Casting - the difficult choice

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This weekend has been all about casting…I had our Summer play for Nostell Priory “The Party at the End of the World,” to cast this morning.  Then tomorrow myself, Sarah and Victoria will be casting for the West Yorkshire Theatre Dance Centre’s production of, “The Nutcracker” and my YTYT companies are starting to think about casting for our Christmas plays, “A Christmas Carol,” “Rumplestiltskin,” and “The Elves and the Shoemaker.”  It’s all go!  But then when is it not.

Casting is a strange business.  It’s always surrounded by excitement – new projects inspire a new set of dreams and ambitions in actors and to be honest in directors too.  The idea of embarking on a new set of characters, a new story, new challenges sparks energy, hope and aspirations.  It’s great to be around.  I enjoy the process of visualizing (and whatever the hearing version of that is) my scripts being brought to life by the actors of the company.  I equally enjoy the buzz from the actors.

However, and it’s a big however, casting is also a mixed experience as in amongst the excitement there’s the knowledge that there is a pretty good chance someone – often more than one person - is going to be disappointed.  The saddest thing about this is it is unavoidable.  As soon as more than one actor wants to play a part someone is going to feel sad.  This responsibility is something I struggle with.  I’m a pleaser, I like people to be happy.  Ultimately I have to make the executive decision and do whatever is best for the company and best for the play…I then have to trust that people will understand, that they will accept that my decision is not one I have taken lightly and that I have done the best I can.  The lovely thing is that once that process has happened we can get on with the joyful business of making the work!

As a final thought it’s worth considering the cliché that was once a very accurate comment by Stanislavski, that, “There are no small parts just small actors,” isn’t even the half of it.  Every element of a play is vital – the story can’t be told without all of the storytellers so never feel like you aren’t exceptionally important to a play.  A performer’s worth isn’t measured by the amount of lines you have or the minutes of stage time, it is measured by the success of the production as a whole, and that’s not a cliché that’s the truth.

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