Sunday audition is great!

Our first audition on Sunday went very well indeed. We were filled with a little trepidation about the response we were getting from men. We had 11 preregistered people for today, 4 men and 7 women. We had 4 postponements (emergencies, etc., but all said they would make it to Monday or Tuesday), 1 man and 3 women. And then, to our shock, we had 4 walk-in men! So in the end we saw 11 people as planned, but the ratios were switched, 7 men to 4 women! We have 23 more preregistered people to see over the next two days, but that ratio is even more unbalanced, 19 women to 4 men, so picking up more men today was great!

And the auditions went well. Not perfect, of course, but very good. We saw people who were capable of handling most of the major roles at some level, but nothing is cast in stone yet (and won't be before callbacks for sure). The only exception was for Hud, the key black male role in the show. We did have one man who showed up (accompanying a friend) who LOOKED perfect and his friend said he had a great voice. But when I went up to ask him why he wasn't trying out, he said he was Equity :-( Didn't surprise me, I guess. We will keep looking of course.

Not many questions about the nudity issue (which surprised us, we expected more). Our questionnaire asks the question (it needs to be asked, obviously) and most performers say they might be okay with it but aren't sure, which is good. We are serious about this being a trust issue with the tribe, and hopefully if people are open-minded, as rehearsals progress, that trust will build up to the point that many (even if not all) of the tribe will feel comfortable doing this. Once they see how we plan to stage the scene (which will make the nudity a much more integral part of the scene than it often is in other productions of Hair) we think they will agree that it is crucial to revealing Claude's vulnerability and conflicts.

Round two today, and we expect more walk-ins. Sunday afternoon is often harder for performers (Sunday matinees take precedence). Tuesday is the "big" day with 15 preregistered.

We can't wait to see what tonight and tomorrow bring!