So, you want to be (or have been roped into being) a Director…

Kirsten Olson ‘14

original 2014

updated 2019

This guide is designed to help first time MTG directors. It is based on my knowledge of the position and is by no means the definitive work on the subject. Feel free to add on or subtract information as necessary.

Before the Interview

Since the director spot is filled before auditions, MTG requires you to interview for this position, even if there are no other candidates. There are several questions that are asked at almost every director interview. Look them over and start thinking about how to answer them. You don’t need an answer to every one, but it is a good idea to start thinking about them.

Why do you want to direct this show?
What is your vision for the show?
Are you willing to cross cast (cast an actor with a different gender from the character) If so, which roles?
Are you willing to take an ensemble? How many?
How do you intend to work with the rest of the creative team on this show? How will you solve disagreements?

Keep in mind that these are just some of the questions. You may be asked more, particularly if there is a challenging aspect to this specific show.

Assembling the Dir Staff

If you get offered and accept the role of director, the next step is filling the rest of the dir staff. The producer technically has final say in who fills what roles, but the director’s opinion matters. Make sure that you get along with the choreographer, vocal director and stage manager especially, because you are going to start seeing a lot of each other.

Meet with the Choreographer

As soon as you can, meet with the choreographer and discuss which parts of the show you are responsible for blocking vs. which parts of the show they will choreograph. This might require a bit of discussion, but technically you have the final say. I trust you to use that power responsibly. This meeting can technically happen any time before rehearsals start, but I like to do it early so you and the choreographer both have a better idea of what to look for at auditions.

Creating the Casting Review Board Document

MTG is primarily a student group. As such, we have this section of our constitution that states:

“The MIT Musical Theatre Group’s affiliation with MIT will be maintained in filling cast and production positions, priority will be given to members of the MIT community, in particular to MIT students.” (Fun Fact! This is also the thing that was rattled off to you by the producer during your interview)

Basically, what this means for you is that MTG wants to prioritize casting students over casting non-students. In order to accomplish this, the constitution makes us form a Casting Review Board (commonly referred to as the CRB) The CRB, like the name indicates, is responsible for looking over your casting decisions and making sure that you followed that thing in quotes above.

In order to accomplish this, the CRB requires you, the vocal director, and the choreographer to compile for them a single document stating what it is that you want to see for each role in the show. The vocal director will usually include things like singing range and vocal style, while the choreographer includes dancing skills. Your part of the CRB document is the most subjective section and therefore usually the hardest to write. This is the part where you have to tell the CRB exactly what it is you are looking for in an auditionee in order to cast them in that role. Here is a list of questions to consider for each character as you are making the CRB document. This list is not all-inclusive, but should give you a pretty good idea of how to start:

Does this character need to be a specific gender/sex/race/ethnicity?
Can they be played by a different gender/sex/race/ethnicity?
Does this character need to kiss another character? Is it someone of the same gender or a different gender?
Does this character need to do any compromising things onstage? (examples include swearing, taking off clothing, hitting other characters, etc)
Is there any emotion or feeling that an actor must be able to portray in order to play this character?
Does this character have any physical requirements? (examples: must be able to look older/younger than other characters, must be taller, shorter, fatter, skinnier, etc)

There are a lot of requirements you can put down. In order to organize them, I usually split them up into three categories: Must Have, Strongly Prefer, and Would Like.

Must Have: Means that you will not fill this role with a person who does not meet this requirement, no matter how talented they are in other areas.

Strongly Prefer: Means that you will push very hard for an actor who has this quality over an actor that does not, but if no one has this quality, you will still be able to fill the role.

Would Like: This category is basically used as a tiebreaker if all the other qualities are the same. It is what this character would have in your ideal show.

In addition, it is sometimes useful to decide which of the three components (or combination of them) is most important for a given character. For example, character A needs to be a very good dancer, but character B only needs to be a strong actor. Below is an example of a finished CRB description for a single character from Young Frankenstein:

FREDERICK FRANKENSTEIN

The eccentric grandson of an infamous mad scientist. He is the Dean of Anatomy at New York's best university.

Range: Bb2 - G4

Must be able to perform Intermediate choreography including tap and look polished. Needs to be comfortable having choreographed sex

Must be able to be imposing as well as sympathetic. Needs to be crabby without being hated for it. Must be able to take direction and convey strong emotion. Must be male. Must be willing to kiss Inga. Must be very good about taking direction. Must be comfortable portraying sex on stage.

Must be able to hit a G4 full voice no falsetto but can blend - must sing well in classic musical style, not “pop” style, with a strong vibrato and breath control - should be a fairly decent sight reader as the vocal part is demanding. Vocal range is accurate and will therefore be enforced via range check and callback

After you have written these descriptions for each character in the show (including the ensemble, if you have one), you next have to rank them into tiers. The number of tiers are up to you, but a standard ranking says that tier 1’s are the leads, tier 2’s are the supporting roles and tier 3’s are the cameo roles (we often have these characters be part of the ensemble as well).

