A student auditions before Student Productions Association member Tim O’Donnell and Twelfth Night director Judith “Sparky” Roberts (Photo by Rebekah Sapp).
He paced the hall, one hand balled in a fist. The other chopped the air with huge sweeping gestures. His voice rang off the tile walls as he practiced his lines in the precious few minutes before the audition.
Other students sat cross-legged on the concrete floor, tabletops and in the scattered chairs, feeding each other verbal cues or mouthing their selected monologues quietly. Each of them had prepared for audition night alone beforehand, and the actors were anxious.
Students auditioned last week at LCC’s Blue Door Theater for the famous William Shakespeare’s comedy, Twelfth Night. It will be the first time the college has performed this play, which opens April 12, with a gala opening on April 13. Judith “Sparky” Roberts, theater arts instructor, is the director.
Twelfth Night is a love story, with a comedic subplot full of jealousy, cross-dressing and a shipwreck of dramatic proportions.
The cast list took over a week to complete and was posted on Feb. 6.
LCC acting major Dustin “D.J.” Luna said auditions are always “scary and intimidating.”
“You practice and practice and have no idea what the director is looking for,” he said. “The first eight seconds are crucial. They judge you from the moment you start walking on stage, and the next 10 seconds is your speech or song.”
Overthinking the audition can hamper even the best performer.
“I don’t like to over-prepare … just have fun. I have monologues that I can just pull out of my back pocket,” said LCC acting major Joseph Tanner Paul. He said he was a nursing student two years ago when he took an acting class on a whim, and discovered how much he really liked being on stage.
Other students feel the stress of the demanding hours and decide to take a break from auditioning. LCC student Ben Wefler auditioned after taking months off from seeking roles.
“It shouldn’t be tortuous. I don’t want it to feel like work, and it depends on the monologue and the director if it will. I love my art, but I suffer for it,” Wefler said.
“My favorite part is just letting loose and entirely developing my imagination and my artistic freedom,” he said.
Luna said the key to auditioning is not taking rejection personally.
“I go get an ice cream cone and tell myself that I just wasn’t right for the part. It helps. But I know there are definitely people that are better than me. It just gives me room to grow,” he said. He is currently playing a lead role in a Cottage Theater production of Don’t Drink the Water.
Roberts recognizes how difficult it is for some students to expose themselves on stage. Prior to beginning the auditions, she went out to speak to the waiting group of actors to put them at ease.
“I’m pretty easygoing. I don’t want anyone to get too wrought up and tense. Relaxed is best — you will do your best work then,” she said to the actors.
Roberts said most acting teachers require their students to audition for parts to build their confidence and skills.
Budding actors benefit from being cast in minor parts to get accustomed to the limelight, the pressure, and learn the specific theater language such as stage directions. Learning to be consistent night after night and to relax on stage is essential, she said.
For the Twelfth Night auditions she is seeking acting students who have participated in a Shakespeare showcase or acted in a Shakespeare play.
“They need to think and talk it. It needs to come natural. Shakespeare is much like music. It was meant to be heard, not read,” Roberts said.
Theater major Clay Johnson has done seven Shakespeare showcases, and understands the language.
“The prose and structure makes sense to me. I have a large vocabulary, and know what odd words mean,” he said.
Students wait in the Blue Door Theater for their chance to audition for Twelfth Night. (Photo by Rebekah Sapp)
An actor must have the ability to translate the words of Shakespeare with emotion and vitality or an audience will grapple with the unfamiliar language.
“Most people don’t get it if it’s just read dry. Every facet, from body language to inflection, and the tone of voice is important,” Johnson said.
Twenty years ago, LCC instructor and actor Bill Woolum worked alongside Roberts to actualize the LCC Shakespeare Showcases.
Roberts said her and Woolum’s passion for Shakespeare continues to evolve and deepen.
“We are flipped out about it. I tell students it’s better than drugs … it’s a treasure chest of jewels,” she said.
Roberts said she is pleased and proud that current and prior LCC acting students have branched out into acting for other community theaters, including The Very Little Theater, the Lord Leebrick Theatre Company and the Actors Cabaret of Eugene. She supports the open exchange that channels actors between the LCC theater program and other community theaters.
Roberts said she is committed to creating a Shakespeare play that can be embraced by any audience. After a play, she is thrilled to hear play attendees say incredulously, “‘I understood it, everything — every word.’”
For the actors immersed in Shakespearean drama, the substance and lessons of his language evolve and intensify with time.
Woolum said, “It’s the joy of having my body occupied by Shakespeare … . We come under the spell of Shakespeare’s beauty, we surrender to it and the experience is sublime.”
