Theatre Season Invites Islanders for Auditions

By C.K. WOLFSON

"What actors, professionals and amateurs have to realize, is
that the people who are watching the audition are rooting for
them," said M.J. Bruder Munafo, artistic director at the Vineyard
Playhouse. "I'll speak for myself - I'm hoping
that they're going to come up and just be fabulous."

Inside the playhouse on a muddy Vineyard Haven morning, M s. Munafo
quietly conferred with artistic associate Joann Green Breuer about the
audition schedule. They, along with associate artistic director Jon
Lipsky and the individual show directors, form the team that will spend
the next two months casting parts for summer productions of Proof, The
Lady from Havana and Fighting Words.

People straggled in - some by appointment, others just
drop-ins. By the afternoon's end there were 10 who filled out
brief information sheets and were given excerpts from the script
(referred to as sides) that were used to audition.

While Ms. Munafo said she often asks candidates if they're
familiar with a role, she admitted, "Usually we just launch right
into it because of the time." Actors' Equity members
- professionals - are usually well prepared, she said, but
those actors often go to multiple auditions in a week, and "cold
readings" don't intimidate them.

One by one, those who had come to audition were brought upstairs to
the stage where the playhouse reader, Christopher Kann, who performs all
the other parts in the audition scene, waited to read with them.

Ms. Munafo explained, "In about a five-minute time frame they
read the scene they've selected. Then, the director will usually
ask them to read it again, and give them some sort of a direction to see
if they can follow it and maybe, to bring them closer to the way the
director sees the character." If they like what the actor has
done, they send him back downstairs to study another side and prepare
for a call-back.

*

"The array of talent in this room is remarkable,"
artistic director Lee Fierro announced as she stared at the expectant
faces surrounding her. With obvious enjoyment, she described the
characters and plot of Once Upon a Mattress, the Island Theatre Workshop
production for which they were auditioning - "a nice musical
with good, satisfying parts." She took a breath. "Obviously,
everyone cannot be cast as Winifred."

Inside the parish hall of Federated Church in Edgartown, a gathering
of 14 theatrical hopefuls noisily arranged folding chairs in a
semi-circle around Ms. Fierro. The group, 12 women and two men (Ms.
Fierro said she might have to go out and "pluck male leads"
from the Vineyard talent base), filled out slips noting their prior
acting experience and the times they would be available for rehearsals.

There was a broad range of experience among the Island teachers,
students, a builder, a nurse and maybe diva or two - everything
from 10 years of operatic training to a high school performance 30 years
ago.

"Who wants to go first?" Ms. Fierro asked.

The room was silent. Could they warm up first, someone asked, and
musical director Peter Boak led everyone in a breathing exercise, voices
sliding up and down the scale.

The first young woman, wearing orange overalls, sang Summertime and
the group suddenly became an audience, smiling, nodding and applauding
enthusiastically. Another young woman wearing a blue bandanna sang an a
cappella version of At Last, and the room swayed with her soulful
rendition, whooping and clapping as she finished.

The gathering that at first seemed ordinary had become remarkable.
The nurse sang A Few of My Favorite Things, in a clear, perfectly
pitched soprano. The retired teacher sang a selection from the musical
Cinderella, and it sounded like an original cast recording. After every
performance there was applause and cheers changing the atmosphere from
apprehensive to entertaining.

And Ms. Fierro asked everyone to remember that there is no chorus as
such because, she said, "Everybody has an identity."

*

"People tend to be surprised when they find out that for the
summer season we audition people in New York and Boston as well as the
Island," Ms. Munafo said.

There will be open casting calls in Boston - about 50
hopefuls, most of them members of Actors Equity - will come with
their head shots and resumes for their scheduled appointments during a
six-hour time slot. "They have five minutes to make an
impression," Ms. Munafo explained that the casting team would then
go to an invitation-only audition in New York city. Altogether, about
150 auditions have been scheduled for the 10 available parts.
"Highly competitive," Ms. Munafo said, noting that she deals
with agents who book time for their clients, as well as seeing the
actors she's used before.

"The idea is to cast the best person for the role, and
sometimes it's card-carrying members of the union. But we like to
cast people from the Island whenever it's appropriate." The
summer productions of Shakespeare, this year including Cymbeline, draw
on a larger per cent of Island talent.

The actors are paid union scale, about $300 a week, for five weeks
of full-time involvement - three weeks of rehearsals and two and a
half weeks of the show's run.

"This is an exciting time," she said. "This is one
of the most important aspects of the whole summer season. The casting is
so crucial."

It is the director's vision of character that guides the
process, she said. "It's a collaboration, too," she
added. "You steer your actors into your interpretation. I like to
think when I direct a play that the playwright could come and see it and
say, ‘Yes. That's it.' "

Ms. Fierro zeroed in on the two women most familiar to Vineyard
audiences. "You are obviously leading lady types," she told
them. But would they be willing to accept a lesser part, she wanted to
know. No, they answered one at a time, they wouldn't, and she
thanked them for their honesty.

After everyone had sung, the acting auditions were held. Everyone
lined up to take turns reading parts in different mix-and-match pairs.

"It was one of the most fun auditions," Mr. Boak said.
"It seems as if everyone was there to have a good time and to
support each other."