You and the rest of your creative dir staff will also need to agree on an “uncastable” definition. Basically, what makes a person so bad that they cannot be in your show. The standard uncastable definition looks something like this:

Director: An actor is deemed uncastable if they do not take direction, cannot portray basic emotions, and show no evidence of being able to change that in the given time. An actor will also be deemed uncastable if they cannot attend every performance or if they have conflicts with a large majority of the rehearsal times.

Vocal Director: An actor is deemed uncastable if they cannot follow notes played by a piano, cannot blend with the group, and cannot take vocal direction.

Choreographer: An actor is deemed uncastable if they cannot pick up basic choreo taught at auditions.

In recent years, we have also been including an addendum that has been referred to as the bitch clause:

An actor may also be deemed uncastable if the dir staff believes that said actor will detrimental to the group as a whole, based on past experiences. (Bad attitude, not willing to be around other members of the cast, etc.)

The “bitch clause” is a last resort and should only be used if you are certain that the actor in question (based on past experience, either personal or guild wide) will have a major negative impact on the show.

At the end, also include your minimum cast size (how many people you absolutely need to do the show) and your maximum cast size (the maximum number of people you are willing to cast) You can also break this down by genders if you feel so inclined.

When your CRB document is finished, it should be complete enough that a random person, after just reading the document (and not talking to you at all) is able to understand what you are looking for in each character. After this document is created, you will meet with the head of the CRB (called the Casting Review Board Chair) to discuss this document in person and edit it for maximum clarity. After this meeting, you are no longer allowed to change the CRB document without the CRB chair’s approval. Some time around this time period, you will also meet your Casting Review Board Representatives, who will accompany you to auditions.

Schedule Auditions

In order to hold auditions, you need to have a director (that’s you!), a vocal director, a choreographer (if the show requires one), an Audition Pianist and 2 Casting Review Board Representatives. You should also ideally have a Stage Manager by that point to keep auditions organized, but if you don’t have one yet, sometimes, if you ask your producer very nicely, they will fill that role for you.

When scheduling auditions, it is ideal to have two days of auditions and then a day of callbacks. Sometimes the auditions and the callbacks have a day of rest between them, sometimes they do not. You need to pick a day that every position listed in the first paragraph can attend. You cannot hold auditions without them.

Creating the Auditions Sheet

Sometime before auditions, your Producer or your Stage Manager will begin to put together an auditions sheet. In the auditions sheet is a section of questions that ask the actor what they feel comfortable doing in the show. The person putting together this sheet will ask you what questions should be in this section. The standard questions that are asked for almost every show are:

Are you willing to be cross cast? Circle one (unwilling, willing, preferred)
Are you willing to change your appearance, cut or dye your hair, etc? (unwilling, willing)
Are you willing to kiss another actor? If so, are there any restrictions on who you are willing to kiss? (for example, people of a specific gender, people not of a specific gender, a specific person who is also auditioning)

In addition to these questions, you should include a question to ask about any area that you identified earlier that might be compromising (swearing, undressing on stage, etc) Keep in mind, if you don’t ask about it now, you can’t ask the actors to do it in the show. (Well actually, you can ask, but they don’t have to say yes.) Get these questions to your Producer or your Stage Manager and they will make sure that they get into the audition sheet.

Preparing for Auditions

***Please note, what follows here is extremely subjective. It is my personal view on how auditions should be handled and in no way reflects the only way to do it.***

The first step to preparing for auditions is to choose some readings. Normal audition readings are chosen to give you a general idea of the person’s ability to act and take direction, as opposed to their ability to play a specific character. A good audition reading usually has several key components: it’s fairly short, it has some sort of strong emotion in it (to give you an idea of the acting ability), and it is easy to explain. Bonus points go to the scenes that are only between two characters. Trust me, it will make your life sooo much easier. There are multiple ways you can choose audition readings:

Pick 1 reading. Have every single auditionee read it.
Pick 1 male reading and 1 female reading. (Note, you should always allow actors to choose which of these they would like to read, regardless of the actor’s gender. The importance is the character’s gender, not the actor’s.)
Pick several readings and let the individual auditionee choose 1 or 2 that they want to read.

These are not all the options and there are pros and cons to each one. Option 1 is the quickest and easiest for you, but is also the least specific for casting. Option 3 gives you a very good idea of what the auditionee wants to be cast as, but also takes a lot of time to pick out readings for. I usually go with option 2 because it gives information about the characters that the actor prefers without too much extra work for me.

Preparing for Conflict Callbacks

In addition to normal auditions, you also need to immediately prepare to have callbacks, this is because auditionees sometimes cannot make it to the callback day and will need to have a “conflict callback.” Conflict callbacks are usually held on the day that the actor in question auditions after normal auditions are over. The Casting Review Board strongly prefers that the conflict callbacks be as close to actual callbacks as possible. This means that you will need to have your callback readings picked out.

Callback readings are different from audition readings but they do share some traits. Here are the similarities and differences between the two:

Similarities:

Callback readings should be short
Callback readings should have some sort of emotion that you are looking for
Callback readings are ideally between two characters (Note: this is not really a requirement and should be discarded if need be in favor of any of the other requirements.)

