Blood and Guts

Auditions begin today… and the real excitement begins. Today we will begin to assemble the ensemble of performers who will truly breathe life into this production. Their voices will tell the story, their bodies will do the dance, and their creative persistence will push us straight through to opening night and beyond. Its an arduous process, auditioning. It can be an act of bravery, of confidence, of hope and, most certainly, of trust. And Alan and I take that trust very seriously. We are entrusted with the task of finding what we believe to be the best pairings of the actors who will stand before us over the next two days, and the roles which Gilbert and Sullivan created over a century ago. We are also entrusted with the task of creating an ensemble: not only an ensemble of voices, but of personalities, proclivities, talents, tics, and idiosyncrasies. In short, an ensemble of living, breathing people. That’s where our arduous task comes in. Today and tomorrow we will re-imagine this production over and over again. Every person who walks through those doors will present us with myriad casting possibilities. Multiple pairings will be considered. Couples, quartets and choruses will be assessed and re-assessed. It will be interesting to see where the surprises appear. There are always surprises. Who will we see that we’ve never seen before? Who will we see in a new light? Will we make an obvious choice or take a chance on a wild card? No one knows at this point, but I’m looking forward to finding out.