Auditions

Audition day has happened. I absolutely love the fact that I was able to watch everyone’s audition. Especially because I got to hear a lot of them sing, and I don’t normally get to hear them. Yet, since An American Hero was also auditioning, they sang. I thought that it was really interesting that I could tell who was specifically auditioning for my show, and who was auditioning for Mac. This was because the people who were only auditioning for Five Women would make a point to stand directly in front of me instead of Mac. The way that I went about creating a call back list, was I wrote out the names of the six characters, then I wrote the actor’s names down under the role that I was considering them for. If I was not interested in someone, I did not write down anything. I also made it a point to wait until they were walking out of the room to write something. This is because as an actor myself, I sometimes get distracted if someone at the table starts taking notes during my audition. I did not want anyone to get into their head and question if the notes were good or bad, so I did not write anything when they could see. I made it a point to focus on them. The call back list went up with the names in alphabetical order shortly after the end of the preliminary auditions. I then tried to pair up different people that I wanted to see work together and did a cold reading audition. They received the sides when they walked into the room, and I gave them a few moments to read it over and ask any questions and we began the scene. After I ran through all the scenes once, I started eliminating people and pairing up different people. I also thought it was interesting that I ended up casting a few people in roles that I had not called them back for. Such as, Francesca was originally called back for Georgeanne, yet was cast as Meredith; Lydia was originally called back for Meredith but was cast as Mindy. Both Ryan and I were blown away by the easy chemistry between Tyler and Rachel during their call back, that decision was easy. Meredith and Frances was harder. What really set the cast in stone though was when I had all six of them read the final scene together. They all made bold choices, had fun with the script and each other and it was so much fun to watch. I could not stop smiling when I watched it, so I knew that I had found my cast. I went into the audition looking for very specific qualities for each of the characters, and I was so blessed to be able to find the things that I was looking for. Therefore, I casted Emily Wilkerson as Frances, Francesca Bucci as Meredith, Rachel Porter as Trisha, Amanda Lawrence as Georgeanne, Lydia Schultz as Mindy, and Tyler Battista as Tripp. I am also really happy that Ryan Settle is my stage manager. He is quite organized and on top of things and will help me stay on track and keep me accountable. He will help me out with this stressful semester. So, here’s to a fantastic show. I cannot wait to get started.