I’m lowkey scared. I’m releasing the cast for my school play tomorrow and I’m so scared that some people will be upset because there are only 9 roles and around 15 students tried out.
One of them had adhd and is most likely autistic and his interview was… something. He told us he was only auditioning for a certain character because he thought no one else would try out for him, he took our audition paper without permission so he could start memorizing his lines ahead of time, and he has come up to me every day asking when I would tell everyone he got the part.
However, I am not casting him at all. I feel bad, but he also constantly interrupts things and has often interrupted in the middle of our pre-show acting meetups, demanding to talk about the most random things. He has been talking about wanting to be included while clearly not caring at all about the actual play or characters. Not only that, but the adult director and I both realize he would not be a good fit for the role he tried out for, and in fact doesn’t fit any of the roles at all. He’s not a bad actor exactly, this show just isn’t for him.
I’m so scared his parents will accuse me of discriminating or that he’ll get mad at me, but I’m autistic too. I work with autistic kids at my theatre. I understand a lot of us can do extremely well, but if you’re constantly interrupting and even refusing to practice/participate in rehearsal just on a whim, as I’ve had a few students do before, it just doesn’t work out well. I’m trying my best to be fair, but his comments, which do not reflect well on him, mixed with how none of the characters in the show, or the other cast members, would have good chemistry with him, I’ve ultimately decided not to cast him. I feel terrible, but with so few spots, these things have to be done