Differences:

There is 1 callback reading for every separate character that you are casting. Sometimes there will be multiple readings for a character or you will want to see two characters read together.
This callback reading tests for specific acting abilities as mentioned in your CRB document.

Sometimes, you will want to see how two characters interact together. Obviously, you are not going to be able to thoroughly test that at a conflict callback. The CRB understands this and simply asks that you do the best that you can with what you have. So, if you really want to see how two characters interact, by all means, test that at callbacks.

After picking out both the regular audition readings and the callback readings, you should get them to your Stage Manager to print out, or print them yourself. Either way, make sure that there are several copies of each of the readings at auditions. Also, make sure that they get labeled so you don’t get them confused.

Setting Up for Auditions

*** Standard Disclaimer about Subjectivity. Please see the note under “Preparing for Auditions***

On the day of auditions, arrive at the appropriate room at least 5 minutes earlier than you are supposed to be there. (your Stage Manager will thank you for it). Bring something to take notes with (I prefer a notebook and a pencil, but some prefer a tablet or computer), a bottle of water and anything else you might need. You are going to be here for hours, so get comfy. If you can, I would suggest trying to bring your computer for communication with the Stage Manager (this importance will be explained next).

Set up inside the audition room. Make sure that someone in that room (maybe you) is in constant communication via some sort of chat function with the Stage Manager, who is sitting outside the room. (I usually use gchat, but texting, facebook messaging or other forms of communication all work.) Make sure that everybody listed under “Scheduling Auditions” is there before you start the audition process.

Holding An Audition

The most important thing to remember about auditions is that, however nervous you are, the people coming to audition for you are probably a billion times more nervous, so it is important to make them feel comfortable if you want them to give you their best audition (which you do). At the same time, however, it is really important not to get too overly familiar with people that you already know. Remember, the CRB representatives want you to give everyone an equal shot at the audition. So, be friendly and polite, but also professional. You cannot give special treatment to people that you already know. That is just not fair and will lead to problems later. Everyone must be treated equally as far as evaluating them from an audition standpoint goes. The one exception to this is specified in the MTG Constitution and says that if a person who has done a show with us before is sick during auditions or callbacks, their previous performances can be used for judgment.

A standard audition will go as follows: The auditionee will enter the room with their audition sheet. Everyone in the room (usually starting with you) will introduce themselves. There are three main components to a standard audition: acting, singing and dancing. Dancing usually goes last, because it is done with multiple auditionees at one time (more on that later), but acting and singing are interchangeable. I usually like to let the auditionee pick which one they want to do first, because it gives them a bit more control over the situation. 9 times out of 10, they choose to sing first. Sometimes, shows don’t require having a dance audition. That is completely up to the choreographer.

When the singing component of the audition begins, you hand over control of the audition to the vocal director. At this point, I highly recommend getting ahold of the audition sheet and copying down some basic information about the auditionee.

How are they affiliated with MIT? (If they are an MIT student, they are a 1. If they are an MIT faculty member, an MIT alumni, a Wellesley student or have participated in an MTG show within the past year, they are a 2. If they are anything else, they are a 3. This information will be important later for the CRB meeting)
What were their answers to all of the questions about their willingness to do stuff on stage? Does anything stick out/bar them from being cast as a certain character?
Can they make the normal callback date or will they need a conflict callback?
Did they initial the spot saying that they can make it to all of the performances?
Which character are they auditioning for?
Will they accept ensemble?
How many conflicts do they have down on the conflict calendar?

I usually take notes on these things plus a few things to help me remember what they look like (clothes, hair color, etc). You should take notes on anything else you think will be useful.

All of this information should make it into your notebook/note taking device of choice while the auditionee is doing their range check. After the range check is done, the auditionee sings a song of their choosing. I usually take a few notes on whether or not I think they can follow the piano and if I like their vocal quality. Ultimately, that will be up to the vocal director, but you still get a bit of say.

Next comes the acting part of the audition. Usually the auditionee reads one character and a CRB representative reads the other one (to ensure that the reading is equal across all auditions). I usually make the CRB representative stand up so that the auditionee can interact with them better, but some people prefer to have the CRB representative remain seated. Either way you choose is fine, but it has to be the same for everyone’s audition.

Before you have the auditionee read, it is a good idea to explain the scene to them. Even if you think everybody knows exactly what is going on, you should still explain it. There are multiple ways to have this reading happen. Feel free to choose the one you like best:

The auditionee reads the reading exactly once without direction from you.
The auditionee reads the reading once after you explain what you are looking for in that particular scene.
The auditionee reads the reading once with no direction, receives direction from you and then reads it a second time.
The auditionee receives direction from you, reads the scene, receives a different direction from you, and then reads the scene again.

My personal preference is tied between 3 and 4. I personally believe that you need to have the reading happen twice to be able to tell if anything changes between the first and second reading, which determines if the auditionee is capable of taking direction. Option 3 is great if you are trying to determine the natural acting instincts of an actor and Option 4 is useful if you want to test for multiple strong emotions quickly.

