Exhalerated, nervous, anticipation, sour– these are all words provided by students to describe the mood of Mayer’s lobby on Friday Sept. 5. This past weekend, casting for the Biola Theatre productions took place. The two fall productions are  “Our Town” by Thornton Wilder and an original comedy, “They’re Getting Married Again?” written by Kaylin Kenders and Joshua Labata. 

AUDITIONS

 At 6 p.m., over 30 students, both theatre majors and theater enthusiasts, auditioned one by one in Mayer’s auditorium, performing two one-minute monologues. Crew members from “Our Town” and from “They’re Getting Married Again?” attended the auditions. This included the directors, Mariette Nel, a stage manager, and assistant stage managers, Lili Garcia and Ruby Barone.

Both seniors and freshmen alike shared pre-audition jitters. When asked for a word describing her feelings, senior Charisse Ginta responded with “anxious.” Though nerves were high and a competitive spirit threatened to creep in, students did not fail to show the love of Christ to one another with support and encouragement. Ending at around 10 p.m., the conclusion of auditions meant the anticipation of callbacks. Later that evening, Rachel Tracie sent an email containing the names of those invited to callbacks alongside the characters they will be expected to read for.

CALLBACKS

At 10 a.m. on Sept. 6,, happy and sleepy students buzzed inside Mayers Auditorium. Amidst the laughter and nerves was a plethora of Starbucks cups. Caffeinated and ready to rock, students participated in group and solo scene reads for the next five hours. As we became increasingly familiar with both scripts, excitement for each production grew. Upon my initial read, I fell in love with the script for “They’re Getting Married Again?” and my desire to be a part of the cast amplified with every passing moment. As other students became more comfortable with the characters they were reading for the reality of each show was made clearer. 

THE CAST LIST

The moment students had waited for finally came. At 6 p.m. on Sept. 7, the directors released the cast list for “Our Town” and “They’re Getting Married Again?” Looking over the list, familiar names popped out– Anastasia Kallas as ‘Stage Manager,’ Luke Bona as ‘Mr. Webb,’ both in “Our Town” and Mackenzie Pappan as ‘Evelyn’ in “They’re Getting Married Again?” A few names under Mackenzie was my name, Bea Mason as ‘Ira’. 

Insanely talented students are going to occupy the stage this fall and what a blessing it will be to see those gifts used to glorify God.  “Our Town,” a sweet, endearing play narrated by Ana Kallas, will run from Oct. 23-25 at The Curtis Theatre. “They’re Getting Married Again” will run from Nov. 20-23 in Mayers Auditorium.