Brown paper banners enticing students to “do tech” or “join the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club” made the Loeb Experimental Theater look more like a pre-homecoming dining hall than a black box theater last Friday night.

Despite the frenzied recruiting, many who were present Friday said the crowds were surprisingly small for the last day of Common Casting, the last chance actors and actresses have to bag roles in one of this spring’s 25 shows.

Those who audition are given a few pages from the script of the shows. Then they’re given a few minutes to rehearse before they strut their stuff in front of the director and show staff.

The actors and actresses who braved the snow last Friday seemed remarkably calm, each finding their own way to prepare.

“Everyone has their opinion as to the best technique for auditioning,” says actress Amanda M. Gann ’06. “I think I have it figured out.”

Getting Psyched

Gann, having already auditioned for four shows, has saved four more for tonight. But she says she doesn’t buy into the strategy of waiting until the last minute to remain fresh in a director’s mind—she had just been too busy all week.

“I had other things to do,” she says.

But that is not to say that acting is not a priority for Gann. A cast member of Pippin last fall, she spent a year of high school acting in France. She resorts to cheat-sheet-sized handwriting to squeeze her credentials in the allotted space on the actor’s information sheet.

“I should have photocopied this,” she says of the resume she will have to give to each director. But it’s been a tough week and she is forced to once again record her height, eye color and any “striking features”—for instance, a great French accent.

It is about 7 p.m. and Gann is waiting to be called to audition for two shows, HouseBreakHeart and The Dybbuk. She has placed her name on another Common Casting list—for Evening for Art—across the street at the Agassiz Theater and glances at her watch to see if she can get there before 9 p.m.

But if Gann is nervous, she doesn’t show it.

She keeps busy by silently practicing a monologue from HouseBreakHeart, which advertised itself in the Common Casting guide with the question “What is more threatening—falling bombs or falling in love?”

Her lips barely move as she reads over the lines. She makes a few seemingly random marks on the page, perhaps reminding herself where to breathe—just in case.

Gann seems to have done this many times before.