RE...RE...the cry of the actor

[Howard Beye]

here goes,
    I erased the e-mail but the gist is that regarding the audition
process the author posits that it's the same when he "auditions" for a
non theatre job therefore.....what I'm not sure. What is the arguement?
The status quo is good because it is the status quo. Do these interview
practices and audition practices garner the best people? How does the
author feel about being subjected to these conditions? If they are a
reflection of our society what does that say about our society and how
do we feel about that? My question was given an extremely cooperative
collective activity "theatre." why do we have a very competitive method
"auditioning" of choosing the practitioners at least on the acting
side.? Now John Wayne would say "suck it up your being a pansy." My
response is that our current society and its practices derive from human
intellect and thus are subject to change if we so choose therefore lets
[consider] the current practices whatever they may be and change them if
they can be shown to be flawed and a better method devised. Stuart
Scadron-wattles has reported that in fact his company is engaged in this
particular debate. But " Professional work is not a gentle arena" (
status quo ) true enough but stuart are you happy with that? and does
that rough arena produce the best theatre? and that's why we prefer it
that way or accept it that way or don't care...!!!! In stuarts comments
we find that in fact the interaction between actors for a part of the
process does produce valuable information about the actors ability to
cooperate and finally that the logistical exigencies preclude a more
involved use of workshop style auditioning process. Thank you for the
response stuart
    Here at the University of Lethbridge we put on four mainstages
productions every year and each is preceded by an audition process that
varys from one at a time to a group in the same room reading scenes. I
have never heard of any improvisational workshop type auditioning in the
three years that I have been here. The stated mandate of the department
is to give the student a liberal arts education in theatre. So it is not
intended as professional training. However there is no guarantee that
being a student here for the three years after your more general first
year that you will get a part in a mainstage play. All in the quest of
the best theatre I guess.
    thanks again for reading
howard