Casting Call – Lyra and Shaya Ponta

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Lyra Ponta

Species: Human
Gender: Female
Age: 41
Height:
5’5
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Green
Force Side: Light
Love Interest: Varn Noss
Father: Hadder Ponta
Mother:  Jyn Erso
Voice:  Soprano
Accent:  North American

CASTING TYPE:  VOICE ONLY

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Shaya Ponta

Species: Human
Gender: Female
Age: 41
Height:
5’5
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Green
Force Side: Light
Love Interest: Orson Thells
Father: Hadder Ponta
Mother:  Jyn Erso
Voice:  Soprano
Accent:  North American

CASTING TYPE:  VOICE ONLY

 Background Story

A young Jyn Erso fell in love with Hadder Ponta, the son of Akshaya Ponta who operated a freighter ship that Jyn had boarded and exchanged work for passage with.  Akshaya offered Jyn refuge after Saw Gerrera had abandoned her.  Akshaya’s daughter, Tanith, had died of Bloodburn so Jyn was offered her former room, next to Hadder.  The two would sneak out and go on clandestine flights together and eventually fell in love.  

Jyn became pregnant by Hadder, much to Akshaya’s chagrin as they were still teens, and the Empire was tightening its grip on their home planet of Skuhl.  She worried about their ability to stay there.  In 8 months, Jyn gave birth to identical twin girls. She named them Shaya, after Akshaya, and Lyra, after her own mother. But the young family was forced to prepare to leave for the Five Points System and try to make a new start.  

But stormtroopers caught onto Jyn, believing her to be the Jyn that was involved with the rebels.  They searched for her and now knew Hadder was her mate. Akshaya knew it was time to go! Akshaya told Jyn to take her girls and board the planet hopper while she and Hadder would board the freighter.  Separating would be a way for them to throw the Empire off of her trail.  Jyn protested because she wanted Hadder to go with her, but Hadder was insistent that it would be more believable if Hadder was with his mother on the freighter.  

Because the small planet hopper was far less visible, Jyn and the girls were able to sneak right through the open battles that now littered planetary space above Skuhl. But the stormtroopers locked onto the freighter — they engaged in a dog fight to which the freighter was at a distinct disadvantage vs. TIE Fighters.  They were shot down in a blaze of glory, killing both Akshaya and Hadder.  Jyn was now orphaned for a third time and had two additional mouths to feed, her daughters.  

Jyn tried to find any kind of work she could to feed the young twins. Most of which were of a criminal nature. By the time she was twenty-one, Jyn’s rap sheet included warrants for forgery of Imperial documents (listed twice on the rap sheet the Rebel Alliance recovered), aggravated assault against Imperial personnel, escape from custody, resisting arrest, ship jacking, possession of unsanctioned weapons, unlawful conduct with undesirables, petty theft, creating a public nuisance, and disorderly conduct. Notably, none of her crimes involved harming or conning civilians—her only targets were Imperial personnel and other criminals. Despite her rough life, Jyn was also not a murderer, killing only in self-defense or defense of her girls, in defense of others, or in war. 

Eventually, it all caught up to her.  She was arrested, separated from her twin girls who were put into the system as orphans, and tossed into the Imperial Labor Camp at Wobani, where in 0 BBY she would be rescued by the Rebellion in return for her assistance in finding Saw Gerrera.  

The twins were taken to the orphanage of Corulag, where they remained until they were 14. They had been given their last name, Hallik, by the paperwork submitted by their mother. Jyn had been using the alias of Liana Hallik.  Once those papers were recovered by the Alliance to Restore the Republic, which the twins eventually found, they learned their mother was rebel hero Jyn Erso, who was responsible for the destruction of the first Death Star along with rebels Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia Organa.  They became obsessed with trying to find more information about their mother. Lyra especially wanted to know who her father had been.  

