Common Casting Plans To Increase Cooperation

Next semester’s Common Casting auditions will incorporate limited communication between directors about their casting decisions, the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club (HRDC) announced yesterday.

The new HRDC rules—which facilitate the exchange of first-choice casting lists—are designed to provide directors with a better sense of which actors are likely to be available as alternates, depending on whether they have been cast in desirable roles as first choices in other shows.

“Before [the directors] were doing the whole thing blind, and this gives them more information about the decisions they are making,” said Naomi R. Krakow ’03, the campus liaison for the HRDC board.

In addition to easing the stress on directors making casting decisions, the rule change should open the door for more individuals to be cast as alternates. According to the HRDC board, which met last night to discuss the decision, the same small group of actors are often awarded the majority of lead roles in campus productions. Those same actors are also generally selected as alternates for shows in which they were not the first choices.

With the new information-sharing, directors are expected to see the high demand for specific individuals, and to search outside the usual group for alternates.

The new rules continue to call forunchangeable, blind, first-choice cast lists, forcing directors to make their initial casting decisions based only on auditions. Directors will not be allowed to consult with each other or with actors before making their first picks.

Actor David Kowarsky ’05, who attended the meeting, said he thought it was important that directors continue to choose the best actors regardless of politics, or the plans of other directors or production staffs.

Members of the HRDC board said during the meeting that the move will negatively impact very few actors—only those routinely cast in multiple first-choice and alternate roles will find themselves with fewer choices.

Actor Sam Perwin ’04 said he was concerned that directors may make assumptions about actors’ preferences in the new casting system, as they decide who is likely to be available as an alternate. In an interview, Perwin called opening communication between directors “dangerous ground.”

“No one knows if [the change] will solve all the problems,” Perwin said.

One other potential drawback of the plan, noted at the HRDC meeting, is that the early dissemination of first-choice casting information could lead to leaks to some actors.

The board decided to limit this possibility by distributing the information on paper, rather than digitally, to prevent cast lists from being e-mailed all over campus.

However, some leaks will be unavoidable—when show producers or directors also audition for other productions, they will get a preview of results.