Auditions

It's really tough to audition people. As a human we are born with this automatic ability to analyze things. We take in pupil size, posture, colors, and all kinds of other key identifiers within the first 30 seconds of meeting someone and then within the first three minutes we have made up our minds about this person/thing. I feel like the process of auditioning hasn't changed much in the past hundred years. We do a monologue or a cold read after introducing ourselves and then we leave for the next person or group to go in.

Most of the people who auditioned for me, I already knew. I had talked it up a little bit and a lot of the Freshmen seemed interested. None of the upperclassmen auditioned. In fact, most of them were freshmen. I didn't have them prepare anything. I had them sign up to audition in groups of twos.When they arrived I just had them fill out a form that I created and read the synopsis of the play. In the audition room, I conducted two improv games and then had them read two cold readings. The improv games were simple. The first I called "banned to the basement" where the two actors had to pretend they were brother and sister, 7 years old, banned to the basement by mommy because they were fighting or because mommy had a guest over and wanted quiet time. They then had to create some kind of game to occupy themselves in the basement. I didn't tell them what was in the basement, they created that themselves. I got a lot of interesting things-one was crab races, one was playing fire station, another was hide and seek. The next improv game was playing school. I had the less dominant personality be the teacher and the other one be the student and to draw on the white board present in the room. They were to still act as the same characters as before. The most common result was teaching the sibling numbers, how to count, spelling or math. The odd things were shapes and one actor even went as far as to teach the other how electricity was found by George Washington and a kite. Needless to say, that was my favorite.

The next part of the audition was to read from the scenes. One was with the two main characters and the other was with one main character and the third lesser but most influential character. The scenes went very well. They didn't do a lot of movement because the script required a few props that weren't present. It surprised me when people gave different personas to characters. The most frustrating thing was when actors didn't make big choices, meaning when they stuck to the script and read it as though they were reading a book. Things I liked were choices like changing pitch or changing volume, deciding on specific blocking, or even just looking at their acting partner differently. Most actors kept their face in the script which hindered connecting with their scene partner. I looked for commitment to the script, eye contact and relationships with their scene partners, big choices, and vocal quality and patterns. I looked at how prepared they were- did they fill out the entire form, did they bring a resume, were they dressed appropriately and professionally, did they have answers to my questions. I looked at how they acted- were they comfortable with my absurdist script, were they comfortable with acting, were they comfortable with improv, did they seem genuinely interested in my production, and did they introduce themselves, greet me and say thank you when they left? You might think "God she's picky," but it's very easy to note these things and they really show a lot about character.

I had two people ask if they could audition the next day for me, which ended up being three. It was a little frustrating to have to schedule more appointments but I was excited to see new actors. By the end of all the auditions, I had a huge decision to make. My cast calls for three people, non gender specific. That's the great thing about children's theatre. I decided on an all Male production. I am happy with my decision. I chose three baby faced boys who have large expressions and high energy that children will be attracted to watching. I'm very excited about starting to work with them.