I love theatre auditions. Especially when I get to run them!

Today we held auditions for Jocular Theatre’s Fall ’08 production of David Lindsay-Abair’s high-pitched farce, Fuddy Meers. Funny stuff!

I try to make my auditions as fun as possible. I just imagine the type of audition in which I’d like to participate. Getting-to-know-you stuff, some improv games, and a little cold reading. No preparation necessary. Just quick wits and lots of laughs.

I pillaged Improv Encyclopedia for some games that would help me determine which actors would best fit the insane roles that I needed to cast. In each audition group, we started with brief introductions and a quick 2 Truths And A Lie, then I took their pictures and segued into some Family Photos. While they were on their feet, we played some Group Order and then warmed up our voices with a Sound Circle. Since they were already in a circle, we moved on to Word At A Time Story (everyone chose Little Red Riding Hood!), and then I had them individually retell Little Red in a game of Switch Gibberish – that was my favorite part of the day. Finally, I broke them up into pairs and I saw how they took direction by playing a few rounds of Actor’s Nightmare, changing the relationships each time. Very insightful.

I would have liked more people to have attended the auditions but what we lacked in quantity we made up for in quality. I want to start rehearsing next week if possible. We open on November 22 so I’m counting on getting about 12-14 rehearsals in – not very many. Now I just have to decide who to cast.

Here are a couple of the Family photos that I took today:

Family of cavemen

Family of orange