After 5 to 10 of these auditions have happened, the choreographer will take the people that have already auditioned and go teach them a dance in a different room. You and the vocal director will continue to hold normal auditions. When the choreographer has finished teaching the dance, normal auditions will be paused so that the 5 to 10 auditionees can show you the dance. As before with the vocal stuff, I encourage you to take notes on anything you think is useful, but the choreographer will have the final say here.

Note, sometimes someone will not be able to make it to normally scheduled auditions and you will have to hold a conflict audition for them at some alternate time. This conflict audition is just like a normal audition, but it happens outside of normal audition times. You still need your CRB reps and everyone else there. It is important to make sure that this audition happens before callbacks, so you can give the auditionee a chance to come to callbacks and also give yourself a chance to compare them to the other actors before deciding who would go best where.

Deciding Callbacks

*** Super super subjective in here, feel free to have other opinions***

After auditions happen (or sometimes sooner if you have to have a conflict callback) you will need to decide who you are going to call back for what position. This is where that 1, 2, 3 policy I mentioned before comes into play. Remember that 1’s are MIT students, 2’s are MIT alumni, MTG members, MIT faculty, and current Wellesley students (Note: Wellesley alumni do not count). 3’s are any other random people that just come to auditions. After you decide on a cast, the CRB is going to be picking through your casting decisions to make sure that you gave the 1’s every opportunity. To save on time, I generally try to do this in the first place.

In order to accomplish this, I call back every 1 who has the vocal range for a part, even if they could not act at all. I realize that this might cause callbacks to go a bit longer, but it is a great way to both appease the CRB and to make sure that you give people every opportunity.

When it comes to 2’s, I call back every 2 that I think could actually fill the role. This means that they need the range, the vocal ability, and the acting ability. If you actually see a 2 as being able to play this character, you should call them back.

While there is a bit of wiggle room in the constitution in terms of casting 2’s over 1’s, there is no wiggle room for 3’s. A 3 cannot be cast over a 1 or a 2 unless there is no one else that can conceivably play that role. In MTG, this basically means that they only way you can cast a 3 is if no one else has the vocal range or that everyone else has broken one of your “must haves.” In order to save time at auditions, I recommend only calling a 3 back for a role if you have reason to believe that none of the other 1’s or 2’s will be able to fill that role (either because no one matches the “must haves” or because you think the other candidates will be cast in a higher tier)

Holding Callbacks

During callbacks, lots of things are going to be happening. Traditionally MTG has two rooms. One room you stay in and watch the callback readings. The other room is used for teaching dance or vocal stuff. Dance and vocal stuff must come and perform for you before they are done. The CRB representatives must be present at anything that is going to count towards casting. Ideally, you should be too. This is also your time to test the auditionees’ acting abilities. Be aware, however, that you have to keep it as equal as possible among the different auditionees. Sometimes, directors like to test the chemistry between two characters. Callbacks is the point at which to do that. Remember, though, if you want to test something with one actor, you have to test it with all the actors. If you want to test the chemistry between character A and character B, you have to let every person called back for character A read with every person called back for character B. (Because of this, chemistry readings tend to take a lot of time.)

Casting the Show

After callbacks have finished, it is finally time to cast the show. This can be done any way you want, but has to result in the dir staff agreeing on a casting. The CRB representatives should also agree with your casting. This is not actually required, but is strongly recommended seeing as how the CRB will soon be talking about this cast without you and you are going to want someone on your side.

When casting a show, you should push for the casting that you want, but remember the CRB guidelines. We are a student group, after all, and we really should be giving students every opportunity to succeed.

Meet with your dir staff and agree upon a casting. You might have to have a little flexibility here. Here, the CRB document you made before will come in handy. For example, if you want to cast person A but the vocal director wants to cast person B, go back and look at the requirements you put down for that character and remind yourselves what is most important to casting that role. For example, if you guys said that it was mainly an acting role, you should cast person A. If you said it was mainly a singing role, you should cast person B.

After you and your dir staff have decided on a casting of the show, take a step back and look at the full roster. Specifically, look at every role where you decided to cast a 2 or a 3 over a 1. These are the ones that you are going to have to defend to the CRB. Saying that the 2 or the 3 was just the best one there is probably not going to be good enough. You are going to have to go through each alternate and explain why it won’t work. This is going to get a bit confusing but do your best to stay with me. Here is an example of casting a 2 over a 1:

I am trying to cast the role of Bob the Cat
I called back one 2, and five 1’s.
I decided that I want to give the role to the 2. Now I need an explanation for each of those 1’s.
The first 1 dropped out of the show, so they are no longer in the running.
After further investigation, the second 1 was deemed uncastable by the uncastable definition provided in the CRB document.
The third 1 got cast in a higher tiered role.
The fourth 1 got cast in a same tiered role. (Note that the 1 getting cast in a lower tiered roll is not a valid reason)
The fifth 1 was able to play the part, but the 2 is significantly better than them at it. I fully believe that casting this 2 over this 1 will improve the quality of the show as a whole because the 1 does not have the movement ability that we wanted to have for this character (must be in the CRB document) and the 1 was not able to do the style of voice we wanted for this character (again, this must be in the CRB document)

As you have probably figured out, that last point is the hardest to argue with the CRB. This is where having a well written CRB document comes in handy. You have to make sure to argue why the 2 is better than the 1 only in terms of the things that you included in the CRB document. It also is prudent to get the CRB rep to agree with you on these points especially. Again, they are your last line of defense once the CRB meeting starts.

