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The blog really needs to be read in chronological order. So breaking with convention, the NEW entries are at the foot of the screen, not at the top. Please scroll down to see new material. Please note: these comments and opinions belong solely to me (Peter Deane) and are not necessarily reflective of the "official opinions" of Wyong Drama Group Inc. Last entry date - Thursday 12 July 2007 - the pre-rehearsal period
03-Apr-07 At the April meeting, after an earlier Speed Reading, a Full Reading and much lobbying, I finally got the motion up to produce Pass the Butler for November! This gives me five months' of earnest preparation time. Which in reality is not too much at all. I've seen shows done in ten weeks time, and it's a struggle with the clock ticking every step of the way. It seems you get used to the play with each reading. When we first read the play at the initial speed reading, I haven't heard so much laughter come from the group in response to a reading. I knew the play was funny, but I didn't expect it to be THAT well received. At the full reading, there were plenty of laughs but nowhere near as much laughter as at the Speed Read. 05-Jun-07 At this monthly meeting, due to issues with an earlier play which had been resolved, it was moved that future directors need to present a "Statement of Intent" which outlines how they intend to conduct auditions and what shape the production will take. I will be the first director to do this, so I guess I'll just wing it and let everyone know as much as possible about how things will happen. News was also presented that the November booking dates (which had crept back to 1 November this year) were able to be delayed by a week, so that opening could be 8 November if desired. This would be an excellent opportunity to run three weeks, if I could talk the cast into doing it. Otherwise it meant we get an extra week of rehearsal. All good news. Auditions were announced for 26 & 28 June. 26-Jun-07 Tuesday Night. We had a very poorly attended audition with the usual stalwarts attending, but with so few attending it was difficult to get sections of the play to read. The second half of the play has nine characters onstage for nearly all of it. This meant we had to select passages from the first half only to use as audition pieces. My fingers were crossed that Thursday would be better. At this audition the Statement of Intent was handed to all those attending (along with the cast list, audition forms, character schema and all the usual handouts). I also stuck up a Statement of Intent to the fridge in the Green Room. 28-Jun-07 Thursday Night. It was just me, as Sharon was visiting her parents' place. This one was probably worse! Most of the attendees on Tuesday returned for a second night, but I was still a hell of a long way off achieving a cast. More auditions would need to be held, and it was pretty obvious I was going to have to work the phones heavily to get enough people. I went home feeling dreadfully depressed thinking we were not going to make it, and perhaps another play selection would be necessary. [Something like Love Letters (2 characters) or A Stretch of the Imagination (1 character) would be easier to cast]. 03-Jul-07 Monthly meeting. I was also supper host incidentally, sharing the task with Millie. I did some savoury wraps and bought some sweeter biscuits. The wraps were well received and 100% consumed! This was a short meeting and was after the floods which meant the Theatre Festival had been put back to September. Here I was thinking that the three WDG festival plays would be finished by the time Pass the Butler had commenced, but now they would be in rehearsal until September. This would mean we would be rehearsing five plays simultaneously for about a month! If you add up all the characters you get thirty individual roles (plus crew) rehearsing at once. I wonder if we are all going to fit! Anyway at this meeting I was able to publicise a further audition night for Thursday 12 July. I wrote off a press release and sent it to the papers hoping to achieve some publicity that way (however none of them ran the story). But I knew I'd have to work the phones to canvass potential cast members. Early July Working the phones. I called all the drama group members on Jenny Newman's contacts list. I dragged out every audition form from every play I've ever directed in the last ten years and rang everyone who had turned up to them. I was given a few other contacts by various people when I rang. I got quite a few definite knock-backs, too. I won't name names but at least five WDG members refused to take roles for various reasons. However there was also a lot of support (you can guess who it came from - they all got roles). Rose Cooper pointed me in the direction of a Brendon Flynn, hitherto I had not met. Duncan Mitchell, as well as saying he was available suggested that Damien van der Meulen was interested. Pam Campbell offered me her daughter (for a part in the play, of course!), and was an ear to bash in my depressed state. In fact Pam probably was the one who talked me out of walking away, for which I am grateful. The object was to call at least five people per day for the next week, and I would have easily achieved those sorts of numbers. This is what goes on behind the scenes when a director is casting the play, by the way. We are working on it in desperation, running up our phone bills. I hear there has been a call to restrict cast positions to group members only. If this was the case, you simply wouldn't get casts. The net has to be cast far and wide, certainly beyond those people who have paid us their $2. However, as the days progressed, a cast was looking a lot more likely, although by no means definite. 09-Jul-07 Joan Dalgleish returned one of my calls and said she was available, but not free on Thursday. I said I'd seen enough of her work to know what she was capable of. She still insisted on reading for me, but I declined the offer - what would I learn that I didn't already know from that? Joan's role was easy, as there'd really only be one part suitable for her. The problem with that was there were other auditionees wanting that particular role as well, and they would be disappointed. Ladies, there is a lot more competition for roles than for the blokes. This is a fact of life, and you'll find you're going to get knocked back for more roles in amateur theatre if you are female than if you are male. Simple, sorry! 10-Jul-07 Got a phone call from one Brendon Flynn who said he was interested in the play but couldn't make it on Thursday for the audition. I said, "Right, Ill come to you, how about tomorrow?" It turned out he was also free that evening so a private audition was arranged. I don't like making exceptions to the general auditioning process, but to garner a strong male actor I'm always willing to do quite a lot. Rose Cooper put me on to Brendon, for which I am eternally grateful. 11-Jul-07 A visit to Brendon's (very nice) house at MacMasters Beach ensued, and I knew immediately we had another cast member able to play a major role. Brendon is a very theatrical man with a wealth of experience as both an actor and director, and we chatted for hours before I was able to drag myself and Sharon away. This would just about tip me over the edge for a cast, assuming all those who said they'd turn up on Thursday did so. 12-Jul-07 Aha! That's more like it. We had a well-stocked audition with probably ten or twelve attendees. I got people to read relevant sections, and when finished I suggested that since we were all here, how about we do a full sit-down read of the first half of the play to hear some of the jokes. Laci Weidlich arrived a bit later on, so we suspended the read, got him to read a few roles to see what he was best suited for, and then continued with the full read. What a week that was. As an ongoing project all through this I should mention that Sharon and I are moving house into a larger premises at Wyoming that was burnt down by the tenants in October last year and being rebuilt. We are dealing with the builder and tradies all the time as well as the ongoing task of packing all our worldly possessions into boxes, but still managing to leave enough out so you can function in life. However a great weight has been lifted from me in that we now have a cast. I just have to figure out what role is best suited to what person. The results are elsewhere on the website.
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