Years later they found information on Jyn’s stay with Akshaya Ponta when she used the alias of Jyn Dawn. It was obvious to them that Shaya had been named after their grandmother and they discovered that her son was Hadder Ponta. The girls put two and two together to identify their father as Hadder Ponta.  They reclaimed their last name, changing over to Lyra and Shaya Ponta, they were 18.  

Over the next few decades, they set up shop at the Five Points space station and discovered their proficiency with the Force.  Both girls had been born Force sensitive, something they later came to find out had existed in the Ponta line, even speculating that their father Hadder might have been prone to use of it.  They would often use their Force skill in dealing business the business of spice.  

Expanding beyond the Five Points System, the twins set their sights on bigger fish. They wanted a slice of Hutt Space, as did everyone at that time, especially after the death of Jabba the Hutt. They decided to approach the Hutt clan themselves, trading passes in their sector for the ability to deal spice in Hutt space. They settled on the moon of Nal Hutta and occupied both the Five Points sector, which included planets like Felucia and Raxxus and more. They opened a bar called the Orange Lady in Nar Shaadda, the moon for Nal Hutta known as the underworld’s version of the megalopolis Coruscant.  There they met Varn Noss and Orson Thells, who were bounty hunters and former Jedi Padawan at one time, now living in hiding.  Lyra married Varn first, and eventually Shaya and Orson also got together.  The four of them trained themselves in the Force, sharing whatever they knew with each other.  

Lyra and Varn have 3 kids, Shaya and Orson have 2, and together they run one of the most lucrative spice running crime organizations in the underground.  

 Submission Dialogue

The following is a scene from the upcoming fan film,  Star Wars: The Chosen One (Episode X), which is registered with the US Copyright Office. We ask all submissions to read from the scene here for the parts in this call sheet, the other dialogue is there for context and does not need to be included.  You do not have to submit the entire scene, only the parts you feel will best showcase your voice acting. 

INT. NAR SHADDAA, THE ORANGE LADY – EVENING

LYRA and SHAYA PONTA sit at a booth inside The Orange Lady, a cantina that they extorted out from under the former owner that needed to have him and his family “disappear” as the Hutts were after them. The cantina is full of other patrons, all the sorts of a seedy underworld in where the PONTAs now famously have a strong foothold on. They rival the Hutts.

Across from them sits DAP FARPU and GROT DANAT. Two Aqualish smugglers that, like most Aqualish, have an affinity for the higher-end quality spice that the PONTA twins deal in. They had gotten desperate enough to reach out to the PONTA twins to offload a recently acquired ship of medical supplies gathered by unscrupulous means. They hope to trade it for some of the PONTAs best spice.

SHAYA PONTA
It’s simple.
(beat)
Take us to the ship. We give you your spice.

LYRA PONTA
Easy as pie.
(beat)
Ready when you are.

DAP FARPU
(chuckles)
No.
(beat)
We will bring you samples of the ship’s cargo.
(beat)
The deal is for six crates. The crates. Not the ship.

SHAYA PONTA
That’s not how this works.

DAP FARPU
The cargo ship is in an undisclosed location.
A location we’re not willing to divulge to anyone.

SHAYA PONTA
(chuckles)
“Undisclosed” huh?

LYRA PONTA
Nothing remains undisclosed for long.
(beat)
I don’t have to tell you that, do I Dap?

GROT DANAT
(evasive)
How about we throw in another crateful? On the house.

SHAYA becomes frustrated. A frustrated SHAYA is no good for anyone. GROT shifts in his seat, his anxiety growing.

Submission & File Formatting Requirements

Please be sure to adhere to these requirements for uploaded voice submissions:

  • Ensure your recorded files are in one of the following formats: mp3, wav, flac, raw, wma, m4a
  • Please sample your voice only with no added effects with a high quality microphone.
  • Submissions must include the lines provided above, one recording per character (Shaya or Lyra).
  • Please do not submit demo reels, we do not review those.
  • Ensure file properties contain your name, date, and contact information.
  • Submit up to 5 individual files that are less than 60 seconds in length each.

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