June 10, 2012

• the importance of being earnest audition

  Today, or technically it was yesterday since it is after midnight and all, was the audition for the local theatre's production of The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. I not only love this play, but a couple of his other works -such as An Ideal Husband from which I did a monologue for drama class in university. The performances are not until October, but the director wants to get the casting and some of the blocking worked out before summer, and then rehearsals start in earnest in late august. 

  For any of you who don't know, this is an incredibly witty play with a rather small cast. If you have not read it or seen it, I highly recommend that you do so. The movie -from which I have borrowed pictures- is good but somewhat different, so don't think that is good enough. You can do an online search to get a copy as it is in the public domain now. Basically, it is a comedy of errors, as there are two young men around 30 in age named Jack and Algernon who both end up being called Ernest at different times by different people. There are two young ladies, Cecily who is eighteen and Gwendolyn who is slightly older, who are engaged to the different Ernests though believe it to be the same person. Lady Bracknell is Gwen's mother who is very scary, and Miss Prism is Cecily's governess who is essentially a twit. There are also two to three older men, Reverend Chasuble (who has an infatuation for Miss Prism) and two menservants, one each for Jack and Algernon (though the role might be doubled up). The director is contemplating having some nonspeaking roles as well, but who knows where he would fit those in! I hope he does have them as there are so many people wanting to take part, and it is such a fantastic play. 

  Three people were auditioning for Lady B, and I say people because one of them was male! I think the man did the best job, Bill P was incredibly funny, though I never thought that a guy would go for the role until I saw him do it. He got quite a few laughs, but that may have just been due to the fact that he is a man, which in itself is part of the humour of his audition. Of the two ladies I felt the taller one did a better job, and she was also auditioning for Miss Prism. The shorter one had an excellent accent, but over-acted I thought. Instead of having various levels to Lady B, she was always really "up" and so her performance was monotonous. It would have been so much better to have allowed her Lady B to have some quieter and less in-your-face moments. The director had the five taller of the eight girls stand next to the three Lady Bs to see how they look together physically -I am assuming that they want Lady B to be taller than Gwen as they are playing mother and daughter. Bill P was the tallest and would allow for any of the girls to be Gwen, but should the director go with one of the females it means that only the shortest of us (of which there are only three or four) will be considered for the role of Gwen. Bill P also did a good job at Chasuble and the butlers, so I hope he will also consider being one of those positions should not enough men audition tomorrow or if he is not cast as Lady B for other reasons.  

  Only one young man appeared at the audition -sadly no sighting of Gilbert from Anne of GG- and I think his name may have been Tim? As he was the only male in the right age bracket, he was the only person to be both Jack and Algernon against us Gwendolyns and Cecilys. Needless to say he got to try many various ways of doing the same scenes and learned from what got the best reactions and what felt right for the character. He wasn't a particularly good-looking guy, but the longer he performed the more interesting he was to look at -namely because his acting improved with every attempt. I think he did a much better job at being Jack, but that may be partially due to the fact I don't particularly want him to play Algie to (hopefully) my Cecily. Admittedly, I was rather impressed by this guy's skill at memorization for, by the end of the night, he practically had the four scenes memorized! I do hope many more guys audition tomorrow, though I know it is harder to find males in this age group who are interested in theatre... at least in this town. 

  There were eight girls (including myself) auditioning for the two parts of Gwen and Cecily, and this was only the first audition! There is another one tomorrow night -erm, tonight- in which there may be even more people. A girl I went to high school with, Rachel, was auditioning for the parts and I think she was equally interested in both. I thought her to have potential back in high school and quite good in Anne of GG, so was prepared to be fully impressed... yet wasn't. I don't know why, but she did this horrid high-pitched accent when she would have been much better to use her own voice, or at least her normal tone with an accent. I wonder if the only way for her to manage an accent is in that wretched tone? I think she is a great actress and person, but I wouldn't really want to sit through a couple hours of her speaking as she was tonight. 

