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Lindsay Anderson - In his own words
Extract from diary entry, 9 August 1976, reflecting on the audition process (LA 6/1/73).
Auditions are the same anywhere. Not hysterical, fraught and melodramatic, as represented, for instance, in A Chorus Line - but still occasions of tension, disguised hopes, exposed nerves and susceptibilities. Of course, its not as bad for the auditioning director as it is for the artists who have to offer themselves and their abilities for what must usually seem painfully cursory examination: all the same, except for the power-intoxicated and the exhibitionist, its no joy for the director either. Sometimes one longs to hide oneself in the shadowy stalls, and leave the running of it all to one's assistants. (And often this happens). But one cannot. The actors have to be met, greeted, shaken hands with, sometimes directed, thanked. And how often their hands are clammy with nerves.
© University of Stirling 2004
