Apart from Opening Night, auditions are perhaps the most exciting part of the play-building process. It is one of those rare occasions where the room is full of positive energy. The actors seem to love the script, because they want to act; directors love the actors because they want them to act; and producers love everyone because they are hopeful of a smash hit. This is also the last time that the “promise” of what the play is going to be is given voice; before the drudgery of the actual play-making begins.
Recently I was “screen-tested” for a film. When auditioning for cinema you are given a few lines, which you have to memorise and then recite to a camera a few minutes later. This experience got me thinking about how different auditions are in the theatre medium.
To begin with, it seems that for cinema, casting directors are looking for the finished article. They want the character to turn up to audition, not the actor. There is also a great importance placed on look. The character must look right, or look the age, or whatever. Both these might be because of the lack of time to develop character in the shooting schedule and because the filmic medium needs to say as much with visual as it does with performance.
In theatre it’s quite different. You never really expect the finished product to walk in the door, because the process of theatre is about ‘developing the character’ in rehearsal, with other actors, and the director. Numerous plays have featured actors who are not the age they are meant to play; either they are too old or too young. That is because in theatre the actor has more opportunities to make the audience believe that they are that age. The audience spends time in their presence, listening to their voice, watching them move and that perhaps allows more opportunities for believability. Auditions are always a tricky thing. You could be looking for a particular something in an actor. Or just for a good ensemble. And often you have no idea what you are looking for. That may also be why different directors audition differently.
Some require a prepared speech or scene. Not from the play at hand, but something that showcases the range of the actor. Others follow the cinema model and give people a scene to prepare. And then there is also the “rehearsal styled audition”, where you are not just asking people to prepare, but working with them to push their limits. This is usually very time consuming and exhausting but extremely beneficial in finding out an accurate worth of an actor – his or her range, strengths, weaknesses, generosity, ability to take direction, etc.
Some auditions last a few hours and some a few days. For a production of Midsummer Night’s Dream, Tim Supple put 65 people through a week-long rehearsal audition.
Through the week each actor had to eventually let go of their “training crutches” and embrace new ideas. We played with a variety of combinations on a few select scenes. It was the most enriching week of my theatre life. It gave us a clear idea what combination of actors we wanted to use and how to get them to work together.
In complete contrast, for our new play Nostalgia Brand Chewing Gum, we are conducting “reading auditions”, where a group of actors read the play out aloud and every few pages characters are chopped and changed for combinations of actors. Part of this is due to the simple fun nature of the text, part due to budget, and part due to time.
But we are also trying to cast not just single characters but a group of four actors that will complement each other well on stage.
The roads may be many, but in the end it’s the destination that really matters.