  Another girl from that same school, the one who used to be a best friend of mine until she arbitrarily decided to no longer be friends at all, was also at the audition. By the looks of things she wasn't going to acknowledge me until I said hi to her, and then nothing more was said between us for the next couple hours. She did leave early, so perhaps she may have actually spoken to me had she been there until the end. It would be nice if we could at least be on acquaintance-terms seeing as it seems we are now in the same city again and have some mutual friends. Nevertheless, I do not think she would make a good Cecily, though was acceptable as Gwen. I thought she spoke much too fast and her accent was slightly odd, but her acting has improved since high school. Thankfully this isn't a musical or her being cast would be definite instead of just one of the many possibilities for singing is her strong suite. She is also the tallest of all of us, so that may affect the casting... 

  There was a redhead who was rather good -more on her in a moment- and a girl names Shalyn whom I was sitting next to. I think either of them would make a decent Gwendolyn, though there may be someone better I have not yet seen (tomorrow/tonight's audition, remember). There was another girl, the daughter of the man auditioning for Lady B, whom I didn't think did well at all. I have never seen her in anything else, so perhaps she does better with preparation, but she seemed quite bland. There was nothing about her that stood out, nothing in her manner or speech that made us laugh or take notice of her. Only slightly better than she was a girl who is also in Anne of GG, though I did not recognize her at first from my seeing the musical. The other girl whom I know only wanted to be Cecily is named Olivia, and she seemed quite young -I presume she is just out of high school if that. After the try outs she said that she has a british friend whom was rehearsing with her so that she might practice to get it authentic; I didn't really like her performance as much either, though her accent was fantastic. 

  I think I did a rather decent job of portraying Cecily, but I cannot say if I was the best or most liked. It may be only vanity and hope talking, but I do think I was one of the better ones. Then again, that is only my opinion and not that of the three head honchos. The first scene I did was with the redhead where Cecily and Gwen meet, and we got a few laughs from the "audience". The director said that he was stopping us before a fight broke out and that we obviously got the underlying meaning behind the polite words. Since we did so well together, that is why I think the redhead would make a good Gwen. I know I watched her do another scene with someone else, but I quite honestly can't recall it; I only have the overall impression she did a good job. I cannot remember her exact words, but Shalyn told me after that she was impressed by my ability to portray being angry while still managing to maintain a "proper" demeanor. I guess reading so many regency novels and watching period films has rubbed off on me *L0L* 

  I did the rest of that same scene with another girl, the other one in Anne of GG, when Gwen and Cecily argue over tea. It didn't go quite as well as it had with Red but, as I said, she wasn't the most fantastic actress of the group. The last scene I did was with Tim (is that his name?) where Jack proposes to Gwen. I had told the director I'd take either part, though I did have the preference for Cecily, and thus he allowed me to do this scene. I think it went decently, getting a couple giggles, though he and I had our good and bad moments. I had difficulty keeping my accent with the long monologues Gwen gives, and also accidently whacked Tim's script nearly out of his hand! BUT I was also the first girl to sit during the scene and that allowed Tim to get down on his knee as he proposes -which is called for in the script. 

  Sadly I didn't get to do the two scenes I really wanted to do, thinking them to be the easiest (for me) and also the funniest. The one is the first scene of act two between Miss Prism and Cecily, where Cecily dislikes her German lessons and learns of Miss Prism's dream of becoming a writer. The other is the first meeting between Algernon and Cecily, where Algie is pretending to be Ernest and Cecily admits to having an imaginary engagement to him. I think I could have shown myself quite well in those scenes, but I fully intend to attend the second audition so perhaps I'll get to do them yet! The idea of having such a large role with so many lines to memorize is quite frightening I admit, but doing such a role would be such great fun that I simply can't pass up the possibility of getting it for mere fear. I would have three months to memorize the script after all, and surely that is enough time.

  So, after tonight my personal casting is as follows - Lady B: Bill P. Miss Prism: the taller lady or someone tomorrow. Jack: Tim whatever his name is. Algernon: tomorrow's audition. Gwendolyn: Shalyn. Cecily: me. Chasuble: someone tomorrow. The Butlers: also tomorrow. 

  SUMR

  • 3:48 am
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