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.