Sasquatch First Read Through

This week we had our concept presentation and our first read through with the cast! Amy did a great job showcasing the concept of Sasquatch through our presentation. Although the play involves adventures and folklore, the true message is about family. Overall, it should be a feel-good play that displays how broken families (through divorce) can still be whole. The characters in the play are all based off real members of my family, so I helped Amy to gain some inspiration about their wardrobes by sharing pictures with her. I absolutely love the outfits that Amy chose for each character in her presentation. I think that the wardrobe will really help get across who each of these characters are and the roles that they play within the family dynamic. We also had our first read through this week. It was so nice to sit down with the cast and get started. I absolutely love the energy that each actor brought to the read through, so I am feeling excited about seeing them up on stage. At the read through I was able to give each actor a deeper description of the character that they will be playing, and I think they took that knowledge and really translated it into the reading. Overall, I am feeling great about this play and I am excited to start regular rehearsals! 

The Golden Raspberry: First Read Through

This week, we had our first read through and our first rehearsal. It was really interesting seeing all the different dynamics the four actors bring to the table! There was stuff that I didn't realize I want until we had the read through. They really inspired me to explore the aspects I didn't expect before. All of them brought so much life in the character and there was a moment when we all are laughing so hard at the jokes because it feels so real.

We also had our first rehearsal yesterday. Scheduling is actually pretty hard! It's almost impossible to find times that work for all 6 people on the weekdays. What I ended up doing, since Jack's character doesn't enter till the second half, is that I only called in 3 actors yesterday for the first rehearsal.  All three actor came in with some great choice! Matt has some great comedic timing and I can't wait to work with him more to see what we can do! Speaking of physical comedy, I am actually a bit concerned about the stage combat since I have never choreographed a fight before. But I'm definitely going to look more into it and explore more! I'm also a bit concerned about being micromanaging. Sometimes I have expectations of how I want the scene to be, which is different from the actors' choices. So I'm being careful to not come off as "bossy" but to explore multiple options with the actors till we all feel it makes sense.

The Guardian: First Read Through

After weeks of talking, auditions, and figuring out schedules, Nate and I finally had our first read through of The Guardian with our cast. Beyond a small mishap of a couple of the actors having an earlier version of the script, the meeting went very well. It was cool to see them finally all reading together, and it will be an interesting day to look back on once this whole process is over.

I'm happy with the way the ending is now within the script, and I can't imagine any major changes will occur within the script over the coming weeks. We talked to the actors after the read through that we will be able to make tweaks and small rewrites to portions that feel weird to perform, so I'm hoping they will take that to heart and feel comfortable communicating with us in the future about things. This is a strange and upsetting narrative, and it's important to me that the actors feel comfortable while working on it. Overall, everyone seems excited to be working on this play, so I have a lot of hope that the coming weeks will be awesome.

I'm really excited to see the ideas Nate has come up with. We discussed today an idea he had about the set slowly coming in closer to the fire pit prop throughout the play's run. That was an idea I'd never thought about during my writing but felt it really well captured the "trapped" theme I had in mind. He's gotten a great handle of my thoughts behind the story and has been bringing it to life fantastically this term.

We're going to be having our first rehearsal Monday afternoon, and I'm very pumped to see what all the actors have thought about in regards to their characters and how they work with the script. We left off our read through today asking them to dive into the characters and ask us questions about them when the need arose. I have a lot of lore in my head regarding to most of the cast, but I really want to see what the actors think of things and how they interpret them. I think this cast is going to help put on a deeply unnerving and cool show.

A Snappy Concept

Blog number three, not doing too shabby, eh?

And yes, for those of you are wondering, my titles will continue to be puns on the name of my play, because I love me some puns. But that's beside the point.

This week has been pretty slow, not a whole lot to report other than MACK'S AWESOME CONCEPT PRESENTATION. Pardon the all caps, I know they're a bit aggressive, but I am way beyond stoked. This next bit is for those of you who don't know Mack (my director). Just in case he's going to play the humility card in his blog, I'm going to brag on him for a minute. So, Mack is an awesome director (obviously) but he is also an amazing sound designer. Over the winter he designed the soundscape for the lab show Nightfall with Edgar Allan Poe. Let me tell you, that soundscape was phenomenal. Knock your socks clean off, phenomenal.

