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The Ups And Downs of Casting
May. 22nd, 2009 02:09 pmAuditions are over, and I have a cast. I also have a lot of talented, respected actor friends who I want to hug tightly. There's been a post unfurling today, mostly in comments to other people's journals, and I wanted to get all in a central place here.
Directing is fun, except when it's time to solve the jigsaw puzzle that is casting a small number of roles from a pool of very talented actors who are friends, former castmates of mine, former directors of mine, as well as many strangers I've never seen before.
Some directors with more experience than me nailed it: Directors don't cast actors, they cast casts. All too often, actors who gave spectacular auditions simply can't be cast because of the terribly complicated stew that is matching/combining sets of actors in a play in a complimentary manner that creates optimal stage chemistry. Not being able to cast (this time) excellent actors who I have worked with and want to work with again just plain sucks, no way around it. As an actor myself, I know exactly what that heart-draining feeling is to open the email that thanks me for auditioning but that I didn't get a role, and then asks me to be a stage hand.
I don't want this to be a sad post though, and because of the kind of family that Theatre@First is, I know that I will get to work with the talented people I couldn't cast this time, maybe as actors together, maybe one of us directing the other, hell, maybe as stage hands. All of us are still an "us," even if we can't do every show together.
None of my cast has LJs that I know of (gotta change that!), but their names are Juliet, Lou and Erik. Two are completely new to T@F, and one is a PMRP veteran who has never worked with T@F before. I hope they all have a joyful first journey with T@F, and that they enjoy it so much that they want to come back for more shows. Just like all we hardcore Firsties did after our first time on this crazy ship of ours.
*Tears at work. Oh shit.*
I love you guys.
Directing is fun, except when it's time to solve the jigsaw puzzle that is casting a small number of roles from a pool of very talented actors who are friends, former castmates of mine, former directors of mine, as well as many strangers I've never seen before.
Some directors with more experience than me nailed it: Directors don't cast actors, they cast casts. All too often, actors who gave spectacular auditions simply can't be cast because of the terribly complicated stew that is matching/combining sets of actors in a play in a complimentary manner that creates optimal stage chemistry. Not being able to cast (this time) excellent actors who I have worked with and want to work with again just plain sucks, no way around it. As an actor myself, I know exactly what that heart-draining feeling is to open the email that thanks me for auditioning but that I didn't get a role, and then asks me to be a stage hand.
I don't want this to be a sad post though, and because of the kind of family that Theatre@First is, I know that I will get to work with the talented people I couldn't cast this time, maybe as actors together, maybe one of us directing the other, hell, maybe as stage hands. All of us are still an "us," even if we can't do every show together.
None of my cast has LJs that I know of (gotta change that!), but their names are Juliet, Lou and Erik. Two are completely new to T@F, and one is a PMRP veteran who has never worked with T@F before. I hope they all have a joyful first journey with T@F, and that they enjoy it so much that they want to come back for more shows. Just like all we hardcore Firsties did after our first time on this crazy ship of ours.
*Tears at work. Oh shit.*
I love you guys.