Being a Reader: Behind the Scenes at GFT Auditions

by Bonnie Duff

April 2025

With theatre companies gearing up for their summer seasons the start of the calendar year brings an influx of audition postings. For GFT, the summer season begins in July, which means rehearsals start in June, and this year, our auditions took place in January.

To allow directors the focus to observe the actor’s work rather than read the other character’s lines in the scenes, auditions often have “readers”- sometimes another actor, sometimes a staff member, but someone who can give a consistent “read” of the other lines in the scene between each auditioner to give them an even playing field, while still being able to adjust and play with the scene depending on what individual actor is bringing in. After all, people’s interpretations of characters and scenes can differ dramatically, and what one person prepared might be entirely different from the next! 

While my work for GFT is primarily in the land of press releases, social media, and development, I am an actor and theatre artist with a long history of working with classics, and adaptations of Shakespeare specifically - so I was thrilled to be the reader for the artists coming in to audition for Heratio!

Arriving at the B-Street Collective where auditions were taking place, I was struck by the the reality of what I always try to remind myself of when I go into auditions- that everyone behind the table is just someone’s colleague, someone’s friend… and that they want you to do well (and solve their casting conundrums for them)!. Being “behind the table” with Helen and Tyler (the directors of Heratio and The 39 Steps, respectively), and seeing 8 hours worth of actors come in and out, my strongest feeling was to want the actors to feel comfortable, and like they knew the team watching their work as well as I did.

With a new play (and a world premiere!) like Heratio, the sky really is the limit of character interpretation. My own challenge was to keep my “read” of the characters as consistent as possible, while still reacting organically to the choices these actors, all of whom have very different takes on the character, are making. Where one actor yells a line, another whispered the same, and being able to “play” with these artists kept the long day of auditions feeling fresh and exciting! 

The real delight of the day for me, and at the subsequent callbacks, was having many people walk through the door who I know personally, but may never have worked with artistically, and seeing how their unique personalities and quirks that I know well come through in their audition. And by contrast, the joy of seeing actor’s whose work I’ve seen only onstage at big theatres in the city, and discovering the person behind the many roles I’d seen them in! Having been a “scene partner” with almost all those auditioning, I would have been thrilled to see onstage any version of the cast of Heratio! 

At the end of each audition, when the scenes were done (and questions such as “have you ever worked outside before?”- the atmospheric adventure that is outdoor summer theatre is no joke!) Helen asked each person the same question: 

 “What is something that is inspiring you lately?” 

From descriptions of other plays they were working on, to books they were reading, to one mention of the intelligence of horses, we got a peek into the lives of these artists who had shared their work with us. At the end of the day, I couldn’t help but feel that my answer to that question would be that from that day of auditions, my imagination was running wild with the reminder of the breadth of talent and passion in this city… and that for every play we see, there are 100 other, equally wonderful but differently cast versions of it that GFT, or any theatre, would be lucky to bring to life.