Unfortunately, as it were, The Three Snap Shoe Swap is real light on the sound effects. And that's great for the One Acts Festival because there are so many shows, but I have to admit I'm a little disappointed for Mack. I imagine he would have had a lot of fun working soundscape ideas into his concept presentation. However, he did show me some intro and exit music for the show and I'm really jazzed about it. I often joke that I'm music illiterate because of my lack of familiarization with bands such as The Beatles, Bon Jovie, Queen and many many more that make my friends ask which particular rock I was raised under. So, if you can trust my opinion, these are very cool songs that capture the themes in Three Snap, and I'd expect nothing less from the sound expert himself.

I think I've digressed. My point? I lost my point.

Ah, yes, found it. What to take away from this post.

1. Mack had a kick butt concept presentation

2. His music choices, along with his set and costume ideas were on point

3. We're revving up to get this show on the road

Gee, thanks for sticking with me through those derailed trains of thought.

Hope your day is swell.

Sincerely,

A scatter-brained playwright

A Curious Series of Small Murders, the case opens.

A perfect afternoon.  The sun is out, the air is warm, the wind is blowing just enough to be refreshing.  What better way to spend it than with the crew of A Curious Series of Small Murders?  I gathered my playwright and my actors for our first time meeting together this past Wednesday for our first read through, and it couldn't have gone better!  The space we were intending on using was taken, so we ended up doing our reading outside.  I feel like using the open air will play a factor in at least a couple of our rehearsals to help my actors with their projecting, but at least I know that early on.

Both of my actors were on time, a great sign for making a first impression, and they both got their first full glance at the final script.  I was able to give them my primary ideas for the direction I plan to take the show, and Michael was very excited at the prospect of having age makeup done.  A minor line edit was made, but I think it will be beneficial in the long run.

We split ways after about half an hour, my actors with their scripts and myself with ideas flowing at the speed of sound.  I look forward to beginning the rehearsal process in the coming week.

The Guardian: Conceptualization

So, the biggest things this week were doing the concept presentation and starting scheduling rehearsals, the latter of which turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. I had to make the schedule three times because people either had conflicts they didn't list properly, didn't know about, or that I was initially unaware of. It's fine now, and we have everything sorted out, but damn if I didn't let it stress me out a bit more than I should have.

So, we've got the first read-thru this week, and then a few rehearsals next week. We're a little limited because Keanu is gone from May 2nd to May 10th, which means no Beschut at rehearsal for a little over a week! But, I've managed to make it work. During the time that Keanu is gone, I will schedule the voice-over session for Adam and Josh, and then I can also have some rehearsals that just focus on Ren. My final off-book dates correspond to around the same time that Keanu gets back, so I can be sure he'll use his vacation time effectively, too. We'll probably have to have multiple voice-over sessions, because Adam's, Josh's, and my schedules don't line up super well, and that's on top of the fact that the recording studio has its own hours as well. But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

The concept presentation was very good, though. The concept statement I've settled on is: "The Guardian is an ineffable shroud that has already fallen." Doing the presentation really helped me put all of the ideas I was thinking about for the show into words; it helped me express and quantify what exactly I want for this show for myself just as much as it did for the designers.

I'm really excited to start rehearsals and to begin working on the technical stuff with the crew and the designers as well!

A Curious Series of Small Murders: Auditions and First Read Through

I was so excited for the auditions nights for a few reasons, obviously I was excited to see who was going to be bringing all these plays to life, but I was also interested in seeing the process of auditions from the casting perspective before I audition as an actor. Watching all the actors audition was super fun and interesting. Seeing all the interesting choices the actors made for their characters was awesome. I think my favorite choice I saw an actor make was while Josh Gasaway was reading for Doctor Ford from my play, and he decided to play the character while standing on his knees. I was struggling so hard to not laugh so loud I would distract the actors, but it was really hard. He had read the script ahead of time so he knew that Ford was supposed to be a "dwarf" and he is rather tall, so he made a choice, and while I don't think it would have worked for the show since it's played rather serious with a ridiculous premise, I appreciated the laugh it got out of me.

After auditions the casting process was next. My director Sarah and I were both on the same page about which actors we wanted and had second and third choices ready if needed. We sat down with all the other writers and directors and named who we wanted for our first choices for our plays, and our cast had no conflicts with any others. It was smooth sailing for us while all the other directors negotiated to make casts work.

