A follow up to a recent post about auditions. After the auditions, the hard part begins. Here's how I approach it.
Every student who auditions for me fills out the same form. I ask for name, contact phone number, parents’ names, email, and what activities they are doing that may conflict with rehearsals. Knowing ahead of time which actors will be all but unavailable during your scheduled rehearsal times will save you headaches and sleepless nights down the road.
Take good, solid notes during auditions. Write down something to help you remember them (red hoodie, green pants, glasses, etc). Better yet, video tape the auditions so you can review them later. Make sure you examine how well they read, project their voice, and get into character. Also note their body posture and level of confidence. Look over the character list, and write a few options down as to what role they might fit. If possible, bring in an extra parent or theater enthusiast to take notes and give you a second set of eyes. They might very well pick up on a potential talent that you’ll miss.
When you sit down to start making the tough decisions, take a list of characters, go through the audition sheets, and write each actor’s name down beside every key role you think they could play. The idea here is to get a list of potential actors who could tackle each role. In doing so, you should be able to give yourself two or three options for every key role.
Sometime before auditions, make a list and rank the characters in order of importance to you as a director (not necessarily biggest part to smallest). Start with the number one role you deem most important and cast the best possible choice. Then work your way down the list. If there are certain roles on your list that only have one name beside them, make sure you don’t need that actor in a bigger part, then go ahead and make the call.
When I cast Midsummer recently, I had it easy. Puck was the priority role for me, and only one name ended up next to Puck’s on my cast list. (By necessity, Puck was a girl; we only had six guys audition, so I had to make a lot of traditional male roles female.) That same actress was in contention for Helena and Titania. Having eliminated her in those roles, I went to my next priority (Helena), and picked the best choice. I scratched that actress off the other roles I had considered for her and went to Hermia, then Titania, and so on.
Is it that cut and dry? Of course not! You’ll inevitably have one or two actors who will bother you and make you flip flop their roles four or five times. But eventually, you have to make a choice and stick with it. Helena was my number two priority for girls, but I went back and forth between two actresses for an hour after I cast the rest. The truth is, either girl would have been great, and both girls are excelling in the roles they did receive. I went with the one I felt could be the funniest, and I haven’t regretted it since.
The HARDEST thing you will have to do is cut people. If you have a play for eight characters and twenty audition, guess what? YOU get to break 12 hearts.
There's no easy way to do this, but there are strategies to soften the blow. When the actors come in to auditions, make it clear that there are only a certain number of roles. Tell them that not getting cast is not necessarily a reflection on whether or not they have talent. Your job is not to decide who has it and who doesn't, but determining the best people available for each and every part. Do everything you can up front to express this and prepare those who will be disappointed.
No matter what you do, feelings will be hurt, people will be disappointed. But there will be other shows, other auditions. Life goes on, and your actors will learn that in time.
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