Auditions

Everyone comes to auditions with expectations. The students are nervous and want a good part, the parents are nervous and want their kids to get a good part, the board of directors wants to keep the program running smoothly, and as for me, I want to get everyone onto the same page, on the same stage... moving in the same general direction.

After working with Will Shakespeare beside me for years, I realize that everyone has a role to play onstage as well as off-stage. Will often reminds me that his characters come from real life, I see them everywhere I look, including when I stand in front of the mirror. When I look deep inside the human psyche, I see there is a Nick Bottom within everyone who has ever wanted to be onstage, and there is a Titania within every loving, teasing, wife. I often see Peter Quince inside of me, that wacky director who tries to keep all of the amateur actors from A Midsummer Night's Dream, in line, on point, onstage.

Every production is a play-within-the-play. The real-life drama, the high-comedy and low-slapstick antics of kids relating to Shakespeare and each other and the creative challenges of the production all make for a most exhilarating learning experience.

Now we are casting the play. Casting is most difficult because kids want certain parts that they can't have. At this point in the process I am a cross between a favorite auntie who can't deny her nieces and nephews anything, and the tough-love mama who knows that sometimes the best lesson in life is not getting what you want. Over the years I've seen kids who are disappointed in the beginning with their parts, step-into their roles with energy and earnestness, and in so doing, come to the self-realization that they can do anything they set their minds to by fully embracing what they have. That's a huge lesson. But at the beginning it is painful for them to grapple with not getting what they thought they wanted.

Yesterday was a good day. The kids read for various parts. They were all raw, unrehearsed and reading a new language in front of several other students, parents and teachers. All of them did well, all of them gave their best, all of them are brilliant. Now to fit the actors to their roles.