Important Note on Auditions

• Casting auditions are normally only for fully paid up members. You are required to show your membership card when you audition.
• However, as an experiment, one or two shows in 2010 will have auditions which are open to anybody - members and non-members. This will be made clear on the auditions notice. See the note below for the background to this change.
• If anyone wishes to audition but cannot attend on the dates specified please let the Director or Auditions Co-ordinator know.
• Auditioning for a play implies availability for that play.
• Please make it clear if you wish to audition for certain roles only and are not prepared to accept another part.

Open audition trial

Here's some background on the Tower's decision to hold Open Auditions for some of our productions in 2010.

The creation of a new home for the Tower Theatre Company at "The Theatre" presents some real challenges – not just in designing the building and raising the money to pay for it, but also in getting the Company fit and ready for the way it will need to work when we get there.
The Company Committee has agreed a three-year plan that will see us ready to operate successfully in our new home by 2012. The plan sets out the things we will do to grow the Company, develop skills and raise standards, raise our profile and build audiences, and make sure that we are on a sound financial footing. (You can see a copy of the plan here).
It includes a commitment to test out open auditions on a small number of productions in 2010. Anyone will be able to audition for these productions, even if they have not passed a Company acting audition. Non-members who want to audition will have to pay a small fee and, if they are cast, will have to join the Company. We are likely to advertise the opportunity to audition for these productions in "The Stage", local media and elsewhere, as well as sending audition notices to members in the normal way.
The first production for which we will hold an open audition trial is Jez Butterworth’s Mojo, directed by Colette Dockery. We may decide to hold a further trial open audition for a production in the Summer 2010 season, but we have no firm plans yet.
We are doing this to try to decide whether the Company audition does the job for which it was originally intended, whether there are better arrangements that we might use, and the circumstances in which we might use them. We need to understand whether the Company audition provides an adequate or necessary assurance of performing skill and talent, whether it inhibits good people from joining us and how much it influences the range of productions we are able to mount.
The current system has operated since the early days of the Company, and we do not wish to make significant changes without first testing their effect or seeking the views of members. So as well as holding trial open auditions for a small number of productions, we would like to hear your views. Do you think there are particular advantages or disadvantages to our current system, or to open auditions? Which system do you think fits best with our plans for the future? Let us know!
When we have reviewed the outcomes of the trial open auditions, we will make proposals about whether there should be any permanent changes to the current system.

Director	Assistant Director	Stage Manager
The Measure for Measure production team