Monday, August 02, 2004
Insight into Casting with Leslie Martinson
The casting process of "A Little Princess" was a different species than your usual musical casting.
Or course there were many of the usual challenges, such as ability to do dialect work and intense, physical dance, not to mention the casting of young children (many of these talented girls have traveled from the far ends of the Bay Area!)
But the unique difficulty in casting "A Little Princess" was found in its script, in that it was still evolving when auditions took place. So the greatest challenge was casting singers for solos that hadn’t been created! Fortunately, this challenge turned into an advantage once the play was cast, because solos were created or fitted to the strengths of the specific cast member.
"But we didn’t want it too individualized" said casting director, Leslie Martinson, "we wanted a musical that would hold up for many years and future productions."
TheatreWorks collaborated with Jay Binder Casting in New York and between them and their knowledge of earlier readings of the script in both Palo Alto and New York - the job was done.
In a season of premieres, casting is just another of those areas where the production and design staff get a rare chance to approach something nearly from scratch. Challenging, but exciting. Just like the 2004-2005 season!
Or course there were many of the usual challenges, such as ability to do dialect work and intense, physical dance, not to mention the casting of young children (many of these talented girls have traveled from the far ends of the Bay Area!)
But the unique difficulty in casting "A Little Princess" was found in its script, in that it was still evolving when auditions took place. So the greatest challenge was casting singers for solos that hadn’t been created! Fortunately, this challenge turned into an advantage once the play was cast, because solos were created or fitted to the strengths of the specific cast member.
"But we didn’t want it too individualized" said casting director, Leslie Martinson, "we wanted a musical that would hold up for many years and future productions."
TheatreWorks collaborated with Jay Binder Casting in New York and between them and their knowledge of earlier readings of the script in both Palo Alto and New York - the job was done.
In a season of premieres, casting is just another of those areas where the production and design staff get a rare chance to approach something nearly from scratch. Challenging, but exciting. Just like the 2004-2005 season!
