Hearts Are Trumps

I cast The Mourning Primrose almost a month ago. How behind I am with my director series posts is a reflection of how behind I am with the production in general. A good start!

The other side of the casting table wasn’t quite as awful as I’d feared – and much better than being on the actors’ side for sure! Thanks to my trusty assistants, no one got left in the corner by his/herself (for long) and there weren’t (too) many distraught cries of ‘well who is studying section F then?’

As quite a few people are taking a break this autumn, I had just about the number of people auditioning as there were roles. This largely saved me from the aspect I was least looking forward to: the 'thanks but not this time' calls.

It primarily boiled down to choosing whom to put where. Although I was surprised to find that most people seemed to slot quite naturally into one of the roles. There wasn’t much deliberating to do, and even those decisions were quickly solved by practicalities, like injuries and holidays. Practicalities! Can this really be how (amateur) plays are cast?

In fact, about three-quarters of the way through the audition I pretty much had my line-up. I only waited half an hour to start calling people so they could make it down the pub!