Electric Benny

Monday. I haven’t spoken to Anthony. I’ve had several conversations with his agent. Nice people. This is a difficult situation, all around.

I’ve basically told them that I have a rehearsal called for this evening and if I don’t hear by the afternoon that Anthony will be there, I’ll have to look to recast. We’re fortunate in that this role actually had an alternate – an intuitive actor, imbued with a risky comedic schtick, an electric weirdness. The first casting, as always, had only come down to the mix within the group. Now, if current Benny chose to teach for QTC, I simply prayed that ‘electric’ Benny was still available.

I phoned. He was.

Mid-afternoon, Anthony’s agency phoned. He’d opted to teach for QTC.

I called Gavin – ‘electric Benny’. He could arrive late to that night’s rehearsal.

We were in the Brisbane Powerhouse Stores rehearsal space – usually inhabited by Vulcana Women’s Circus, and set with trapezes, and fall mats. We sat around on the mats and read the play. Gavin arrived just in time to read his part –

• standing in the doorway looking at the group spread around on fall mats;
• he walked into a space where everyone knew each other,
• where the actors all knew the script,
• where he was the ‘new boy’,
• where his director handed him a copy of the script and told him to read the character description,
• and he did,
• and then he read the part,
• effing well.

A cold read, and he did it really well.

Pete Cossar went out of his way to say well done, mate. I could’ve kissed him.

Since the first 2 weeks of rehearsals had basically been organised around Anthony’s commitments, I looked at our schedule again. Didn’t change the first week really as the actors had already sorted other things around the times they’d been given. Shifted a few things in the second week though. Having Gavin on board gave us more flexibility. It made me think what a luxury it must be to be able to pay people their proper due for this work and so be able to call on all their time. To not have to schedule around something else.

Benny (Gavin Ingham) and Quin (Sam Clark) in rehearsal at Brisbane Powerhouse for the World Premiere of RISK.