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.

I'm Back

Okay, it has been more than a year since I've written, but the spirit is moving me back to the blogshere and I must obey. I just finished this year's adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream and tomorrow is auditions. I am excited. This is our fifteenth year of bringing Shakespeare alive through the hearts and minds of young people ages 5 to 18 years old. That makes me reflect on two things: 1. getting old and 2. looking back through the years at all the kids who have learned about Shakespeare and life while doing stage work.

Some of our alumni are now married, have children of their own, and tell me they can't wait for their kids to get involved. I smile, a bit weakly, when I think of this possibility. My own kids are no longer kids but young women living their own interesting lives.

I do not write to reminisce, but rather, I want to blog about A Midsummer Night's Dream, the story of four young lovers who run into the woods to try to escape their fate and find themselves at the hands of the magical creatures of the enchanted forest on a midsummer night's eve.
I think sometimes we all want to run into the enchanted woods to get away from our troubles and there, in the thicket of our mind's fantasies, we discover just how foolish we are. Shakespeare certainly has a lot to say in this script. He wrote it around 1594 (we think) and it is a lyrical piece of writing that has survived as one of his best in part, I think, because we recognize ourselves and our friends in many of the characters. I have been adapting Will's scripts for a long time and I have directed this show twice before and this is one of Will's most finely crafted plays.

Tomorrow I get to see the kids stand onstage and read from the script. I know their hearts are set on certain parts and I know it takes a lot of courage to stand up in front of 50 or 60 people and audition. I am in awe of their intelligence and honored to witness their growth. Being a young actor is not easy and fully investing themselves into the process of learning-by-doing changes them in remarkable ways. Theater work makes them insightful, helps them to speak clearly, and offers them the opportunity to walk in the shoes of a 400-year-old-character who has graced theater stages all over the world since 1600.

And so, we begin another production with another 40 young people and together we learn about life and each other and the importance of looking below the surface for the true meaning in all that we do. I'm off!