With casting finished it was time to start organizing the cast, this play has a cast of two which makes it much easier to schedule rehearsals compared to a cast of four or five. In addition our actors have very open schedules as well. We created a group chat including the cast, director, and myself and scheduled our first read through of the script. The read through went well, Sarah got ideas for staging, and we discussed some minor line edits to make some of the dialogue flow better and make more sense. Next we go into real rehearsals and blocking, and I remain excited for not just my show, but all the awesome plays in the festival.

Episode 1: Into the Process

After few days of stressing, we got a cast we dreamed of. The cast is really talented and some of them will be doing a debut at Osu theatre. One of the great qualities  of the cast is there are hilarious, they all have some amazing comedic timing. My director arranged a read through at my house and all the cast meet each other for the first time and we started to read the play. 

While they were reading my play, there was this joy that started to sparkle in me, I was really excited to see my play and my characters coming to life. After the read through, I realized that there are few more changes that I need to make to the script to make it more clear to the audience. My director mentioned that it is finally time to schedule rehearsals. I'm so excited to see the actors trying to play more with play.

Have a Wonderful day,

Srimanyu

Week 2: The Casting

Week 2! This week has been a different pace than last week. Watching people audition is much less stressful than auditioning myself. Also, watching our directors work was exciting! Finally hearing and seeing the words I had written was both fun and hard. There were a lot of times when I cringed at the sound of my own words because I didn’t like the way I had worded things, or hearing a typo I accidentally missed. However, I thought everyone who auditioned read very well. Most were playing it safe, which is what is expected, but a few of them made some good and bold choices. The casting process was tough because of having to trade and cut people, and find the right dynamic for each play, but I believe it was a great success! I am so excited to start working and rehearsing with our awesome cast!

Last Person: Working Past Bumps and Presenting a Concept

Hi again everyone,

This week has been a bit hectic. One of my actors dropped and finding a replacement has slowed down my process quite a bit. I still have yet to set up a read-thru which makes me a little nervous, but then I remind myself that I had almost less time will Nightfall. As long as I tell myself that I can do this – no, that I will do this – everything will come together just fine.

Because of that, I want to focus on what has come together so far. Rachel has worked tirelessly with editing her script and seeing the transformation from the first draft to now is breathtaking. She essentially rewrote her entire play and I think it led to her creating an incredibly strong piece that she feels proud of, which makes me really happy.

With this script I have found key points that I wanted to emphasize through my concept approach. These points include, what it means to be alive, the key qualities of life, and the loss of life. These ideas will be represented in my decision to depict heightened characters on the stage, show the passage of time through costumes and blocking choices, and emphasize the need for sacrifice in order to address/undo environmental degradation. All of these will hopefully come together to paint an outline for the choice that Cassie makes at the end of the play, as well as the choice we all must make.

Overall, I am looking forward to really starting the process. I am hoping my cast is not too overwhelmed with not having a rehearsal yet, however, filling the empty actor position is still the focus on my mind. I am thinking about scheduling a read-thru without having the slot filled but I wanted to give it one more day before I rush into it, just to make the read-thru as productive as possible. I also want to be able to present everyone with a rough rehearsal schedule which will be difficult to do without everyone’s availability.

It will come together though, even though it is frustrating and stressful. See? It always comes back to trusting the process… which is never easy.

Stay tuned,

- Lindsey Esch

Swapping Ink for Individuals

A hardy howdy to you all,

So, this last week we cast all seven shows. 

All. 

Seven. 

Shows. 

"That's a lot of shows," you say.  Well, I also say that is a lot of shows to cast. 

And, that is why my mind is still trying to comprehend how Mack and I walked out of Directors and Dramatists with our cast. I was extremely impressed with everyone at auditions, but The Three Snap Shoe Swap feels more fully formed now that it has its actors. Genesis brought a vibrancy to Mia I was so excited to see. Adam was brilliant, accentuating the dorkier side of Callum that makes him so endearing. And lastly, Maia's laid back, dry sarcasm made Rylie leap from the page. There's a bit of a decision to be made now, however, based on the casting. See, Adam's an international student from England, and well...Genesis is not an international student from England. Since Mia and Callum are siblings, there will have to be a decision made for continuity and possibly a slight script adjustment in order to explain the British accent(s). I'm not even worried though, honestly, I'm so over the moon. I know Mack will figure something out and I'm at the ready to accommodate.  

My script is still ink and paper. 

But with the cast now selected, I see signs of life. 

Sincerely, 

An ecstatic playwright 

Picking Faces: One Act Auditions

One of the more exciting things that happened this week was the casting of Put On a Happy Face. I have to admit, when not as many people as I thought showed up I was starting to get worried. While there was a lot of talent, having good actors versus having actors who best fit the roles is different, and having to negotiate between six other plays on who you wanted was a bit nerve wracking.

