Casting is Never Easy
Picking a cast is easy. Getting them to commit is hard.
Here's the lineup so far. Greg Johnson will be playing Otto. Greg has wonderful energy and is great at playing broad. It's funny that people have told me that they've always seen Greg playing very subdued characters, which I find funny. One of his big claims to fame is playing Hoke in Beari's production of "Driving Miss Daisy." I never thought of casting Otto as African American, but it really doesn't matter. I'm just glad to have him on board! He's a wonderful talent!
Opposite him is Amie Backner as Annie. Right off the bat she struck me as the wrong type for how I saw the role, as I saw Annie as being kind of frumpy and matronly. With Amie's reading, I saw a more mousy and "fireball" of a character, which not only works, but it works off of Greg, too.
Next in line is Jimmy O'Neill as Ralph. I've never worked directly with Jimmy, but he's a tremendous talent with a LOT of range. I actually read him as a number of characters and could have cast him comfortably as any of them. But as Ralph he made me and Debbie laugh harder than anyone else who read for the part. I look forward to finally working directly with him.
And then we've got Rene Bendana as Bernie. It was hard getting Rene into the character, but after giving him some suggestions he was able to present a large, menacing character. Rene has an enormous stage presence, which will translate into Bernie.
As for Jackson and Lou -- well, let's say they're both 80% locked down, but there is a chance it could go sour. They have a few days so they're both working out their respective schedules and should be getting back to me very soon. I also need a Stage Manager!
As for Jackson's dates, on board will be Miriam P. Denu (of course) and Dolores Voyer, as well as Tracy Howard and Jodi Berger. Both Tracy and Jodi are extremely good sports and gave great readings. I'm glad they've committed to being on board. I'll also use Debbie Bendana as well.
So I hope in the next couple of days I can list everybody. The Read-through is still set for Monday. I'm working on the flyer, which will be stellar when it's done!
Here's the lineup so far. Greg Johnson will be playing Otto. Greg has wonderful energy and is great at playing broad. It's funny that people have told me that they've always seen Greg playing very subdued characters, which I find funny. One of his big claims to fame is playing Hoke in Beari's production of "Driving Miss Daisy." I never thought of casting Otto as African American, but it really doesn't matter. I'm just glad to have him on board! He's a wonderful talent!
Opposite him is Amie Backner as Annie. Right off the bat she struck me as the wrong type for how I saw the role, as I saw Annie as being kind of frumpy and matronly. With Amie's reading, I saw a more mousy and "fireball" of a character, which not only works, but it works off of Greg, too.
Next in line is Jimmy O'Neill as Ralph. I've never worked directly with Jimmy, but he's a tremendous talent with a LOT of range. I actually read him as a number of characters and could have cast him comfortably as any of them. But as Ralph he made me and Debbie laugh harder than anyone else who read for the part. I look forward to finally working directly with him.
And then we've got Rene Bendana as Bernie. It was hard getting Rene into the character, but after giving him some suggestions he was able to present a large, menacing character. Rene has an enormous stage presence, which will translate into Bernie.
As for Jackson and Lou -- well, let's say they're both 80% locked down, but there is a chance it could go sour. They have a few days so they're both working out their respective schedules and should be getting back to me very soon. I also need a Stage Manager!
As for Jackson's dates, on board will be Miriam P. Denu (of course) and Dolores Voyer, as well as Tracy Howard and Jodi Berger. Both Tracy and Jodi are extremely good sports and gave great readings. I'm glad they've committed to being on board. I'll also use Debbie Bendana as well.
So I hope in the next couple of days I can list everybody. The Read-through is still set for Monday. I'm working on the flyer, which will be stellar when it's done!
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