Stu­dents Au­di­tion for Spring Play with Guest Di­rec­tor Clarence Gilyard 

MISHAWAKA- On Oct. 10-12, Bethel Uni­ver­si­ty’s The­atre De­part­ment held au­di­tions for the up­com­ing Spring 2023 play, The Im­por­tance of Be­ing Earnest by Os­car Wilde, which is be­ing guest di­rected by Clarence Gilyard.  

The play will be Feb. 2-4 with spe­cific times to be an­nounced later when tick­ets go on sale. Ac­tors au­di­tion­ing for the per­for­mance joined Gilyard on Zoom to au­di­tion, while Deb Swer­man, di­rec­tor of act­ing, and Don Hunter, as­sis­tant pro­fes­sor of the­atre, sat in on the au­di­tions. Ac­tors also were paired in groups of two and were given se­lect scenes from Gilyard to record and send in for fur­ther re­view.  

Swer­man said this was a very dif­fer­ent au­di­tion process than a lot of the stu­dents were fa­mil­iar with and that it led to many of them feel­ing overly ner­vous, which is some­thing Gilyard picked up on in the au­di­tions. But Swer­man also noted that dur­ing the Zoom au­di­tions, Gilyard took about ten min­utes with each stu­dent, re­ally de­vot­ing time and en­ergy to get to know them and see their craft. 

The show is made up of a smaller cast than the Bethel stage is used to, be­ing only nine roles to­tal. Four roles are fe­male, and five roles are male. A lot of the roles are fairly large parts, ac­cord­ing to Swer­man. She added that the ac­tors who au­di­tioned were some of the de­part­men­t’s more sea­soned ac­tors, and, over­all, brought ex­pe­ri­ence and pro­fes­sion­al­ism to the au­di­tion process. 

“We love Clarence,” Swer­man said. “He cares for the stu­dents and for Bethel, and he brings an­other ex­pe­ri­ence to the stu­dents.”