So, I have my audition slot. June 17th next week from 2:30-5:30. There will be eight other people in my slot and they are calling it a workshop.
This means I can make some guesses about the format, although they are just guesses at this point. I know that one of the horses will be there along with the puppetry coordinator. Since there are nine of us and the horse takes three puppeteers, my guess is that they will show us how to use the horse and then rotate us through different slots and combinations of puppeteers.
Since they are auditioning for four days with a morning and afternoon slot each day, my guess is that they’ll probably see about 70 puppeteers. The show requires 12 for the cast but some of those may be precast.
There’s really not much I can do with this information but knowing that the audition will be in workshop format makes me relax some because it means I’ll have three hours in which to watch and try to understand the puppet. The worst is when you come in and have five minutes.
They’ll pick a group from that to go onto call backs the following week, which I am trying my hardest not to think about. I may get in there and just be too small.
Here’s another of the video diaries from the West End production. They go visit real horses of the King’s Troop. Around the 2:30 mark Toby Olié talks about being conscious of how he was sitting as a rider because of the time he’s spent as a horse. Fascinating stuff.
War Horse Video Diary: Episode 2 from Toby Olié on Vimeo.
