Not Found (2022 O’Neill NPC Finalist), CLAW / BET / BOUNTY (Stanford University), import speech_memory (Cutting Ball’s Variety Pack Festival), The Scavengers (DePaul University), A Measure of Normalcy (Gloucester Stage), and co-writing on The Arrow Cleans House (The Neo-Futurists).
Lucas is a recipient of a Steinberg Playwright Award, the Princess Grace Award in Playwriting (New Dramatists), a Jerome Fellowship (The Playwrights’ Center), The Kennedy Center’s KCACTF Latinx Playwriting Award, and the Chesley/Bumbalo Playwriting Award. His plays have been published by Bloomsbury/Methuen Drama, Yale’s Theater Magazine, and 53rd State Press.
Outside of writing for theatre, his artworks have been presented at Elsewhere Museum, the Electronic Literature Organization, gallery no one, and the RISD Museum. He has also held residencies through the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Millay Arts, ACRE, Elsewhere Museum, Page 73, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, Ars Nova’s Play Group, the Goodman Theatre’s Playwrights Unit, and as a Lambda Literary Playwriting Fellow.
Lucas is currently commissioned by The Alcove New Play Development Program at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. He is pursuing a PhD in Performance Studies at Stanford and holds an MFA in Playwriting from Brown University. lucasbaisch.com
About Rehearsals
This play is a language-forward psychological thriller, celebrating the dynamism of text as the engine of drama. This considered, much of the rehearsal time will be spent discovering the music of the three characters’ monologues which weave together, punctuated by brief scenes between performers.
In 2026, the themes of 404 Not Found may arrive with a particular potency given the current migratory climate. Through this play we will study: the notion of ‘mestizaje’ as a historical conjuring of both the oppressor and oppressed; utopia presented as an impossible, yet alluring goal; the plague of capitalism and its snag on human interaction; the poetics of simulation as both a formal and narrative device; and cultures of surveillance as they are instrumentalized against non-citizens, brown bodies, and queer bodies. A question today: what does it mean to return?
The tone of the show is hallucinogenic, and the plot progression is non-linear. There is a black humor, but there is also a stark recounting of these characters’ pain. In the rehearsal room, we will be committed to making as emotionally safe a rehearsal process as possible, while not shying away from the heft of the project. By staging this work, we will aspire to a performance literature that can turn dense shadows thin, while finding pockets of buoyancy and impish play.
About Auditions
Auditions will be held as 15-min individual timeslots. If you are unable to attend auditions in person, a video submission can be sent in via Google Drive link to tapsinformation [at] stanford.edu by MAY 14 at 12PM PT. Please email tapsinformation [at] stanford.edu for instructions.
What To Prepare
If possible, please prepare one of the provided sides, linked under “Important Resources”. You may be asked to also read from other sides in the audition room.
Casting Breakdown
The Casting Team is looking to cast 3 actors and possibly some understudy positions. Exact alignment with the specified nationalities is not necessary—the Casting Team welcomes all actors who identify as Latina/o/x/é to audition for these roles. Roles are not restricted to actors of a specific gender identity; however, the pronouns listed below reflect how characters are referred to in-text. All characters use some profane language.
- SLACK — [he/him] mid 30s. He is withered, wicked, and time travelling. He has a grit, is sharp-tongued, yearning, and a bit paranoid. Mixed (‘mestizo’) Mexican American.
- RO — [she/her] late 20s – early 30s. Dressed in Freddy Krueger cosplay. She wears a steely mask, and her glare could pierce you like a knife. Guatemalan American.
- CAMEO — [he/him] early 20s. Ro’s kid cousin. A potential techie in training. Class clown, town idiot, a genius in disguise. Guatemalan American.
Assistant Positions
TAPS is also seeking design and rehearsal assistants for this production. Applications are due via email to the TAPS Production Manager: tapsproductionmgmt [at] stanford [dot] edu. General crew and behind-the-scenes inquiries are welcome as well.
Assistant Applications
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