First rehearsal for Independence tonight, and we have four strong actors on board. The play, by Lee Blessing, is an emotional journey for a mother and her three daughters (aged 19 to 33). The mother has been hospitalized for some time with some mental health problems, but is home now and seems to be functioning well. Each of the three younger women is trying to find her own independence from the destructive cycle of behaviors in this unhappy family. Evelyn, the mother, says:

Martha is playing Evelyn; Leta (yes, my Leta) is playing Kess, the oldest daughter; Sharon is playing Jo; and Maura (lately of Henry V) is playing the youngest, Sherry.

The audition process reminded me how brutal it can be to be a woman trying to find work in theater. We saw 40 women for four roles, and most of the 40 could have handled the work.

Leta likes to say that every actor should be required to cast a show at least once, so that he or she can understand all the compromises and choices that a casting table has to make. Your schedule availability, for what it's worth, can be important. You're evaluated by your track record on- and offstage: directors have long memories. Sometimes there is precasting, and sometimes there is preauditioning: don't assume that your only competition is the people you see in the room. (I've been on both the long and short ends of that stick many times.) It's easier to age down than it is to age up, so 34 can play 23, in a pinch. This is one more obstacle that the young and inexperienced actor just has to get over. On the other hand, if you're 45, don't insult a director's intelligence by asking to be considered for the ingenue.

What to do if you're young? Keep trying! Your competition is getting older every day. Consider one-act festivals, which have an unslakeable thirst for new blood. That's how I got started at Silver Spring Stage.

posted: 11:45:27 PM  

Wenzel Jones and the critics get peevish about props:

(Thanks to ArtsJournal.)

posted: 9:50:21 AM