February 8, 2008...11:43 am
printer malfunction shock across North East (and Auditions)
Jan14th - 16th
Three days of auditions and it the process was tiring, illuminating and exciting even though I didn’t get to bellow, ‘Next!’ once. Immediate observations of note:
Two actors had limbs in full plaster due to stage injuries from previous shows, pantomime and dancing Dickensian jigs are dangerous pursuits.
Actors are wonderful sources of gossip. I now know more about Michelle Heaton’s underwear habits than is probably healthy.
Apparently a Richard Curtis film is more of a pull than a part in my regional touring play.
At least 70% of actors attending had suffered from a strange computer virus which had simultaneously blown up their printers making it impossible to print their scripts. Whatever.
My fancy and expensive script writing software had resulted in those who had brought a script having a different page number sequence to everyone else.
You haven’t brought/read the script or prepared or even chosen two scenes and still thought attending the audition was worth a trip out of the house?
Having sat in on a few auditions it is always interesting to see how a director appraoches the process. Anna Disley from New Writing North sat in on as many of the auditions and possible as well as a potential assistant director on the last day, but Psyche was rightfully in charge. We saw an average of 8-10 actors a day, each having a 30 minute slot. The actors read (with Psyche) a couple of sections that had grabbed their attention, Psyche then gave them feedback and some direction and they then read the scenes again, a useful way to see how responsive they are and how well they ‘take a note’. Psyche spent most of the remaining time discussing the actor’s response to and thoughts about the character and the play. Psyche really goes out of her way to make each actor feel comfortable and confident and never seems to run out of her endless reserves of patience.
As usual it was both useful and interesting for me to see the characters interpreted and portrayed in different ways. I have a huge amount of respect for actors. Like writing, acting is a brave pusuit, it takes guts to put you and your work ‘out there’ and to keep doing so despite frustrations and rejection, sustained by a dedication to a vocation that could rightly be thought of as foolhardy. Lets face it, even a successful writing or acting career will hold more disappointments than joy.
As usual there were more great actors than great parts and tough decisions had to be made. Some actors came back a second time and played opposite others auditioning. Casting an ensemble piece means that looks play a greater part than usual, characters have to fit in with each other physically as well as emotionally. Do their ages tally? Is an actor too good looking for the part or too old/young? There are so many variables that have to be considered in casting which have little to do with talent. Having your looks so closely scrutinized must be hard on your confidence. If looks played a part in writing commissions, I would never work again.
The outcome of the three days was we have an almost fully cast show if the actors say ‘yes’, so the calls will go out to their agents next week. I couldn’t be happier with the proposed casting. I felt bad for the actors, especially the ones where it was such a close call and began thinking how tough it must be to give up half a day, work on a script only to be rejected. I then started thinking about how I can spend hundreds of hours writing a script, unpaid, that nobody wants and cheered myself up immensely, losing all sympathy for the predicament of actors by realizing how much worse my own sorry state is than theirs, after all writing is a constant and never ending audition.
Psyche has a couple of audition days left in London but fingers crossed, I think we have our Pub Quiz team.
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