Casting is Rough

We held auditions for our first improv show on Thursday. Improv is not my thing, but my students love it and we had two successful ones last year. Auditions are a new thing for this school; most shows are performed in classes and they have not had an open audition show in several years. Last year one improv show was done in class and the other was done by volunteers. I chose to hold audition for this one for several reasons. First, I wanted to give my beginning students and students not in drama a chance to participate. Second, I wanted to weed out those who were only slightly interested. There is a habit with many students to say yes to something, then be unwilling or unable to put the required work in. Third, I wanted to provide audition experience to my students. Finally, on a selfish note, I hate casting. This set up let me get feedback from others in the casting decision. My two hosts for the improv show helped me decide who to cast.

I wasn't expecting a lot of students to show up, but we had about 40 show up for auditions. I was amazed and excited. I let my hosts run the auditions with coaching from me. We had many talented students. I was so thrilled to see so many of my beginning students show up, even though they've only been in my class for a month.

Casting is hard. There were some students we cut easily and some we cast easily. But there were some that were hard to deal with. One of my hosts had a brother audition. He has been in my classes before and is hard to work with, refusing to take direction and making lots of excuses. But that put her in an awkward situation. We also had a student who is in advanced drama, show is normally very talented at improv. But she came in with an "of course I'm getting cast" attitude that bothered me. She didn't try, which I found insulting to me and to all the others who showed up and worked their butts off. She is dramatic and we were all worried about how she would react to not being cast. I'll admit, I am intimidated by by both of these students and was tempted to cast them both to make my life easier. But that would make the whole show difficult for everyone else, and prove that it is being difficult,not hard-working or talented, that get you places. I don't want to teach that. So we chose not to cast either of them.

There wasn't as much fall-out as I expected. I learned not to let my students intimidate me. The goal is a good show for all involved, and if someone can not add to that experience, they should not be included, no matter how hard they make my life.

I'm happy with the group we have. We have 7 students from beginning drama, 2 from intermediate, 6 from advanced (including my two hosts) and 3 who are not currently in any drama classes. I love representing all my classes and the whole school. It's the first casting decision I've made that I am very comfortable with.