Casting: It's Hard in Fishing AND Theater

Almost a week later now, and I'm still looking for three more actors to complete the cast of The Poptimists. Real life got in the way for a few days and to be honest, I haven't done much about the casting. But the little hurdles are gone and I have no excuse not to complete the cast.

I have two very good possibilities for two of the roles and absolutely none for the third.

You need to know, that I have been completely spoiled when casting shows and revues that I've written. I have a circle of a dozen or so amazingly talented friends who, for some reason, always say yes when I ask them to be in one of my shows. And they're SO talented, that their great performances are a given.

I don't have to worry about them being able to learn the music or how to really perform it. In short, when working with them I really don't have to worry about directing, vocally directing or the musical accompaniment.

Well, that's all gone now.

I'm working with some very talented people this time around, too, but I'm working with most of them for the very first time. They're young, enthusiastic and make this old jaded writer/composer smile.

So what's my problem?

Well, I'm going to actually have to work on this one. I'm going to have to get off my complacent ass and get back on my feet. Since our budget is almost nothing, I can't afford to hire a vocal director or choreographer. So I'll probably be doing both. I might actually have to train to keep up with this cast.

Which brings me back to casting.

I think until the auditions for this show, I knew about four or five performers 18-25 years of age. I had just done Zeigfeld in The Will Rogers Follies a few months earlier, so I had been around some of them, but I really hadn't worked with any in a few years.

So I had no network to get the word out to these wonderful young actors. It's kind of embarrassing to admit that out of three days of auditions, I only had fifteen performers show up. Luckily, almost all of them were very good ... or even better than very good.

I have no qualms about leaving my creative comfort zone of working with my contemporaries (well, they're all a few years younger than I am), it's just the timing of this show will be very interesting.

Real life will be forcing some major changes in my private life, really shaking up a lot of things which I had hoped would be settled by now. So now my creative world will be rocked as well.

Don't get me wrong, I'm incredibly excited about doing this show. I fully expect to laugh my ass of while producing it and enjoying becoming really good friends with this cast of ten (which still stands at seven at this point). I just wish it could have been produced six months ago when I wrote it ... and for the reasons I wrote it.

The Poptimists is not only a funny little show which will be really entertaining, but it's an investment. This inaugural production will "set the show" and make it one that, if reasonably successful, could be easily produced by other groups, colleges and high schools.

See where I'm going with this?

But back to casting. (I seem to drift a lot when writing on a lazy, finally cool Sunday afternoon.)

I fully expect to have nine cast members by the end of this week. Finding the tenth is going to be a big, big challenge. But I keep reminding myself: I didn't know over half the existing cast before auditions, so someone will come along. Someone I probably don't know today.

But hopefully will know very, very soon!

For now, it's back to producing the rehearsal CD for the cast that I do have. (And they're so good that I'm expecting my tenure as vocal director will be a lot easier than I originally thought before I got my cast.)

And I also plan on enjoying this gorgeous end-of-summer, preview-of-autumn afternoon, before my very personally tenuous autumn begins!

Maturity can be so overrated.

Now, where's the butler with my Nestle's Quik?