Despite this, casting went rather smoothly. I enjoyed watching the auditions from the "other side," and was entertained for the couple days we watched. I was thankful that my director Sam and I were on the same page for what we wanted to see and who we would eventually try to cast. Putting in my input, I left Sam to do the rest and hoped for the best. I was pleasantly surprised to hear we got all of our first or second picks Wednesday, and breathed a small sigh of relief things went the way I wanted them to.

Now, the last part of the heavy lifting on my end is coming. After making one final draft, most of my work I'm guessing will be more of an advisory position. Like I said before, it's weird watching something you've written go beyond your control and letting it become what someone else wants, but it is going to be fun watching the entire process go, even if I'm sort of on the sidelines. I'm looking forward to our first rehearsal!

Auditions for A Curious Series of Small Murders

Auditions have come and gone, and as always it is interesting to see what every person auditioning brings to the table.  When heading into auditions, I had a vague and basic idea of what I was looking for, but after having my expectations flipped on their heads when casting last year's one-acts, I knew to keep and open mind and not hold my expectations too high up.  And with only two characters to cast, I knew I needed to take every audition into consideration.

The first role I cast, Doctor Ford, was the easiest.  While there were some good actors who auditioned the first night, the second night of auditions brought me my Ford.  The second Michael walked into the room and introduced himself, I liked his energy.  Appearence-wise he was exactly what AJ and I had both been thinking for the character, and between his spirit and audition he seemed like someone I really wanted to work with.  We'll see how it goes, but I have a really good feeling about it.

The next role was Detective LeBlanc.  This character was much more open as I was looking for an actor of any gender.  I had ideas of what I wanted to see, and I saw that in a lot of people.  Once again, a lot of great actors the first night, but I was still missing that Something that I couldn't put my finger on.  And then, once again, on the second night I saw what I wanted.  Seeing Isabel walk in and audition, I was sparked with inspiration for creating a LeBlanc that is much different than the original version I had for them.

All in all I'm incredibly excited to get to work with rehearsals this coming week!

Auditions: Casting Sasquatch

Auditions for the Spring One-Acts have come and gone. I could not be happier with the group of amazing people I have chosen to be my actors. I was a little nervous when night one came and there was a small turn out. Putting that aside, the first night went great! The people who auditioned had a lot of good energy and showed us that they really wanted to be in a show. Night two brought more people and more energy!

When I was thinking about what I wanted to see in the audition process, I thought a lot about chemistry. The cast of the show is a family that has been through a lot together and I wanted a group of people that I knew could get us there. One of my sides was a fight scene between Ben and Ariana, the mom and dad. I had Josh and Hannah read for that to see how they were together, and I just said: "Yes!" They were perfect, and I am so excited to have them as my Ben and Ariana.

Marty, Zielle, and Leach had the exact energy I wanted for the kids. I did not have as strong of an idea of how I wanted the kids to be as I did Ben and Ariana. I wanted to see what others chose to do and I formulated what I wanted for Matt, Lily, and Sadie based off that. I think the three of them will be so cute as siblings and bring that chemistry I that I want. It was fun to watch how everyone played the different kids. Even some of the men who had to play Ariana, Lily, and Sadie were so great and so, so funny. After auditions, Lucy and I cast the show and I could not believe how lucky we got.

After this week, I am very excited! I just want to get the process going and have rehearsals, but before that, we must give our concept presentations. I have so many ideas that I can't wait to share! This process is going to be so fun and I can't wait to see what our wonderful cast will bring!

The Guardian: Auditions

As my first ever auditions at Oregon State University, it was definitely a unique experience. I had ideas for what qualities I was looking for for the characters, but I was pretty open to seeing what the actors would bring into the auditions. My biggest concern was that I wasn't going to be happy with any of the auditions and that Nate and I would have to pick people for the roles with blind hope.

Being able to see people pick up my scripts and act out scenes was fantastic in terms of helping me figure out how I wanted to clean up the dialogue for certain characters. The biggest take away I had as a writer was that I wanted to simplify Beschut's word choices. Anytime the character waxed poetry I hated it; it didn't feel like them and took away from the child-like facade I imagined for them. It was nice to see while I was working on the final draft.

