Inside Casting

07.07.2019

The next
day after moving from Moscow to Debrecen we held an inside casting round. This
is one of the most important and exciting events in the life of the project.
Why?

Inside
casting is a chance to present yourself to the creation group, to reveal new talents
or to prove former success. However, it’s not enough just to repeat your
performance, because now every moment is being closely examined and tested.

While
presenting prose, any participant can be stopped and then asked to resume. Many
dancers were asked to perform their favorite songs in Russian and in foreign
languages.

“Actually,
I’m a dancer. And I wasn’t mentally prepared to sing. But I really wanted to
try something new and show that I can do something more than just dancing. So I
decided to perform two of my favorite songs – one in Russian and another in English”,
says Svetlana Tolstukhina, Angarsk.

Casting is
a continuous process. During two days the theatrical director, choreographer
and vocal and acting teachers attentively studied and listened to all children,
and made some notes. Every detail was important: where the person was looking
during the performance, how he or she acted if asked to improvise, how they
kept themselves while walking or just entering the audience. As you might know,
many students Oleg Tabakov’s Acting College were selected by how they appeared
in the auditorium.

Despite the
fact that many participants are eager to play the main role, there is no hate
or fights between the young actors. On the contrary, they support each other:  they do exercises to warm up face muscles together;
they find songs and go on stage to perform together. If someone is afraid
before audition he or she receives a lot of the warm hugs.

“Yesterday
some guys from different countries needed help. Someone was shy to sing a song
alone. So I thought, “Why don’t I help them? Why don’t we sing a
duet?” I usually try to help everybody in any way I can”, says Polina
Kozlova, Budapest.

The casting
was filled with diverse discoveries and creative decisions, for example, usual
prose excerpts or poems were replaced by haiku. Somebody presented poems of
their own composition and showed scenes from famous musicals in their own
interpretation. Participants from India impressed the jury by producing speeches
in English.

It would
seem that at the end of the audition the children could briefly relax and go to
sleep, but the next event would be waiting for them very soon – the Acting Contest.
There the guys would be able to release the adrenaline that has been
accumulated during the selections round and have fun. Our next article will
tell you how the Acting Contest is held. Nuckids are online!

Sincerely
yours,

Dear
Editors