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MacThespian
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bullet Posted: 3/05/08 at 11:44pm
It's a tough call. I had to replace the lead in Hedda Gabler two weeks before it opened. There were many reasons--he hadn't learned his lines, he hadn't learned his blocking, he refused to do what my A/D asked him when I wasn't able to attend a rehearsal, he cursed at the female lead while onstage in rehearsals.
Actually, I told him that if he didn't have his lines down by a specific rehearsal, and he didn't do them properly, he would be fired. I didn't even go into some of the other things. At that rehearsal, he got all the words right--but it was a speed read. I fired him right after it. I didn't like doing it, but I felt I had no choice.
On the other hand, we were about halfway through rehearsal for a different show when one of the major supporting actresses came to me and said that she knew she wasn't doing well, and offered to drop out of the show. What made it difficult for me is that my wife had auditioned for the part, and the casting committee had not chosen her for the role. But I felt that in community theatre, you do the best with the people who are cast unless you get put into an untenable position. I told the woman who offered to drop out that I did not want her to leave the show. Even though I felt my wife could have done it better, I felt an obligation to the woman who was originally cast.
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purplegirl
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bullet Posted: 3/06/08 at 2:48pm
I had an actor last year who I should never have cast but she was a perfect fit for the role - I needed someone who looked a lot like one of the principle characters - both characters were claiming to be the long lost daughter and only heir of the "deceased", and they had to look similar enough to pass for the same person.  This actor missed more than 30% of the rehearsals, showed up late and left early when she did attend, and had a chip on her shoulder the whole time because she felt she "deserved" the larger role.  The play ran through two weekends, and the first week went ok - then she showed up for the second weekend of performances with a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT HAIRCUT AND COLOR!!!  Shocked  She now looked NOTHING like the other actor, so it made no sense that they could be mistaken for each other.  At that point, of course, I couldn't fire her, but did I want to?  You bet I did.  And, I won't be casting her in future productions.  It is not worth the headache of continually not knowing if they will show up, when, etc.  Too stressful.   File this under "lessons learned". 
It's not about you - it's about the story.
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magicguy
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bullet Posted: 3/06/08 at 3:08pm

Our theatre groups gets at least twice the number of people at auditions than we need.  This allows us to cast extras in crowd scenes or put some people on a "waiting list".  This is so we can be strict about lateness and missed rehearsals and able to replace people.  If some one is late or misses a rehearsal, we give them a verbal warning.  The second offense is either they are given a smaller part or removed from the production.  All this is explained in our guidlines that everyone signs.  Parents sign for minor actors.  We are fairly strict about this.  If an actor misses a rehearsal or is late, but they have called to let us know, we usually accept this.  Because of this practice, we seldom have people who are late or miss rehearsals without notice.  We could not do this if we had a lot smaller turn out at audtions.


An actor is a sculptor who carves in snow. - Lawrence Barrett
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