Casting Festival

As I've mentioned before, "we" refer to the festival show as Varsity Drama. It's the most competitive audition we hold; the most intense production of the year. Certainly, there are some kids that hold the musical more near and dear to their hearts. But this is THE show. USUALLY the smallest cast and the show that gets the most "public" attention since it IS competitive and awards are given. It is MY favorite production.

This year just over 50 kids auditioned for 16 to 22 parts. Truth be told, I was hoping to keep it closer to the 16; but that just didn't happen. The play were are producing, Things Fall (Meanwhile) by Barton Bishop, is the truest form of an ensemble piece that could be written. Yes, many of the 40 roles are only 2 to 5 lines each, which is why the ensemble plays multiple parts. Even the "single" parts are not overwhelmingly "huge". The cleverness of the play relies a great deal on the intertwining of several concurrent stories. It actually reads more like a movie...moving in and out of various places in various stories.

About half the students make the callback list, which makes many happy and many walking away from the list sad. It was a bad year for freshman as none of them made it that far. To be honest, it IS rare for freshman to make it that far in the process not BECAUSE they are freshman, but because they simply do not yet have the experience, ability and work ethic to truly compete with the older kids. However, in the last few years there HAVE been one or two that at least MADE callbacks. On the other hand, there are seniors that don't make callbacks, too. It isn't an automatic thing by any means. I keep telling the kids how rare it is for ANY student to be cast in all four of their festival shows. I'm pretty sure in my tenure, I've only had one. Currently, no one is even eligible for that honor. I know there have been kids with huge leads in the musical that don't make festival.

Once callbacks were over, I really, REALLY avoided the task at hand. I knew it was going to difficult to cast (and more difficult to cut) and I simply didn't want to face it. This casting was more difficult to cast than any in recent memory. (Possibly of all time.) Usually once one or two of the major parts have been cast, everything else falls in place and just "fits" (remember the puzzle analogy from the Millie casting?). But since there weren't TRULY any major parts, this just wasn't happening. I talk all the time about actors being "right" for the part; how the best actor is not always best for the biggest part. I was looking for the "right" choices to become evident. And then I realized: the ensemble parts are SOOO open to interpretation and character choices that there wasn't necessarily "right" choices so much as choosing the people that were indeed simply the strongest actors -- those truly adept at creating CHARACTERS, those that would look for ways to be sure each character they were playing was distinct from the others, and full and complete. There were really about 6 or so roles that had to be the "right" fit.

At the end of auditions, I was only certain about two parts. And only 100% sure about one of those. I had multiple names in many individual parts. Additionally, there was even ONE part I couldn't seem to find any name to put next to it. And, sadly, there were the names that simply weren't landing anywhere. Harsh reality. I even added a few non speaking parts, which I normally hate doing. Festival requires an intense commitment...and committing to be a non-speaking "extra" is a tough thing to ask. The good news: those folks will be called upon to both create physical uses of themselves when necessary...and I'll put that in their hands as well as if anyone DOES have to drop out of the show, we'll already have folks familiar with the show to be able to step in. (In this day and age, there are academic responsibilities that must be heeded or students cannot participate in extra-curricular activities. The bizarre connection with that: in the last three years we have gone to State Finals twice...both shows had a replacement actor!)

Finally, the deed is complete. I type, I print, I put away for school the next a.m. About 3 minutes from work the next morning, I realize I never put my schoolbag IN my car....and panic momentarily as I remember that I did indeed also EMAIL the list to myself! Whew. The list goes up. I hear squeals; I see sad faces. I ask around to find out if anyone is terribly upset. At first the word is good. But it quickly disintegrates. I won't go into details but there is indeed a few folks terribly upset; some even in tears. Have I mentioned I'm not good at tears? Mine or anyone else's. Even my kids. I'm a horrid woman, through and through. And it's not that I don't understand what they are feeling, even though I only remember crying at one cast list myself. (And that was when after FIVE callbacks for the role, I lost the lead to a Moliere play because I could play comedy and the other girls couldn't so I got a one scene comedic role while she walked away with the female lead. Oh, and she made PHIL sandwiches and baked him cookies.) I try to speak to those I'm aware that are upset, but am not sure if I'm really the person they WANT to be talking to at the moment. I hope I am of some comfort, but seriously doubt my effectiveness: what they are feeling is emotional and not logical.

Monday is our first read thru and only rehearsal of 2008. Tech theater class will begin creating the sets this week. Even with all the turmoil, I'm excited to get started...I'm happier when "in production".

Happy Holidays to all!