Halfway There

[lillibet]

I think the first night of auditions went well. I learned a lot from doing auditions for our previous two shows and had figured out ways to make the process much more organized. I know how nerve-wracking auditioning can be for actors and I feel a responsibility to smooth out all the edges I can think of and with a lot of help from my team I think we managed to make it fairly coherent. We got a good turn-out for the first night (for whatever reasons, we always seem to get about two-thirds of our pool on the second night) and another remarkably talented group. As I've said elsewhere, we just don't seem to appeal to bad actors--everyone I saw tonight was definitely worth watching. People chose good poems and did some very creative performances and I learned a lot from the cold readings. I always feel as if I'm keeping people forever, but I want to give the actors every opportunity to show me their range and flexibility. I'm starting to be afraid I may need to do callbacks, just because of the difficult decisions I'm going to face, but that's definitely a good problem to have.

The more time I spend in the sanctuary where we will be auditioning, the more excited I get about performing there. It will be a challenge, but I'm hoping to make good use of the space and the acoustics to create something special. With the caliber of acting I saw tonight, it stands a good chance of being a fine show.

If you are interested in auditioning, we'll be continuing tomorrow night. Information is available here. We're always excited to have new people coming out to join us. I know directors always say "c'mon, it'll be fun" when what we really mean is "let me work you like a dog," but the feedback I get from the casts of our previous productions is that despite my best efforts, people really do have a lot of fun on our shows.