It's audition time!!

I ended the last post on a cliffhanger about the auditions and, before I knew it, the evening of auditions was upon us!

Last night (Monday 20 July 2009) in the Archway Theatre Bar, a small group of us had a bit of a readthrough of the first act of the play. One of the male actors had called me earlier in the day to say he'd been called in to cover a shift at work and I shall be meeting with him on Thursday instead. Unfortunately, he would have been the only other male in attendance. Luckily, Emma Ladd had brought along her friend Phil who read all of Peter's lines - allowing me to be able to sit back and listen to the girls do their thang...!

For the role of Beth we had two auditionees: Roz Ingrams from the Young Adults Workshop, and Mandy Humphrey from the main theatre. I also asked Emma Ladd to read for her as well - more on that later... For the role of Emma I had three auditionees: Katie Dunbar and Ella Sowton from Young Adults, and Emma Ladd. In all honesty, I had been expecting a few more faces to show up - but that's the nature of the beast...! I'd already had emails and texts from various male and female potentials to say they'd not be auditioning - and they all seemed genuine in their liking of the play - but, sadly, due to time/work/commitments, they would be able to commit to the play. But I don't begrudge them at all - much better to bow out very early on than to dive in and find it becomes too much.

So we went through scenes 1, 3, 4 and 6 of the play (i.e. the first act minus the scenes between Peter and Soldier) with the girls taking it in turns to read. Very quickly I knew who I wanted to play Emma. Because I haven't told the unsuccessful auditionees their fate I shan't publicise on here just yet who has been cast - but I am happy to announce that I have a quarter of my cast confirmed! Hoorah!

For the part of Beth, Mandy Humphrey has asked for a little time to work out if she'd be able to commit to it, and I've also asked Emma Ladd if she'd reconsider playing the part (although she feels that learning the lines and the emotional weight of the character may prove too much - entirely understandable) andshe is going to take a couple of days to do so.

I'm hoping to be able to confirm the castings for Peter, Beth and Emma later this week, with Soldier shortly afterwards - watch this space!

Also, the first rehearsal has been booked for the Studio on Saturday 1st August. This hopefully also means that I'll be updating the blog on a weekly basis - it's all becoming real now...!!