Here We Go Again

The 2009 Drama Season kicked-off tonight with casting for the first stage play of the year. Performances will be held on May 1 and 2 at 8:00 pm, and rehearsals begin next week. This play focuses on a small group of people who are imprisoned and serving their sentences while dreaming of freedom. The tone is more serious than our previous dramas, but it’s got a powerful message. I’m looking forward to it.

The casting process is fun, but it’s also difficult. Matching actors to characters and making sure you have the right person for the part can be daunting. If you put the wrong person in an important role, it can affect the success of the entire play — something we’ve learned from past experience.

You also have to factor the “known factor” versus new talent. Mixing in new talent is exciting, but it’s also scary because you aren’t certain what you will get from the actor, even though they may seem promising in auditions. Those are factors that have to be considered — along with an actor’s look, style, expression, tone, size and gender — when making casting decisions.

Luckily, we always have a casting panel so we don’t have to make the weighty decisions on our own. There’s usually much healthy debate and discussion when matching up actors to available roles, but by the end of the night, we always wrap up with all parts cast.

We’re now ready to move forward with our first read through next week. It should be fun.

Here we go…again!!