Cry of the actor

[Stuart Scadron-Wattles]

        Howard-- the audition process is quite unfair, it is true. Many
wonderful actors are terrible auditioners and many auditioners cannot
sustain a role for more than three minutes. Our resident ensemble has
debated over many years about how we audition for guest artists, and we
have come to this:
        We continue to have a standard general audition call. That tells us
how the person stands up under pressure (after all, professional work is
not a gentle arena), and whether they have any idea of how to connect with
their work.
        Our callbacks have a workshop component of at least 45 minutes
prior to readthroughs or whatever the director has decided as the callback
process for her script. In this way, we can both warm up the actors and get
them working with one another as well as see how they can work
improvisationally--  a key component of our acting process.
        We see about 200 actors in general auditions. If we had to conduct
workshops at that level, we would have to cast our net very narrowly
indeed, and never see those who had not worked with us previously.

**** Please note new office address below ****
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Stuart Scadron-Wattles
Theatre & Company
P.O.Box 876
27 King Street West
Kitchener, ONT  N2G 4C5
(519) 571-7080
(519) 571-9051 (fax)

For the latest in Theatre & Company news, look us up on Stage Door:
<http://www.stage-door.org/the&co.html>