Lessons Learned in Casting

While I'll be posting later to welcome the two amazing women we've cast into Heartsgaard and the 8 Sided ensemble, I wanted to take a moment to talk about the process of casting Heartsgaard overall.

First, this process has taught me a little something about sussing out scheduling conflicts. Originally, I'd cast two women with some very specific scheduling needs, and meeting those needs only cast a light on how overbooked and overworked they already were. If the only thing I learned from this process is the importance of hiring people who are well and truly available, it would have been worth it.

At the same time, two truly magnificent things have come out of this process:

On the one hand, the scheduling gymnastics that went into accommodating our previous cast members, as well as our conversations in the wake of their departure, led to some leaps forward in the efficiency of our rehearsal process. Finding ways to accomplish more with less effort is the only way a group of independent artists like us can keep up with projects that are spending tens of millions of dollars to achieve the same goals we hope to meet on a shoestring. By highlighting the weaknesses in our rehearsal process, these events helped us find a way to meet your year-end goals for Heartsgaard with literally half as much work. Huzzah!

Secondly, we found a wealth of amazingly playful, fun, hard-working actresses last night who are very passionate about the work we're doing. In particular, the two we are casting demonstrated exactly the kind of cooperation our ensemble needs, and exactly the kind of sass our cast and crew loves to play around with. While I'll certainly miss the ladies we bid farewell to at the beginning of this emergency casting row of ours, there can be no doubt that this process has left Heartsgaard and the 8 Sided Ensemble in a much stronger place.

As soon as I get the phone calls done, I'll introduce you to our new ensemble members. If you've been reading this blog, you know that those are some of my favorite entries to write!

I'm not sure whether everything happens for a reason, or whether it's that every frustration is an opportunity in disguise. Is it by design or chaos theory that every conflict comes with a chance to make things better?

Does it even matter?