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.

Comments

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I was delighted with what we saw. Amazed, really. These shows have brought so much wonderful talent out of the woodwork, and its wonderful seeing people push themselves in new directions and to new levels.

[dpolicar]

I was actually pretty impressed with how fluid-without-being-chaotic (there oughta be a word for that) the auditions were, but I can't imagine doing it with twice as many people!