If you are trying to cast a 3 in place of a 2 or a 1, your only available argument is that the 3 is the only one who meets all of the “Must Have” requirements of the role. “Strongly Prefer” or “Would Like” can’t even come into the discussion here. The 3 must be the only person who is remotely capable of playing the role (who hasn’t already been cast higher). For example, you can cast a 3 in a tier two role if every 1 and 2 that was called back for that role is going to be cast in a tier one or other tier 2 role.

Another thing to keep in mind at this point is that even though you want to cast your perfect show, it is important to keep the students involved. You are not going to be able to get away with casting all 2’s if a bunch of 1’s also tried out. At that point, you just need to prioritize what you want and remember that compromise is going to have to happen.

Quick sidebar: After all of this 1s vs. 2s talk, you might be getting the impression that you should just never cast 2s. This is not the case. If you truly believe that a specific 2 will make your show significantly better, you should be willing to fight for that. This is your show and you should feel free to try to get your ideal cast. Just realize that we are a student group, so we should make sure to have lots of students involved.

The CRB Meeting

After agreeing with your dir staff on the casting, it is now time for the most terrifying thing in all of auditions! Dun-dun-duuuuuuh! The CRB Meeting. This meeting happens directly after you have decided on a casting, so it is on the same night as callbacks.

The biggest thing to remember about CRB is anonymity. No one in the CRB meeting besides the CRB rep is supposed to know who auditioned. This is not a *wink, wink, nudge, nudge* rule. This is actually a very important component and should be treated as such. No name dropping, even if you think it will help your case.

If you have done your preparation for this meeting, and no one is crazy (it happens sometimes) this meeting should be super easy. All you have to do is go meet with the CRB and explain your casting decision to them. I usually like to provide some sort of visual aid because by this time it is usually 1 or 2 am. They will ask you some questions about your casting decisions. Luckily, if you did the previous step correctly, you will be prepared to answer pretty much everything that they can throw at you.

After the CRB asks you all of their questions, they will ask you to step out of the room. During that period of time, they will talk about any major concerns that came up during your conversation. They will also ask the CRB reps if they agree with you. This is why it is good to have the CRB reps on your side. They sometimes have to be willing to fight for your decision.

Hopefully, all goes well and your casting is approved. In that case, you can skip the next section. In case it doesn’t, however, your next step is…

Negotiating with the CRB

Okay, so you have been doing callbacks all day, casting, and now this: the CRB has rejected your casting. You are probably tired and more than a little bit frustrated. The thing to remember here is that this is not the end of the world. The CRB is not out to get you and they are not purposefully trying to make your life hard. They are just doing their best to do what is best for the guild as a whole, while you are probably a bit more focused on what is best for your show. This is the central conflict in MTG and it is probably not going away anytime soon. Another good thing to remember is that yelling never solves anything and will, in fact, probably make the CRB less sympathetic to your plight.

The key to negotiating with the CRB is to remember priorities. The CRB’s priority is to try to maximize the number of students in the higher up roles. Your priorities will probably be something completely different, which means that there is hopefully some point where these two priority sets intersect.

Say, for example, that you are casting two 2’s in the roles of Bob the Cat and Goldie the Fish, which are both tier 1 roles. The CRB thinks that a 1 actually has the ability to play one of these roles. You really care about who ends up being Bob the Cat, but you don’t care quite as much about Goldie. You can reach a nice compromise with the CRB by casting the 1 as Goldie. Then you can keep your original Bob the Cat and there are more 1’s in the top tier roles. Everyone is happy. I am not saying that every story will have a happy ending like this, but just keep in mind that there are options.

If you are going into the CRB meeting with a risky cast (lots of 2’s in tier 1 roles, etc) it is usually a good idea to prepare a backup plan beforehand in case your cast is rejected. Remember that this meeting is very late at night and you cannot leave until you and the CRB agree on a casting.

Calling your Actors

After your casting has been approved by the CRB, it is time to call your actors and offer them their parts. Technically, this is the producer’s job to oversee, so defer to them for the final judgements on how things will go. This section just gives you an idea of some general strategies.

The first thing to remember is that the parts are not official until the actors have accepted. They should remain anonymous to the CRB until that time. In order to offer an actor a role, you must call them and get in contact with them. You may not offer them a role in any other way. If you call, and they do not respond. Leave a message telling them to get back to you ASAP, but do not offer them the role in the message.

When calling actors, the strategy is to offer roles in such a way that, if someone declines, you have not yet called the person you want to replace them yet. For example, you have a Tier 1 role and a Tier 2 role. Your original casting has Person A as the Tier 1 role and Person B as the Tier 2 role. You call to offer Person A their role and they decide that they don’t want it. Your backup plan is to offer the part to Person B. In this scenario, do not call person B until person A has accepted their role. Every actor should only receive one offer. This is exceedingly important. Trust me.

