Casting Your Dream Show
Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Directing
Forum Discription: For questions about handling shows, actors, crew, board members, children ...or do we repeat ourselves?
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4133
Printed Date: 5/20/24 at 11:54am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 8.05 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Casting Your Dream Show
Posted By: colugino
Subject: Casting Your Dream Show
Date Posted: 7/19/09 at 5:46am
Replies:
Posted By: DWolfman
Date Posted: 7/19/09 at 10:09am
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An actress friend of mine tells of an occurance
where she left in the middle of a show she was watching
to go into the theatre courtyard and sneak a cigarette.
A weary looking man on crutches was already out there,
puffing away.
He said "The show's terrible, isn't it?"
She quickly agreed and they launched into
a dissection of the production, trying to top each other
with what they found wrong.
When she introduced herself to her new buddy,
he said 'I'm so and so, the director of this chaos."
In short, be careful what you wish for,
you may just get it.
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Even a man who is pure of heart...
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Posted By: falstaff29
Date Posted: 7/19/09 at 12:14pm
Being picky as a director can be a good thing. One of the best lessons I learned as a director is that everything an actor does has meaning, and your job is to channel it to the right meaning. I've had to cast shows with people who didn't satisfy my initial vision, but because I understood why my initial vision mattered and why they didn't fit it, I was able to play with the meaning in a purposeful way.
As an actor, too, I know I've been cast sometimes by directors who saw something in me that was against how I'd imagined the character would be (height, age, etc.). The good directors used that purposefully.
Perhaps I'm speaking a bit too in the abstract. Let me give an illustration. I'm rather short for a male. Yet I've sometimes been cast as characters in positions of power. If I had the height and build to play them as intended, replete with confidence, gravitas, authority, etc., I would. But because that would be unintentionally comic, good directors have encouraged me to go the Napoleon complex route.
Another example: one of my favorite roles was in a play that concerned a love triangle with myself, a sickly friend, and his caretaker. I was too young for my role, and the friend was too old for his. A lesser director would have just gone along with it, but this director encouraged us to use that, to play up a subtext more along a sibling than peer relationship.
So, the point of this very long ramble is that it's fine to have ideas and expectations of what these characters should be, but if you're having too much trouble casting that, at least use what you have to meaningfully and precisely reshape where you're going. If you do something deliberate with "miscasting," it becomes much less of a mistake.
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Posted By: TonyDi
Date Posted: 7/20/09 at 7:41am
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I think DWolfman said it - or that is quoted it when they said "In short, be careful what you wish for,you may just get it". I am a LOT like you - in that when I have directed something that I really loved (there have been a few) I wanted to put my sweat, my heart, my soul, my life into it. SOMETIMES however, I have been blinded by my own bias and zeal, realizing once I was into it pretty thick that simply some things I envisioned just simply were not right. Part of that was in my choices of actors, some of it was set ideas and design, some of it was things I found in scripts I knew like the back of my hand as though I wrote it. BUT I was blinded by my own ideas. FORTUNATELY, I possess this incredible luck that many many times has forced me to rethink quickly and adjust as necessary to alter what I had thought all along was going to work (when in fact it would not have)....and adjust before things got too far out of hand. Sometimes "the best laid plans" don't always work no matter how long we thought they would. I have done similar things - though with more than ONE show. There have been a few I planned for years only to find that perhaps having planned too much cost me time and consideration especially when I've had to readjust because I was too far off the mark. Try NOT to be TOO married to an idea because it simply might not work the way you thought it would. Don't set yourself up for your own disappointments. I have and dang do they sting.
Good luck. HOPE you can find the people you need and make it work as you really want it to. Just realize it might NEVER work the way you want it to - nor could it.
TonyDi
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"Almost famous"
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Posted By: pdavis69
Date Posted: 7/20/09 at 9:49am
If you could not cast the show from your available actors, it was terribly irresponsible of you to agree to do the show in the first place. Perhaps you are too close and need to graciously bow out and let someone else take over the reigns that will allow themselves to see past your limited view of what is required.
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Patrick L. Davis
Fort Findlay Playhouse
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Posted By: colugino
Date Posted: 7/20/09 at 1:17pm
Posted By: slicksister
Date Posted: 7/21/09 at 1:20am
ok, here's the deal...you have 7 posts; self admittedley a newcomer here. Patrick, on the other hand has 315. He's been here a long time and is a respected member of this message board. He was not bashing you nor giving you attitude. He was just being Patrick. The last 2 sentences of your post were unnecessary and uncalled for. I'll excuse your bad behaviour, however, as I'm hoping you'll pull back your claws and be a respectful member of this great message board and get to know us all.
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The Main Thing is to Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing
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Posted By: pdavis69
Date Posted: 7/21/09 at 12:19pm
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Ok, Here is what you stated "I am currently looking to direct my dream show". You went on to bash your company stating they did not have the talent needed to play the lead roles. You also said you would withhold the name of the show because other members were on here then you gave the name of the show in another posting; Le Mis. This is not an attack on you, just an interpretation of your comments and my opinions (Thank you Slicksister). Now if you want to talk about attitude, take a close look at your own posting "And to sound like a spoiled brat, if I don't get what I want, I am refusing to do the show.......My fellow board members and directors keep fighting with me that I am being too picky and that I need to adapt to what we have available.....
LOL, sorry, this was more just to rant than anything."
Like I said, just interpreting.
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Patrick L. Davis
Fort Findlay Playhouse
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Posted By: MartyW
Date Posted: 7/23/09 at 3:06pm
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Many good suggestions here.. The best. If your company isn't up to the "dream", either, get a new dream, (lighten up on your expectations, it is community theater, not pro and by pro I mean PAID, where you can go out and hire what you want) Try doing it somewhere else? or just continue to dream.. we all need one.
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Marty W
"Till next we trod the boards.."
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Posted By: jayzehr
Date Posted: 7/23/09 at 9:14pm
At what point are you planning on backing out of the production if you don't get what you want? Are you planning on holding auditions and then deciding? Just curious.
By the way--it's ridiculous not rediculous. Just a major pet peeve.
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Posted By: Helena
Date Posted: 7/27/09 at 10:22am
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I think that most directors have a vision of the "perfect " cast for a show they want to direct. I don't think that is ridiculous. I have done it myself.
However, I think you are just setting yourself up for failure and a miserable directing experience if you aren't willing to be flexible when it comes to expectations in the casting department - especially in community theatre.
Realistic chances of getting the perfect cast - 0%. So you either change your expectations, or never direct the show.
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"..that's farce, that's theater, that's life"
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Posted By: georgiadirector
Date Posted: 8/22/09 at 12:27am
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One of my most rewarding experiences as a director came from casting a lead that I wasn't sure could handle the part - a true greenhorn that I literally had to teach stage direction before we could even begin. In the end he did a great job. He wasn't the best I've ever seen. I had to work with him a lot. He completely messed up some of my blocking in a few places. But all in all it was a great show, everyone else was really strong and several people say it was the best show they've seen by this theater AND veteran cast members say it was the most fun they've ever had in a show.
Take a chance. Work hard. Cast the best you possibly can which will rarely be perfect. Enjoy!
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