Once the auditions actually started, my concerns regarding casting dissipated a fair bit. I was struggling to see someone capture the qualities I was looking for, but I was seeing a lot of range in actors so I felt I could probably find someone for each role. The Jones and Glen roles, being only voice work, were barely a concern in my mind. We also saw a lot of people who could fit in well to those parts. We ultimately came down to a small pool of potential actors for those parts and picked out the roles on the day of casting.

Beschut was who I thought would be the hardest role to cast. They were a monstrous character, but I had a specific image in my mind of how they behaved that I wasn't sure I would be able to get an actor to grasp during the cold readings. A lot of what I was seeing from people was potential, but I struggled to find someone who I thought "yes, this is Beschut." Nate and I ultimately decided that we wanted Keanu for the role. Nate had worked with him previously during Play in a Day, and the role he played in that performance had similarities to what I envisioned for Beschut's characterization. I'm very excited to see what elements he ends up bringing into this character's role.

Ren ended up being the hardest character to cast. I can't exactly explain why, but most of the actors I saw in the role just, didn't quite capture what I was hoping to see in the character. Ironically, the actor we decided on, Chloe, didn't technically audition for the role during the auditions. Both Nate and I heard her read the role during the previous term and loved the way she played the character. We didn't see anyone else we liked quite as well as Chloe, and we knew she and Keanu had good stage chemistry, so she ended up being our choice. Their dynamic would be important for the performance, and it was lucky that both of us had already seen that they worked well with one another.

Overall, this was a cool experience! Knowing who will be doing the roles makes looking at the script very interesting. I have voices now to apply to lines, and I can more easily imagine what certain scenes might look like. I'm so excited to see Nate's concept for the play, and start working on stuff like the sound design and costuming. 

Happy Face: Put on Your Best Face

This Sunday and Monday were finally the auditions for the One Acts! Lucky for me, I managed to get the flu between my last post and auditions. I woke up Sunday morning with a 102 degree fever. Thankfully though, my family was in town and able to take care of me and help get medicine, enough so that I was well enough (if not sitting as far from people as I could) to attend the auditions that evening. And I am very glad I did.

This was my first time ever being on the other side of the audition table and what a difference it is! It was such a whirlwind. On the one hand, it was kind of freeing not having to worry about what people thought of me or how I was doing, but on the other I had to make sure that I was always paying the most attention to everyone, no matter if they were reading from my sides because there could be something they're doing in a different scene that I might like/need.

We have since casted each of our One Acts and I sent my cast of four an email last night regarding our first read-through and rehearsals moving forward.

I am so excited to start working with my cast, beginning blocking, and bringing Cole's baby to life!

I'll be posting next week about our Concept Presentations to all of our designers with images and ideas I have strung together for the show.

Here's to the ride!

-Sam

The Guardian: Calm Before the Storm

So, auditions went pretty well. Will's input on my picks and ideas were pretty much completely in-line with what I was looking for in the actors, so I'm glad we were able to have a similar outlook on the whole process. It was very different to be on the other side of the auditions, but it wasn't hard for me to adjust to it, I don't think. I felt pretty comfortable making the calls instead of taking them, which is going to be good going into the rehearsal process.

Keanu and Yihong were easily my top choices for Beschut; they both did very different things but physically and vocally, however they both worked for the character really well. Having worked with Keanu for Play-In-A-Day, I knew he was someone capable of letting go and performing characters with very distinct physicalities (he played a dog in the play I directed for that). Chloe was someone Will and I had really liked as Ren during her reading of the original script back in Playwriting class last term, and, having worked with her also during Play-In-A-Day, I knew she was someone who could take direction well and devote herself to her character. Even without seeing her reading at the actual auditions (which I know is VERY different from reading it in class), I felt confident that I could help her if she had issues understanding her character during the process. She was my top pick for Ren by a long shot.

Jones and Glen being voice-over roles really helped me with casting, as I could basically put anyone in those roles regardless of scheduling or commitments to other plays; I only need them for a single recording session (although I may have them attend a few other rehearsals). For that reason, I had a lot of potential options for the roles, and I actually ended up flipping my 1st and 2nd choices for each role last minute on Wednesday when we cast the shows. Adam and Josh Smith ended up being my final two top picks for Jones and Glen (respectively), mostly based on the timbre of their voices and characters.

Casting went very smoothly on Wednesday and I got all my top picks. Keanu and Chloe's schedules align themselves pretty well with me and Will's, so I'm confident we can find time to do one-two rehearsals a week for the first few weeks here, and then possibly amp it up to 2-3 in later weeks as we get closer to the show. Over the weekend, I'll put everyone's schedules together and create a rehearsal schedule for the next few weeks.

