I NEED MEN!!!!!!!!!

In a way I do, anyway.

I had enough people turn up to my auditions for "Summer of the Seventeenth Doll" to actually _choose_ between applicants (luxury!) for all but the two central male roles, Roo and Barney. And therein lies the rub.

Where are all the men?! (cries of recognition from everyone in Am-Dram at the moment)

Only one man the right age turned up, and he could do either role, so I'm left with a vacancy. There has to be some Aussie males out there interested in being in this Australian classic.

Help, anyone?

The Sweaty Butcher
(aka Gidget Banana-Fanny)
(aka David Meadows)

Polygamy or bigamy?

*smirk*

Most people settle for one, but Dave never does anything by half measures.

You're right assuming you're not alone, David, in struggling to cast male roles. Check out the What's On section for June and you'll notice the Old Mill have been forced to cancel their next season due to a lack of men. I wonder if the knives will be out for Collin cancelling a season in quite the same fashion that Jason Seperic was pilloried for cancelling a season early last year?

*kicks the sleeping dog*



Mind you, if you have a look at what's on this week you might assume that all the available men are busy doing plays - no less than 14 shows playing this coming Saturday night!

You could be excused for thinking that Dave should be beating people off with a big stick over the opportunities presented by the roles in this play! But then that was what i thought about Nora in A Doll's House, and i needed two rounds of auditions.

Cheers
Grant

I sympathise with David, Collin and Jason and share their plight. I have a reading for Hotel Sorrento scheduled for Saturday 13th of May at The Old Mill (details under Auditions) and have so far heard only from women interested in attending.

It may be that I will be overwhelmed with interest on the day but I'm not holding my breath. This is a wonderful Australian play with interesting parts for men and women. The lack of available men unfortunately restricts the choice of scripts and sadly causes many good pieces to be abandoned. I'm hoping Hotel Sorrento will not be one !!

Hoping to see many of you on Saturday.....

Susan Lynch

I have often wondered why community theatre groups continue to select plays/musicals which are heavy on male roles when it is so often a problem to cast them. ( I am not referring to David's play which has a small, gender-balanced cast. The issue itself is just an opportunity for me to stand on my little soap-box).

So many women are regularly turning up at auditions and missing out because there are only a couple of female roles. Are there simply not enough good plays/musicals with a decent amount of female roles or are we not looking hard enough? (At the risk of sounding like a raving feminist) Let's look harder! If the men aren't interested, let's give the girls a go. Good on you for choosing Bumpy Angels, Kimberley!

Love Germaine!!!

I agree about the choice of plays - I cast a musical play "Man of La Mancha" besides the lead Cervantes the rest were woman who turned up, so I cast some of the male parts using women and managed to find a fantastic rotund tenor (who was a singing butcher in Bunbury) that was always passed over for parts, other than the chorus because they believed he could not act - didn't the opera company get a shock. As for the other parts, especialy the 'butch' Muliteers, guards and monks most were woman {not forgetting the 'barber' she did a fantastic job} - so some parts can be reworked or played by either sex - however I do agree Production Committees and Directors tend to do plays with lots of men - this might be because they have done this play a number of times, therefore feel safe.

I once was involved, from arms length, with 'Steel Magnolias' in a country town - where all male club members, except one (but - that's another story), were locked out of the theatre for almost 3 months, untill they fell into a mess with lights - so they asked me to fix them up (but I was only allowed to do so when they where not in the theatre) and teach one of their gender how to operate them.

(as I am not sure how that works in with this thread - I hope, somehow it does, as I think it is a good story anyway!)

Maybe the message is the Producers (Community Theatre) and/or Production Committees are not in tune or focused on whats happening in their own manor or patch. They are not prepared to change with the times and make-up of the demographics of their society, because thats the way 'IT' has happened for the last "THIRTY FIVE YEEEAARRS". Maybe it is our fault for doing a play we know we cannot cast in the first place knowing the past problems.

Chookas
Joe

Bumpy Angels, Five Women Wearing the Same Dress, Miss Bosnia ... I think the plays are out there ... [and Kimberley finds and directs them all]. ;)

Okay, so Kimberley has the lots-of-females-in-a-play thing happening! Hooray!! My wish is that other clubs/directors will follow in Blak Yak/Kimberley's footsteps. To do my bit I am going to start hunting for MUSICALS (being the musical freak that I am) which have lots of good stuff for the ladies then documenting and ,if possible, collecting them for future reference. I know about "Nunsense" and I have been informed about a newish all-female musical called "Matchgirls" which sounds like a beauty. Then there is "Sweet Charity" and a great new musical by the same writers called "The Life". Any more suggestions would be greatly appreciated. (You can post them here or email me).

Thanks fellow thespians!
Love Germaine.

Gill and anyone else looking for Girl musicals,

Off the top of my head I can suggest COWGIRLS and QUILTERS. Both are small cast (5 or 6) and all girls. I don't know much about COWGIRLS, but a friend did QUILTERS in the US and she reckons I'd love it (I'll have to read it.) If I could find a good MD I might do a girls' musical myself.

I have three other PLAYS "in the pipeline", all of which are mostly women (though they also have some good men's roles). One can't be done for Blak Yak, because the set is not of the "pull it down every night" and "only rehearse twice in the venue" variety, so if anyone wants to do a gutsy girls show..................................

Emmaline P

Couldnt someone do "Baby" in the next 7 and a half weeks so I can be in it? Any time after that and Id be pushing it to hold it in....

Hi Gillian

Gillian Binks wrote:
-------------------------------
> Okay, so Kimberley has the lots-of-females-in-a-play thing
> happening! Hooray!!

In the community theatre context it's worth mentioning Teri Hackett's efforts. Anyone have any other names of directors deserving of credit in this respect? Are they all women?!?

> I know about "Nunsense" and I have been informed about a newish
> all-female musical called "Matchgirls" which sounds like a beauty.

"Matchgirls" has been around for a while and, as i appeared in a production ten or so years ago, it's not an entirely female cast. I can vouch for the fact that it not only sounds a beauty, it is! You might contact Hal Davies at Santa Maria College to find out about obtaining scripts/scores. He may even be able to point you to someone able to provide some excellent quality backing tapes.... now i think of it, Jeff in Assassins would probably be a good place to start - he was in the show too!!

Cheers
Grant (aka. Beppo)

AT the Music Theatre Guild of Victoria's award ceremony in December last year, I saw a few songs performed from Tell Me On A Sunday. It is usually performed by one woman, but this particular group perfromed it with five extremely talented you women. It was fantastic and they had incorperated some beautiful harmonies into the songs.

I would like to point out that at the beginning of the Garrick season Norma Standing managed to get 13 men together for 12 Angry Men.

You're absolutely right Grant. I did some net research on Matchgirls and found out that it opened in 1966 so I was very wrong to call it newish! (I will definately have a further chat to Geoff). I also checked out Cowgirls and Quilters (Thanks Kimberley). I have a bit of info. on both if anyone is interested. I love the idea of Cowgirls (three classical singers who accidentally get booked as a country & western act at a saloon) and if the music and script are good I'd love to do it one day.

Cheers all!
Gill

David

Are you still looking?

I might be suitable

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Geoffrey