That being said, you can call people that are not part of a role chain like that. For example, if I have Person C cast in a Tier 3 role, but they were never called back for any other roles, you can just go ahead and call them right away.

You and your dir staff should call as many people as the above rules will allow, stopping when someone doesn’t answer their phone and you can’t make any more progress. Then go home and go to sleep. You earned it. Calling will resume the next day, but by then, it is officially the producer’s job.

What to Do if Someone Rejects a Role

Every once in a while, an actor will decide that they do not want the role that you have offered them. This is why we call people in the particular order that we do. If someone rejects a role, you must now decide who is going to replace them. This sometimes creates a long string of people replacing people all the way down the list. If someone rejects a role, you are required to inform the CRB chair, but as long as you replace 1’s with 1’s and 2’s with 2’s or 1’s, the CRB should not need to reconvene. If you are going to need to cast a 2 in place of a 1 that rejected, you have to talk it over with the CRB and make sure that they still approve.

If you have a strong suspicion that someone is going to reject a role, it is perfectly fine to get an alternate casting approved by the CRB at that original meeting to save time later.

Second Round Auditions

Sometimes you simply don’t get enough people to fill the roles that you want. This quite often leads to second round auditions. The CRB must approve and supervise all second round auditions.

Second round auditions are run the same way that first round auditions are with one minor difference. You are looking to fill only specific roles in the cast and you must let the auditionees know this. For example, say that I cast the show based on regular auditions. I found someone to be Bob the Cat, but I didn’t find anyone to be Goldie the Fish. Now I hold second round auditions to find a Goldie. Even if someone comes into second round auditions who would be the best Bob the Cat ever, I cannot cast them. I am only looking for someone to fill the role of Goldie the Fish, and I must limit it to that.

Protip: If you have to hold second round auditions, it is usually a good idea to personally ask people to come to them. Spamming for auditions is great, but nothing beats the personal touch. Now is the time to start bothering your friends and fellow thespians. Attendance at second round auditions is way better if the dir staff actually asks their friends in person to come audition.

Other Protip: This probably goes without saying, but never promise a role to anyone. Even if you are in second round auditions and the friend you are poking is currently the only candidate. Promising someone a role before auditions is a big no no and can get you into a lot of trouble.

THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF CASTING!

After the show has been officially cast, casting discussion should stop completely. No one should find out that you originally wanted Person A here but the mean old CRB made you cast Person B. That will just make Person A resentful and Person B unsure of their abilities, which will hurt the show. I have seen this happen in the past multiple times, and it never ends well. Show confidence in your actors, no matter what. Even though we are just a student activity group, we can still act like professionals about this. The cast that has been chosen is now your ideal cast. Treat them as such.

Readthrough

Readthrough usually happens on the Sunday after auditions. It is the first time that your cast gets together and meets each other. The idea behind this first meeting is to get everyone familiar with the whole musical in its entirety. You all sit down together and read through the script, with each actor reading their character’s lines. You also play songs from the soundtrack at the appropriate times. Everyone is allowed and encouraged to sing along, including the director, stage manager, etc. This is also the time when actors should get their scripts and librettos, but that is the Stage Manager’s job, so you shouldn’t have to worry about it.

2nd Round Interviews

2nd Round interviews, which often happen soon after auditions, are where most of the designers for the show are chosen. This includes costume designer, lighting designer, etc. You should make sure to be present at all of these interviews to make sure that you like the artistic vision of and can work with the person in question. This is another case where you will need to be willing to work with them and discuss different ideas for how the show will look.

Character Discussions

Before regular rehearsals start, it is quite common for the director to have character discussions with the actors. This does several things. First, it gives the actors a chance to actually think about the characters that they have just been cast as. It also allows you to explain any of your thoughts that you might have about the characters and how you would like to see them portrayed. Finally, it gives the dir staff some time to find a Set Designer and get a set design together. You should never start blocking rehearsals without a set design unless you absolutely cannot avoid it, but that will be explained more later.

Usually a character discussion is a one on one discussion between you and a single actor, but you can also have a couple discussion for the characters that are playing romantic opposites. There is also usually one big character discussion with the entire ensemble.

You can go about these character discussions in whatever way you want, but you should know that your actors probably are not going to think about their character ahead of time unless you give them specific things to think about. To this end, I like to send the actors several questions to think about a few days ahead of time. The idea is that they will try to answer them at the character discussion. These questions can be anything you want. Maybe some have answers that can be found in the script, while others have no right answers. This is also a great chance to explain what is important to you about the character and get your actor to start thinking about that. Here is a sample for the character of Lucy from Sweeney Todd:

What was Lucy's life with Benjamin Barker like?
What made Lucy lose her mind? What was it like?
What does Lucy think of Anthony? Of Todd? Of Lovett?
Does Lucy remember that Johanna is her daughter?
What are the voices in Lucy's head saying right now?
I am going to place a lot of emphasis on physicality for this show. Because of this, I want you to put some thought into how your character stands/sits when they are not doing anything. I am going to call this the "resting position." What is Lucy's resting position and how does it differ from your normal stance?
Is your idea of Lucy based on any other characters (fictional or not)? If so, who and why?

