By Ryann Heinlen
The velvet curtain drifts closed, and the audience gets to their feet. The roar of the crowd overpowering the music floats up from the orchestra pit. After the curtain, the actors embrace backstage complimenting each other on their performances. This is the end picture of months of rehearsals, but before this moment can happen, an audition takes place.
The theater department held auditions September 3 and 4 for this year’s fall play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
Each actor was required to perform 30 seconds of a serio-comic monologue. In the lobby of the theater, students grouped together, huddled over their phones and speaking in whispers about the challenge that director Kelly Burrows had sprung on them.
“I was really thrown off when she started asking for lines from Shakespeare, but it taught me to always be prepared,” Kong, a theater III student, said.
Junior Grayson DePaulis was one of the many actors auditioning for this year’s production. “I’m mainly worried about forgetting my lines but also just the pressure of everyone watching,” DePaulis said. “I don’t want to start over because the first impression is everything.”
There were quite a few returning actors auditioning for a spot in one of their last productions with the theater department. There were also numerous new faces in the theater lobby, including freshman, Marshall Looney. “I don’t feel confident about much of anything, but if I had to pick one thing, it’d be my slate,” Looney said. A slate is the first impression for the director in which the actor states their name and what they will be performing.
A select few were asked to do a cold read in callbacks, which is reading through a script in front of the other actors for the first time.
“The three things you need to have for a successful callback are confidence, strong choices, and the ability to take direction,” Burrows said.
Check out Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead this fall and will run Wednesday, Oct. 23 through Saturday, Oct. 26. Tickets are $8 online and $10 at the door. They can be purchased beginning October 13 on showtix4u.com.
