Auditions Went Well

I was very pleased with auditions for the new full-length play I've written. We had loads of talented people show up. The director still has some decisions to make. For us, it's the kind of problem you would rather have: multiple strong contenders.

As I was sitting there tonight, listening to actors read my lines, it occurred to me that this was the first time I was hearing them read - that I had been so confident about this play that I had skipped the step of having actors read it aloud, which one does as a way to evaluate whether the play "works".

My first full-length play was initially developed while I was taking play-writing classes. It was read in class, by fellow writers and by actors, with classroom feedback. I also made various changes based on formal evaluations by experienced theater people. Then I had it read in 2 different organized readings by actors with outside audience members, and I made various modifications based on comments I received. I even changed the sex of one character. There was a big gap, 8 years, between when I started writing the play, and when it received a full production.

My second full-length play was written after the first was produced. I felt more confident. But, again, I organized a public reading by actors and invited audience members - friends and family members. The reaction wasn't quite what I wanted and I realized I wasn't completely happy with the ending I had written. Extensive rewriting followed, particularly of the final scene, culminating in a wild burst one holiday weekend. I liked the new ending a lot better, it seemed to flow more logically and definitively, and the audience enjoyed it the surprise resolution.

But this third full-length was written in a hurry, it was one of those "writing itself" experiences once it got going, and I felt unusually confident about it when I was done. So I jumped ahead toward production without having a reading. And sometime tonight, the second night of auditions, I realized I had been hearing these lines, outside my head, for the first time.

This was true for the director too. She said she had been a little bit worried about the style of the writing, but that it seemed to work fine when performed. The characters, individually, plunked down in reality, speaking as they do, would seem odd. But somehow, when they are on stage together, their mode of speech seems natural enough.

As we like to say,
in the world of the play,
it comes out okay.