Well, that was hard! Auditioning is really difficult! You have to make really tough decisions and, ultimately, you have to let the majority of the people down. There are lots of pitfalls to navigate around, but it's always worth it in the end. We now have our cast.
My next play is on at The Kings Arms Theatre from Wed 31st May - Sat 3rd June. It's called Avoidance and is my 16th stage-play. It started off life as a Development Week Challenge - a play written in a short amount of time, specially to be read at Studio Salford Development Week 8. We read it in front of an audience and I received written feedback from the audience, which was taken on-board and used to develop the script further. And after another rehearsed reading at Development Week 9, it's ready to go.
So, along with producer, Richard Douglas of Agrippa Productions, we set out to cast the 3 hander. We put out a casting call using CastingCallPro and then invited some of the actors along to audition. Things are tough from this early stage. Everyone looks right, or like they could be right but you have a finite amount of time to meet actors for the casting process, so you need to make some hard decisions about who to see.
We held the auditions at The Kings Arms Theatre last Friday. We spent the whole day meeting actors and being completely bowled over by how good everyone was. The difficulty, ultimately, becomes a decision about who feels like they fit most closely to the character you're looking to cast. It's so hard at this stage, because everyone will have brought something quite unique to the table - you really have to go back to the drawing board at this stage and re-evaluate who the character is and who most fits it.
So after a day of rehearsals and a final recall - where we wanted to double check and make totally certain that we have the best fit for the roles - we can finally announce our cast!
I'm very excited to be working with all of them. I can't wait to get started.
Jo Dakin is going to be playing Michelle.
Michelle has surrounded herself with things that remind her of her family now that her mother has died. Her world has never been particularly far from tragedy - her dad went travelling over 20 years ago and never came back. Her brother, Tom, disappeared 15 years ago. Everyone told her that he was dead and that she should just accept it. And when her mother dies, she feels that she has nothing left.
Ant Bacon is going to be playing Damian.
Damian is Michelle's husband. He is desperate for them both to move away from this house that has become a shrine to Michelle's dead mother. He is desperate and is prepared to go to some pretty drastic measures to get his voice heard. But Michelle is stuck and he can't find a way to get through to her. He's on the verge of leaving.
Greg Kelly is going to be playing Tom.
Tom has been travelling for the last 15 years and has discovered a trail to his father that he really didn't expect to find. He returns to the family home to invite Michelle to his wedding in India. But what he finds is disturbing and isn't going to make this simple task easy. Realising that he is partly responsible for the sorry state of Michelle, he agrees to stick around to try and sort things out. But can he reveal the truth about their family without destroying Michelle? Is the truth always the right thing to share?
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