Reflections on the Auditions

by Lana Bagdasarian

Wow, Charlotte's Web is cast!  What a great first experience on a casting team.  We had eighty children show up to audition last Saturday and twenty-two called back. 

Do you know how hard it is to decide on whom to cast for only thirty-five parts?  Ridiculously hard.   So, what do you use to decide who is cast for this performance and who we cast at a future date?  Well, glad you asked.  Here is the top TEN list for whom to cast for a play when you have double the amount of children as parts.

1. Talent – That one is a given.  However, it is not as easy as it sounds.  We had 80 TALENTED kids audition. 
2. Attitude – We need performers who are excited about being part of the play and who are flexible to play any part assigned to them.
3. Behavior – We need performers who help the play and its rehearsals progress at a good pace.  They keep the others around them on track and keep the director from pulling his or her hair out.
4. Attendance – We need performers who are there for almost EVERY rehearsal, who get there on time and stay for the entire rehearsal.  The rest of the children suffer when one of the characters are not there.
5. Volume – We need performers whose voice can travel to the back of the auditorium without a microphone.  Nothing loses the audiences’ attention faster than them missing lines due to being unable to hear or understand them.
6. Directable - We need performers who will listen to the director and follow through on what is asked of them. 
7. Fluid - We need performers whose movements look natural and enhance the movement of the play.
8. Character – We need performers who “fit” the part.  Looks, actions, and sounds all enhance the characters’ development.
9. Emotion - We need performers who can show a variety of emotions.  They can play the funny, slap stick when needed but can also be believable in the serious, sad scenes.
10. Experience - WAG for Children is proud to give children their first experience in acting. To that end, we try to maintain a balance of new and experienced performers within each performance cast.   

The casting team is so proud of each and every child who auditioned this production.   You made us wish we could have a cast of 80+.  If you were cast, we are excited to see what you bring to WAG and the performance of Charlotte’s Web.   If you weren’t cast this time, we want everyone to know that we want you to come back and audition again.  A NO this time does not mean a NO every time.

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Too Awesome for Words!

But we're gonna say a few anyway.

The children were just awesome tonight! We are off to a great start.

Tonight the children learned the four components of voice projection.
1. Posture
2. Breathing
3. Enunciation
4. Repetition

We introduced ourselves and played a little memory game to get them warmed up. The kids did an awesome job. We laughed but we worked too.

Thanks, parents, for volunteering to help. We appreciate you more than we can say. We just couldn't do it without you.

Rehearsals Begin Tonight!

The cast members of Fairy Tale Courtroom will begin rehearsals tonight. We will start with a question and answer session for parents and then dip our collective toes into our first rehearsal. With a cast of 33 it's bound to be a little chaotic but a whole lot of fun!

WAG's Board of Directors sends their first cast best wishes for a night of hard work!

And thank you to Allstate of Wylie, TX for supporting WAG by purchasing ad space in our season program. If you would like to place an ad, email us for more information.

We have our cast!

We had another great day of auditions today. Thanks to our production committee working long after everyone had left, we now have a cast for Fairy Tale Courtroom!

We were truly amazed at the level of talent displayed by the 33 children who came to show us their stuff.

Rehearsals begin April 20th at 6:30PM. We'll see you then!

Fabulous Auditions!

Well, I hope you'll forgive us for getting this out so late. The director of our first production had emergency surgery on Friday, so things have been a little bogged down since then.

Regardless, she actually showed up to auditions on Saturday, though she was only allowed to sit! We had a great turnout of very talented kids and can't wait to see what this Saturday brings!

Once the 4/3 auditions are over the production committee will get to work on fitting everyone in somewhere. Emails and, or, phone calls will be made Saturday evening or Sunday morning. We don't want to keep the kids waiting any longer than they have to!