The director & MD of Hunchback just posted this.
Casting a show is literally the most difficult thing In the world. There are so many choices you need to make, and so many subtle idiosyncrasies that dictate how these decisions are made.
What IS true, is that everyone who gets to that final round IS good/talented/skilled/brilliant enough, There are just a zillion little imperceptible variables to do with aesthetic, balance, voice, presence and EVERYTHING else that need to be considered when doing that very job.
As a director, i have a feel and sense of the show i’m doing, often (and i’d say REALLY unfairly) described as ‘vision’. I feel this is a crappy descriptor because it reduces what i do to a ‘look’ of a show. Directors do SO much more than this. We are the arbiters of social interaction, of creating the boundaries of worlds that create the playgrounds for the actors. We are both dictatorial gods, and SOOOOO desperate not to be that.
What i think this means, is that all we ever want are the best possible people, who, under the best possible circumstances, would create the best possible production. It does not, EVER mean you are not any good, it just means my brain is exploding in a different way.
You are ALL brilliant.