Many answered, a few came by.  We’re talking the auditions here, and all the events surrounding that experience – from getting the room at City College, to having the actors and actresses show up at their appointed times.  

The first day we did this, August 9th, the audition process was open-ended.  About 40 actors were contacted to appear between noon to 5pm.  We quickly realized this is not the way to go when, one hour later, only one actor presented himself.  By 4:30, we had only seen seven!  Therefore, we decided to do one more day, Friday, August 11th.  

This time, we let the actors themselves tell us what time worked best for them by having them choose a 15-minute block, again within the noon to 5 o’clock window.  We had about 15 actual scheduled appointments as a result.  And most of the folks showed when they said they would.  We were pleased with this result, since the roles we were filling were eventually cast from this pool of folks.  Take a look at some of them. 

The clip ends with Chima Chikazunga, the young man we chose to play the lead MIKE.  Somewhere in a past entry I mentioned we had settled on a tall Sudanese to play this role.  In working with the Sudanese, we had to forfeit the English accent requirement Mike’s character has to have; and really, also being very tall, the Sudanese is built more for basketball than for soccer.  

In having to recast other crucial roles anyway, we decided to look for another Mike and as luck would have it, Chima came through, English accent and soccer physique a part of his package.  Offering roles to hungry actors is always fun, breaking it to them we have to go with someone else is a scene I’d rather not have.  

The Sudanese was cool about it, continuing to confirm his easy-going and sunny disposition – at least he seemed cool about it!  He is someone I would actually write an entire story around sometime in the near future.  As I mentioned before, African actors are not falling off the proverbial tree.  

Today, I am relieved that the roles are finally cast – well, except for one actor who suddenly pulled out today cause of our low rate.  Alas, we do not have millions to bestow upon these worthy folks!  We prepare now for practice, which will occur this coming Friday, August 18th.  First shot is scheduled the following day, August 19th.  

One last thought on actors in general and what we learned as a company during this our first audition process.  There is an inequity here – between those who hold what the actors need (that’s us) and the actors themselves, a huge disparity, actually.  I do not know why anyone would choose to be an actor since the road to fame (if this is what they seek) is marred by way too many rejections.   

The actor has to have a flexible job which permits him to go to auditions in the first place.  Then he has to spend a lot of money going back and forth and taking care of his general upkeep.  It’s not as if they’re paid at these auditions.  After said auditions, they have to wait endlessly to know if they are cast for this or that role, and more often than not, of course, someone else is chosen. 

I respect them as people and value their profession as a matter of course – VIGIL 

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