the casting machine...

Thanks to the tremendous efforts of our casting directors Ellen and Maria of the Orpheus Casting Group, American casting here in NYC was a complete success! The last two weeks have been an absolute whirlwind of actors, auditions, late night phone calls and a heavy reliance on gut instinct, but overall, an absolutely amazing experience!

During our first day of auditions we saw around 30 actors over a six-hour period…a number that may not sound like a lot, but trust me, makes for a very full and very exhausting day. Each actor prepared two sides (short scenes extracted from the script) and performed them along with a reader (someone who provides the other character’s lines in the scene). With some actors, Josh was able to observe all the information he needed from a single read, with others he would provide a slight adjustment or gentle direction and then ask them to perform the scene again. It was incredible to watch so many interpretations of the same words! At the end of the day, everyone’s headshot was spread out on the table and Josh and the ladies compared their notes and boiled down their top choices for each character.

When I asked Josh for his impressions of the casting process he responded, “I think it’s amazing, because, you know, you go out there and you have this script, and it’s as if you’re looking for a needle in a haystack. You think you know exactly what you’re looking for, and sometimes you’re lucky enough to find it; but other times an actor will bring in something you’d never even considered for that character and you realize that you’re even luckier because this person is better than any character you could have ever written.”

The following week, this same process was reenacted with a whole new group of actors, and then again in a final call back. In the call back, the top choices for each character were mixed and matched into prospective “families” and asked to read a dinner scene, so that the auditioners could get a feel for how the actors worked together, as well as whether it would be physically convincing that each actor was biologically related to the others. Essentially, all of the complex relationships that exist between the characters of our story would have to be believable amongst the actors. As you can imagine, a lot of factors came into play for this final decision, but we couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome!

Next on the agenda: While rehearsals for the American family begin this week in New York, Dan and PJ will begin casting sessions in Lima and Cuzco to find the remaining members of our Peruvian cast. Plus, check out this adorable pic below of Nadia Alexander (Mary), the newest addition to the Chicle Y Postales family. Welcome!