casting

We are now casting the show — some people have accepted roles, we're waiting for some people to return the messages we left, and some people we plan to cast have not yet been called. It's a complicated process. We're having to call people in a specific sequence, because if one person turns us down then everything has to get reshuffled. Fortunately for us, we have more strong actors than we have roles, and if someone says no it just means we get to cast someone else we really like who we thought we didn't have a role for, and everyone wins.

[Note to anyone who auditioned who might be reading this: if you haven't gotten a call yet, that doesn't necessarily mean anything. You may still be our first choice for a lead role. It's complicated, but we should get it all worked out in the next few days.]

Any reshuffling that has to happen would be quite complicated — it's not as if there's a hierarchy, and everyone can just get bumped up one step to the next largest part. If only it were that simple. Some roles need to be in a certain age range. Some need an actor who is strong in a certain quality — they need to be funny, or be able to play high status, or have some stage combat training. Some need to be male, some female, a few might be either gender.

Sometimes, after not getting cast, actors ask me what they could have done differently in their audition. This puts me in a bit of an awkward position, but I always try to answer truthfully. Once I told a young actor that she should try to make stronger choices — I actually went back through my notes from her audition and that was what stood out. Today an actor who accepted one role asked if he could have done anything differently to get a different role. I told him the truth — he would have been great in that other role, but given the full group of people I cast him where I needed him most.

It's very exciting to see the ensemble starting to coalesce. Each show is its own little community, little family, and it's incredibly important to cast people who play well with others — especially for a tour. This is going to be fun.