casting call backs and time

What a wild week it has been and it still isn't over.

Monday and Tuesday were auditions for 4 plays. We had over 150 people audition. Having our Say directed by Renie Barger will announce her cast next week. She is still working on getting the auditionees schedule conflicts so she can look at who to cast. She had 3 strong actresses audition for two parts. The play is based on a real conversation with the Delaney Sisters who were born in the 1890's and lived to be over 100 years old. These two African American sisters talk about their parents and their lives in context with American history. At the end of one of the scenes the sisters agree that it may be another hundred years before the US will elect a black man president. It was a great deal of fun to hear that in light of the inauguration next Tuesday.

April had almost 80 children and adults who auditioned for Ramona Quimby. She selected a terrific cast and it looks like it will be a great show.

I auditioned the Sugar Bean Sisters and we had approx 10 women read for 4 parts. The cast list has been posted and it should be a great show as well. On Tuesday night after auditioning The Sugar Bean Sisters from 5-7 pm I walked across the street and conducted the second night of The Wizard of Oz auditions. We had over 70 people audition. I am still struggling with the cast list for Oz. I know that this is causing a lot of angst among those 70+ people as they wait for the list to be posted. We had so many good people that I've had a really hard time choosing a couple of the parts. I have to keep about 5 people who auditioned outside of the group audition process in my head as well as thinking about those who were able to make call backs.

In addition because there are so many good people I'm having a hard time cutting the cast down to a manageable size. In my first count I had almost 50 people in the cast. The stage can really only handle 30 well. That means I will have to eliminate over 20 very talented performers. In many cases it is not easy to identify one person who was better than another. One may have sang better than another, but the other person acted better in the readings. I've resorted in some cases to looking at who has more conflicts, the heights and ages of performers and how that relates to the principal roles or other performers. I'm still working on reducing the chorus. I've called a few people back to read for me individually one more time.

On Wednesday at call backs I had such tunnel vision about how people matched up acting and in combinations with other people that I accidentally never had one person who I called back read. I was not only mortified when Denise and Doug told me of my omission but I really needed to hear that person read because they were being considered for one of the principal roles. I was fortunately able to get that actor back in the next day to give them a full chance at being cast.

Thursday was spent all day frantically trying to get the grant for the Kentucky Arts Council completed. That required budgeting for next year and analyzing what is going well and what we want to change for the future. Thursday night at 5:30 were call backs for the Sugar Bean Sisters and then at 6:30 was rehearsal for the murder mystery troupe that performs tomorrow night at Lone Oak High School. It was after 10 when I finally had a chance to sit down and start working on cast lists for Friday morning. I just ran out of time.

Today was spent with Michael Brewer dressed as the Cowardly Lion, Anna Brewer dressed as Dorothy, Sarah Bynum dressed as Glinda the Good Witch, and Melisa Mast who is leading the committee on our fundraising auction event. We toured Paducah Bank, Lourdes, US Bank, and Western Baptist Hospital to give out posters and kick off the fundraising competition among those businesses. Each business is raising funds to buy the part of the lollipop kids for their CEO on June 20. All of the businesses were very excited to raise funds to see their CEO on the MHT stage dressed as one of the Lollipop kids singing and dancing. The business that raises the most money for MHT wins the part! This is in conjunction with the Feb. 13 auction event where we will auction off parts like the Wicked Witch, the Wizard, Glinda the Good Witch and a couple of other munchkin roles. Many thanks go to Mike, Anna , Sarah and Melisa Mast for their help. We had a couple of really nice moments at Western Baptist when the Wizard characters got to visit with some of the children who were in the pediatric area of the hospital and cheer them up a bit. All of the companies were really great! We turned lots of heads as we walked through the various departments! Look at the photos on the home page of the website to see our visits to the businesses.

Sunday April and I will go to Nashville and watch the National Touring company perform The Wizard of Oz. I'm hoping it will give me some inspiration as I look at our potential cast and help me finish up the cast list. Maybe they will have a way to use more cast in the show that I haven't thought of. For most of the those waiting breathlessly that means don't look for a list until Monday morning. Sorry!