You should also think about these questions and have some sort of answer to them. During the actual character discussion, you and your actor should compare answers and discuss them.

Rehearsal Scheduling

Rehearsal scheduling is mainly the Stage Manager’s job, but you have to send them a few things in order for them to be able to do it. First of all, if you have any conflicts during rehearsal times from now until after the show closes, tell the Stage Manager. If new conflicts come up at any time during this period, tell the Stage Manager. In addition, you will need to figure out what you are blocking vs. what the choreographer is choreographing. Once you know what scenes of the show you are blocking, you need to estimate how much time you will need to block each scene and figure out how many people are in that scene. Give that info to the Stage Manager.

*ProTip* In order to organize this step, I usually pass through the script page by page and make note of everyone’s entrances and exits. You don’t want to call an actor in to block a five page scene when they are only in it for ten seconds at the end. In fact, it is completely up to you how you want to break up the play for the blocking chunks. I usually ignore scenes completely and just do it by entrances and exits, but that is just one option. The only critical part here is that you are very organized about this. You don’t want to waste the actors’ time or they will get frustrated.

Blocking Scenes

First thing to remember, never start blocking until you know what the set looks like. Where are the entrances and exits? What can the actors interact with? If you block things before you know what the set looks like, you are most likely going to have to go back and reblock things, which is really annoying.

When you block scenes, it is important to remember that, even though you will be blocking them separately, the scenes eventually have to all fit together. Actors should never have to randomly run across the stage for no reason.

If you have the time, I would suggest blocking scenes in chronological order (Note: This does not mean that you teach the actors the blocking in chronological order.) Go through the entire show and block it from start to finish. This strategy makes it much easier to get an idea of the layout of the entire show.

If you do not have the time to figure out the blocking for the entire show before rehearsals start, make sure you block complicated scenes a few days before you are scheduled to teach it. Last minute blocking means you don’t have time to sort out your good ideas from your bad ones and everything makes it onto the stage.

Communicating with your Dir Staff

This is perhaps one of the most important things to remember whenever you are on a directorial staff. Communication is key. When you are the director, you should know everything that is going on with your show. What does the choreo look like? Are any of your actors having trouble with their music or lines? Is there anyone who is going to be missing a lot of rehearsals who might need to schedule some extra time with you? This show is your vision and you should want to know as much as possible about what is happening with it.

The best way to do this is to stay in communication with the other members of your dir staff, especially the stage manager, the vocal director, and the choreographer. Basically, anyone who is in charge of wrangling actors should all be talking to each other all the time, and you are in charge of coordinating that.

Communicating with your Prod Staff

Remember that thing that I said about communication? Still important here. There are a bunch of designers working for you to make your vision happen onstage. They are going to have their own ideas and inspirations for the show that might be different from yours. The key here is to strike a balance. Don’t immediately reject ideas just because they are different from what you were thinking, but don’t just immediately give in either. Talk ideas over with your designers. Explain your ideas and hear them out on their ideas. A good time to do this is during the weekly prod meetings that will be happening during the time slot. Make sure that you go to those meetings and are available for answering questions.

Another thing that is really really important is to make sure that your prod staff knows exactly what you need to make this show happen. Sometime early in the rehearsal process, you need to sit down and create lists of what you need from the tech side. Do you need to have 5 chairs in a certain scene? Add it to the “Set Needs” list. Do you need a green umbrella? Add it to the “Props Needs” list. Have a list like this for each of the technical components of the show: sets, props, costumes (make sure to note any quick changes you need), hair and makeup, lights, etc. Make these lists early and then try not to change them as the production goes on. The prod staff needs the rehearsal time of the show to make the things on your list happen, so do your best to avoid adding stuff at the last minute.

Stumble Throughs

In the week before prod week, it is customary to have one or two stumble throughs. A stumble through is a practice where you start from the beginning of the play and work your way through in chronological order. Some directors like to stop and fix things as they see problems, while others like to get all the way through the show and then fix stuff at the end. Either strategy works.

You are not going to be able to get all the way through the show during one practice, so it is a good idea to break the play up by acts and do an act on each day. This should give you time to run the whole play twice before prod week starts. A typical stumble through week usually goes like this: Sunday is a music review, Monday is an Act 1 stumble through, Tuesday is an Act 1 fix, Wednesday is an Act 2 stumble through, and Thursday is an Act 2 fix. Feel free to arrange these in whatever way you want. You can also use the fix days to focus on choreo if it needs more work (it often does).

This is your last chance to stop a run to fix blocking mistakes, so take full advantage of that. If you really don’t like something, this is your last chance to be able to stop and take the time to fix it.

Paper Tech

Paper Tech is an event that usually happens on the Saturday before Prod Week. The Stage Manager, Lighting Designer, Technical Director/Set Designer, Costumes Designer, Props Designer and you will all gather in a room and run through the script, noting any and all places where something technical happens. Your job here is to know where your actors will be for specific scenes. Since you are the only one that knows where all the people are onstage, it is absolutely critical that you go to this meeting.

