And I, too, hope that both DRs NOEL and FJL will share NYMF stories with us here.
I love the notion that people are interested in
Such Good Friends as it develops. And, of course, I'm very interested in all the new Brain and Starfighter developments. Is there a specific place where the creation of these sci-fi musicals was discussed? Or, if news came in the daily discussions in dribs and drabs, then it was foolish of me to have missed it.
Dear Wife Joy loves the casting process, but I confess to you all, I can't stand it. At the end of the day yesterday, I watched roughly 180 pictures and resumes get discarded, and this is emotionally devastating to me. Some of my closest dearest friends came and did not get seen. One was #146 on the waiting list we never got to. All of these 333+ aspirants put on their best make-up, clothes and shoes, and spent less than two minutes in the room. They'd say, if pressed, that this was a good experience, as EPAs go, because they were getting seen for five different shows, with at least a dozen writers, directors and casting people in the room.
The reality is that most roles aren't cast out of the EPAs. There's also something I can't think about without welling up. Some of the best auditions came from young fellows who remind me of me when I was a young fellow. Short, Jewish, quick-witted. Part of my decision to abandon my childhood aspirations of being a performer had to do with seeing how few roles there are out there for short, ethnic, smart-alecks. Now, all these years later, I've written a show in which the young characters must be waspy and not seem so brainy. So I'm in the position of rejecting those most like the younger me. And some of them gave wonderful auditions. Maybe my next show will have to be autobiographical.
In the past two months I've reduced my cast size from 19 to 14 to 10. There were good reasons for doing this, but I've this hard-to-shake compulsion to say to everyone no longer being considered "I'm SO sorry I don't have a place for you in my show." When am I going to get over this?