Greetings once again from the corner office.

I had hoped to get a blog in last week but lost track of time. My goal is to write something every week so that visitors to the website have something new to read and to address questions that are people frequently have. This week I will answer common audition questions that new (and seasoned) actors often have. Since this is a pretty broad topic, this week will be the first of several installments on the subject.

This week’s question is: SHOULD I AUDITION?

Common forms that this question takes are as follows:

Am I too old for a certain role? Too young? Too tall? Too short?

I have some conflicts - does that cut me out of consideration?

I’ve never been in a show at TCTA before. Do I have a chance?

My answer to all of those questions is always to encourage the person to audition.

Yes, loads of conflicts cause concern, but very often I’ve decided to bite the bullet and work around someone’s difficult schedule because I really feel I need them. The only probable exception is a performance conflict. Those I cannot work around, though I must confess we’ve even been clever enough to make that work from time to time. Please don’t let a weekly night class or part time job keep you from auditioning. You may be just what we’re looking for despite your hectic schedule!

And when it comes to age, yes some roles require a certain age range. (I once had a fifty-year-old man audition for the role of Tony in West Side Story. That’s probably a bit too mature for that role.)

But often we’re able to bend the roles up or down depending upon the talent available. To me, the best audition deserves consideration even if the actor is a bit under or over the age of the character as it is described in the script. Age is just a number, after all.

But the most tragic question to me is the one that is rarely asked. And that’s: “Can I audition even if I’m not the same race as the character in the play?”

ABSOLUTELY!

TCTA believes to our very core in the credo of “blind casting.” This means that the best audition gets the role no matter what the color of the actor’s skin might be.

Sure there are a few exceptions. When race is a factor in the play, it’s probably not so easy to bend that rule. For instance you probably wouldn’t want to do To Kill a Mocking Bird with an all white cast. Ethnic diversity is almost a must for such a show.

But beyond that, TCTA is color blind. We want, need and encourage people of all races to take part in our productions. I’d love to see an African-American Hamlet. I’d love to see a Hispanic Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly! Just because some roles may be traditionally played by white performers does not mean that they must be played by only white performers. What a loss that would be for all of us if that were true!

Art is better when all players are invited to join in and we strive again and again to keep TCTA available to the entire community.

So if you’re thinking about auditioning, don’t let outside factors slow you down. Join us, we’d love to see you.

Next week I hope to write about the mechanics of the audition itself. (Unless any of you out there have a question yourself that you’d rather I address.)

I’ll be writing again next week.

Shannon

This entry was posted on Monday, January 28th, 2008 at 3:53 pm and is filed under Artistic Directors Remarks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.