Yesterday we held our second round of auditions for ALTAR BOYZ. The challenge of this show is putting together an honest to goodness boy band in the style of N’SYNC and the Back Street Boys. The show is like a concert, so the cast of five is on stage the whole time, singing and dancing non-stop. So during the auditions, I felt like I had walked into a reality television show.

A brief diversion in case you’re not familiar with the show. Without giving anything away, Altar Boyz is a musical about a Christian boy band, with members Matthew, Mark, Luke, Juan and Abraham (the lone Jewish member). The show is a concert stop on their tour. So watching it will be like watching an actual concert in some ways. It is very lighthearted and fun, with fantastic dancing and catchy tunes—the kind you’ll find yourself singing at odd moments.

Back in March we held an open call at which over 50 young men showed up. We held the auditions at the Actors’ Equity offices in New York City. Each actor sang 16 bars of a pop song of their choice for the show’s artistic team. This included the director, Stafford Arima, the music director, Gary Adler, and the associate choreographer, Lou Castro. I put my two cents in as well. There were some amazing singers, and I was impressed with the time Stafford took with each of them. He’s a real actor’s director—for each person, he’d ask them questions about their resume, give them some direction, allow them to sing their songs a couple of times—and this is for an open call that any professional actor, whether they fit the show or not, could show up for! Compared to the horror stories one hears about open calls for shows, this was very encouraging. Stafford genuinely wanted each and every actor to succeed. He wasn’t there to judge.

As I said our goal is to assemble a boy band, so one of Stafford and Gary’s consistent directions for the actors was asking them to be more like Ricky Martin or Justin Timberlake. Stafford would toss them his pen and say, “Use this as a microphone and treat us as your audience.” For some of these actors, who have spent their whole lives performing in traditional musicals, this was a very difficult. They have been taught to not break the wall between the performer and the audience and to never look directly at the people for whom they are auditioning. Others were able to immediately break out and seemed to enjoy portraying a pop star.

From the group we saw in the open call, we selected actors whom the artistic team felt could sing the roles and captured the various types of characters. (There are 5 Boyz, each of whom has a very distinctive, almost archetypical, personality.) This group of actors was then combined with a group of invited actors from the artistic team as well as our casting director, Stephanie Klapper.

This brings me to yesterday. At 11:00 am and then again at 2:00 pm, separate groups of 20 young men came into a dance studio at Chelsea Studios in Manhattan. Looking at the way they were dressed (beat up jeans, cargo pants, ripped t-shirts and various hats and accessories) it was apparent each of them knew the show and had an idea of which role they wanted to play. After they stretched and those of us sitting on the other side of the table had looked over their resumes and headshots, Carlos Encinias, our associate director and choreographer, taught them part of a dance routine. It took about 30 – 40 minutes to teach what ended up being 30 seconds of non-stop energetic dance steps. Christopher Gattelli, the show’s choreographer packed every dance with references to all sorts of pop stars. As Carlos taught the steps he would reference, “this step is like Britney” or “this move is very Paula Abdul” or “at this point it’s Rico Suave”. Then in the midst of it there would be a gesture reminiscent of a religious ritual (crossing oneself or Jesus on the cross). One of the goals of the original writers of the show was to explore where pop culture and religious ritual intersect. And as I watched the dancers learn the choreography it was clear that this investigation was carried through to the staging and choreography.

After the performers learned the routine, they were divided into groups of four. The groups then danced the routine for the team a couple times. It was at this point that they were evaluated. The team was seeking not only their ability to dance, but how quickly they picked up steps (the actors will have to learn over 10 dance numbers in less than three weeks), and how the dancers’ personalities came through. As you might expect, some had trouble picking up all the steps. Some ‘muscled’ their way through – they got the steps, but their dancing lacked any sense of ease or fluidity. Others were incredibly comfortable doing the dance and as a result we really saw their personalities. They controlled the choreography, not the other way around.

Carlos and Lou also asked the actors if they had any tricks (break dancing, moon walking, tumbling, gymnastics, etc.). Some had amazing moves they already knew. Others did not. But what so impressed me with Carlos and Lou was the way they encouraged each actor to try. They’d demonstrate something as an inspiration and coach the actors. They were so encouraging that many actors really put themselves on the line by trying moves they had never attempted before. I loved the guy who said, “I think I’ve convinced myself I can moonwalk,” and he just went for it. And he could.

Auditions are job interviews for actors. It’s a nervous time for them. And to step out of their comfort zone and try something new—risk looking foolish in front of people who could hire them—is a lot to ask. It’s hard not to try to figure out what the director wants. Actors want to do the right thing. So sometimes when they get asked to do something, they hesitate. They don’t know if they’ll succeed, and they worry that a) not being able to do it will make them lose the part, b) doing it will make them lose the part, c) trying it but failing will make them lose the part, or d) trying it but failing will make the other guy standing next to them look ten times better and will make them lose the part. As a result, I am always so impressed when I see risk taking from actors in an audition. The willingness to do it stems a lot from the artistic team and the environment they set up. This artistic team recognizes this and spends so much time encouraging and thanking the actors for the risks they take.

At the end of the week we do our final callbacks. From the dance call we selected about four actors to see again for each of the five roles in the show. I’ll report back how call backs went and hopefully give you a sneak peak at the cast.