Put In

Since you are not a member of the cast, you are not technically required to go to Put In, but I would strongly encourage you to go anyway. Put In is a lot of hard work and often starts early in the morning, but it is also one of the best bonding experiences for cast and crew that exists. It also shows that you are committed to making the show happen. Plus, speaking as someone who has experience as a Technical Director as well, your Technical Director will really appreciate it.

Prod Week

After Put In, which is usually on a Sunday, comes Prod Week. During Prod Week, each night focuses on a different aspect of the show. This means that stops in the run should only be called for that specific aspect. (I’ll explain this in a minute) You and the rest of the prod staff can organize these however you want to, but the standard order is:

Monday night=Tech night, where stops can be called for sets or lights problems. Nothing else.
Tuesday night=Orchestra night, where stops are called by the Music Director for music problems. Pay special attention to this one, because if there are too many stops called on orch night, you will all be there forever.
Wednesday night=First Dress Rehearsal, where no stops are called. Also, all tech stuff and orchestra stuff should be happening by this point, including props, sound, etc. This is also the night you usually try to figure out how bows are going to work.
Thursday night=Final Dress Rehearsal, which should run like an actual show. If you didn’t figure out bows yesterday, do it now.

Exception: You may call a stop if there is a safety concern. Never let prod week guidelines endanger your actors.

During Prod Week is also a good time to start giving notes, if you have not already started. I usually like to start during the stumble throughs, but that is completely up to you. During a rehearsal during prod week, watch and take notes about everything that you can. If the set looks messed up in a way, make a note of it. If an actor messes up, make a note of it. If an actor does something that you really like, make a note of it. It really helps to be able to give both positive and negative feedback. After the run, make sure to get your notes to the appropriate people. Sometimes directors email out their notes to the cast, which is fine, as long as the cast reads them. Otherwise, you can gather the cast in the theater to go over notes at the end of the run. Just don’t keep them there forever, even actors need to sleep sometime.

You should also find someone who is willing to take line notes for you. Line notes are taken whenever an actor says their line wrong or forgets a part of the script or a song. You should have one person dedicated to following along in the script during every night for Prod Week and have them make a note when a line is said incorrectly. These line notes should be emailed out to the cast well before the next run.

Performances

Yay! You made it to performances! Your job is pretty much done. Now all you have to do is sit back and watch all of your hard work pay off. I would also suggest not giving notes on performances, with a few exceptions:

If something is a safety concern.
If something decently large keeps getting messed up repeatedly. Examples: someone doesn’t know their lines, somebody keeps forgetting a prop/set piece onstage,etc.
If an actor asks for feedback. Be nice, but tell them what you actually think of their performance. It does nobody any good for you to tell them that they were perfect if you don’t think they were.

Other than those specific cases, don’t give notes. Just enjoy yourself.

Also, try to be around for as many performances as possible. Your actors will appreciate it, trust me. You don’t have to watch every single performance, but even just being around before and after the show is greatly appreciated.

Strike

Strike is Put In in reverse. You take the set apart and put it back in the set shop. Everyone is required to be at Strike and afterwards there is a party where you get mac and cheese and chicken nuggets. It’s a lot of work but also weirdly fun. And that marks the last of your required duties as a director.

Post Mortem

Post Mortem is not mandatory attendance for you but I would suggest that you attend if possible. This is your chance to give feedback about how the show went and also to hear feedback about your performance as director. People are usually fairly nice and it is a great chance for self improvement.

Appendix A

Kirsten’s Guide to Judging Acting

Please note, as with many things in this guide, this is just one person’s opinion on how to judge acting. If you have your own system/opinions, by all means, go with that, but if you have no clue how to start, this could be a good jumping off point for you.

Basic Acting Necessities (Level 1)

Voice

How loud are they? (Louder is better.)
How well can you understand them? (Annunciation is good.)
How quickly do they speak? (Slower is generally better.)

Face

Can you see any emotions on their face as they are reading or do they read like a robot?
Are they making weird faces? Does it distract from the reading?

Body

How do they hold themselves?
Do they have any weird physical tendencies? Examples: they bounce their body with the music, they keep their shoulders really stiff, they keep sticking their hands in their pockets and then taking them back out. (These things might be just because they are nervous at auditions, but they might not be. Note that if you cast them, you may have to work with them to get rid of the habits that you don’t like for the character.)

Basic Emotions (Level 2)

A Single Emotion

How good are they at portraying a single emotion?
Do their voice, face and body all look consistent?

Changing Emotions

Can they portray multiple emotions?
How good are they at transitioning from one emotion to the other?
Are the transitions smooth and natural or sudden?

Appropriate Levels

How big are their emotions? Would you be able to see them from across a large room?
Are the emotions too big? Do they just scream everything? Subtlety can be very important.

Character Appropriate (Level 3)

All of the above, but also, does it match the character? When told to act angry, does the Actor look like the Character would when they are angry, or are they just portraying generic anger?
You will almost never see Level 3 in auditions or callbacks. At best, you will see small hints of a Level 3 in very experienced actors who are already familiar with the show. It is completely okay to not see any Level 3 at auditions. In fact, it is your job to get all your actors to this level by the end of rehearsals. It’s the end goal, not a starting point.

Child pages