******** RANT warning!!  ********

SO- recently I had an audition for a small professional theater in town. I've auditioned for them before, once, wasn't cast. (They ended up haveing a very small cast mostly made up of local university theater students... plus their theater dept. head who was on the prof. theater's board. yeah.)

When I arrived (early of course!) I was able to hear two people sing ahead of me (from the lobby). Now, this audition was for J&H. The audition notice said to sing a "pop-style musical theater song".  The first woman sang "Memory" from Cats. The second woman sang "Cock-eyed Optimist" from South Pacific. What do y'all think about those choices?  After each of them sang, the director asked about their summer schedule. Oh, and they were... mediocre. Pitchy, as they like to say on American Idol, and a little shaky.

My turn: I sang "I Never Knew His Name" from The Civil War. Technically considered a pop-style musical (since it has many different styles of music in the show) and another Frank wildhorn musical. Plus I was in the show a few years ago so I knew it. Fairly safe bet, I thought. I sang well, not my 100% best ever, but definitely better than the two before me. All I get is a "thanks". No schedule questions.

The first woman has worked with the theater before, and the second was actually her daughter. So if I'm not cast (all I was hoping for was chorus) and go see the show and the "Memory" woman is in it, I guess I'll know once and for all what kind of theater it is.

I understand theater isn't fair. But why -WHY- would you cast less talented people just because you know them? Or because one of your board members and stock performers has some theaters students that she wants to showcase? ( who really aren't talented enough to be in those roles)  Umm... Isn't the idea to make money? To have a good show and to have people actually want to pay to see it?  Ughhh...

I'm very frustrated with theater in this area. I've got this theater, and another one that a woman started where she casts herself in lead roles for every production and casts her friends in the rest, and then a theater that sort of does the same thing (casts all their friends) and they also do really WEIRD shows... things they write themselves, weird reviews and such. Things no one has ever heard of and no one wants to take a gamble and see. I guess the good thing is we're probably only going to be in this area for another year or so. I hope the next town is better.