Now, to start the next part of the process: completing my concept and presenting it to the class!

Audition process is Bonkers

The audition process started on Sunday 14th and Monday the 15th. this was the first time I was behind the table and I felt weird because I was not nervous at all. All the directors and writers were called few minutes before the audition and we all knew that if we friendly to our friends and classmates, it might scare the new people who are auditioning. We totally had 25 roles to offer to the people and on Sunday only 19 people showed up. The amount of people scared me and my director, we were worried about double casting. The reason why we were worried is 'the scheduling'. So, on Sunday we saw some amazing talent and everyone were doing great. The audition process on Sunday went smoothly. On Monday, all the directors and writers had a hope that to the auditions there are going to be more people. So exactly like Sunday we went to the auditions early and hoping more people would show up. 7 more people showed up. we calculated it and realized there were total of 27 members who auditioned. The audition process on the second day went pretty well. We told the students that the cast list will be up on Wednesday. Me and my directors had one day to worry about the scheduling process and choosing the cast who have free time to work with each other. My directors Wendy had picks for each of my characters. For Andrew(main) we had two picks and we couldn't find  anybody else who would portray the role perfectly. For Linda(main) we had five top picks. we knew that we need a strong Andrew and Linda for a strong show. For Jimmy(sub) we had 8 picks because we figured we can help any actors bring jimmy to life. For Paul we had 10 choices. We knew that anyone can be portrayed Paul as he is a small character and has short stage time. After all the thinking has finished, we all met again in our directors/dramatists class. We all gave our top picks and surprisingly, I got most of my top pics except for Linda. For Linda we were that upset because the women we got for Linda, showed us some great potential to play Linda. The Cast list was up and there was a relief that we didn't had to hold the secret for a longer time.

Now that the cast list up, i cannot wait to get to work and see how my play is going to come to life.

Have a wonderful day,

Srimanyu Ganapathineedi

Last Person: The Other Side

Hi again everyone!

Auditions happened, and the shows have been cast!

The first time I ever experienced auditions from the “other side” was for last year’s One-Act festival. I remember feeling incredibly focused on the people that walked through the room and thinking about who they were and what I might want them to read for. I had everything on my end planned out extensively. I knew what I imagined for the characters and what I wanted to see from the actors attempting to portray them. Being so focused helped me remember the people I saw read for my scenes, however, I think it gave me a little bit of tunnel vision.

For this year’s audition process, I felt a lot more relaxed. I knew what I wanted from my characters, and I knew what to ask for from actors to see it come to life. I also knew how the characters in my show might overlap with the characters in other shows. Because of that, I found myself paying a lot more attention to other directors’ sides. By the end of the night, I felt like I had seen so much and knew exactly where to go with it. I felt relaxed even though I thought the actual casting part was going to be very messy – that turned out to be incredibly smooth as well though.

Overall, casting this show was very different for me than casting The Courier last year, or Nightfall last term. Both of which were incredibly overwhelming – and I only had one night of auditions for Nightfall. It was funny because after the first night Liz asked us if we felt like we could cast the show if we had to, and I felt confident that I could. Not that I didn’t see people I was interested in the second night because I did, however, I knew I could make it work from what I saw the first night. This showed me my own growth and how different it felt to go into the audition process confident and relaxed rather than tense and focused.

It makes sense that it is better to go into an audition process with the former feelings in place, no matter which side you are on.

Stay tuned,

- Lindsey Esch

Auditions Week! Sasquatch Play

This week, I worked with my lovely director Amy to cast our play Sasquatch. Being involved in the casting decisions was such an incredible process. As an actor myself, it was very rewarding to be on the opposite side of an audition. It helped me to understand what a casting agent/director/writer is looking for with casting. It was very important for Amy and I to cast actors that were able to portray the unique traits that each individual brings to the play. It was also important for the actors to have good chemistry with one another, since they are playing family. I am feeling really good about the decisions we made with each character, and I am looking forward to working with these talented actors. So far, this process has really helped me to gain confidence with my writing abilities. It was so rewarding to see actors read and perform the words that I wrote. Each actor brought something different to the same dialogue, and it left me feeling really inspired. I feel confident that I will be able to make any necessary changes to this play as we go forward with rehearsal. Overall, I am feeling very excited to get started with rehearsals and get to work!