Friday 4 December 2009

The Casting Process

The play is cast and we start rehearsals on Monday which, after months of planning, is very exciting. I have been asked how I go about casting. So here goes.

The first thing is to find people that I want to work with and who want to work with me. Nobody gets rich making theatre, so we have to hope that it enriches us in other, non-financial ways. The chemistry has to be right. People have to want to go on the journey. Rehearsals can and should be fun and playful but they can also be stressful and exhausting and demanding and require people who are team players. (Note to budding directors: Some actors, as part of their creative process, need to make the director the enemy. Some need to be bullied. Avoid these types!)

Second, I look for people who have been trained and – for this production – have some experience of acting in Elizabethan and Jacobean plays. There are a lot of bad classical acting clichés – indeed, I usually do an exercise early in the process so we can get them out into the open and out of the way – but it helps if people are not terrified of iambic pentameter. It also helps if people don't go into that weird "I'm making a speech" tone of voice and are able to make the language, however heightened and obscure, sound like words actual people might really say!

Third – in the case of this play – I wanted people who could play multiple roles and had good physical skills. All the actors apart from those playing Faustus and Mephistopheles play several roles so I wanted people who were versatile.

To discover who met the 2nd and 3rd criteria, I asked actors to prepare a 2-minute classical speech for their first, one to one audition. I also had a selection of speeches from the play (Robin, Valdes, Emperor and Lucifer) so I could pick one that contrasted with their own speech and give them a few minutes to prepare it. Actors that were recalled were those who showed me a range, as well as an ability to create a recognisable character very quickly. Why? Look at the script. See how many characters appear in a single scene or a couple of scenes. That’s why.

The recall workshop lasted 3 hours and involved a lot of movement work – the concept behind the production requires physically skilled actors who can transform and work in abstract ways as well as handling Marlowe’s text and creating convincing characters.

With this production, we ring fenced 5 parts for people who had completed training in the last year or so. Partly this is practical: there are bits and pieces of funding available for “emerging artists”. Partly, it’s a good thing in and of itself and it’s what Present Moment do: give people opportunities.

Giving people opportunities is why there is also an ensemble of acting interns – young people on BTEC courses, in training, on gap years, looking for some experience before applying for Drama school. They’ll get some additional training and support as part of the rehearsal process (voice classes, movement classes). And they’re a vital part of the concept of the show – on stage most of the time.

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