And directors are finding new and strange locations in which to stage their shows. The Tempest will be performed in the Winthrop House Courtyard. Jeremy R. Funke ’04 will direct Hamlet at the First Church in Cambridge, Congregational.

“We’re seeing some nice work in new settings,” says HRDC Campus Liaison Johanna S. Karlin ’05.

Donahue says that the HRDC has gone to great lengths to make sure the campus and city know about Common Casting.

“We’re trying to promote Common Casting outside the usual, established ‘theater community,’” says Donahue. “We’ve been tabling in Annenberg and sending e-mails to large student groups. We basically looked through the entire Harvard website.”

He added that there has been an extra push to try to recruit Latino students, in part because the Mainstage production of Richard III will be set at the time of the fall of the Aztec Empire, with Richard mirroring Moctezuma.

Margo said that the HRDC is reaching out to all ethnic groups on campus.

“The more diverse groups like that we can get into Common Casting, the more we can get those demographics on stage,” Margo says.

Another new aspect of Common Casting this season—which has caused problems for at least one show—is an amendment to the HRDC Constitution passed in December. 60 percent of roles in HRDC-sponsored shows must now be filled by Harvard associates.

Kathy M. Bencowitz ’03, who is directing the Mainstage production of Chess, says that she simply has not seen enough Harvard students to fill the spots in her show.

“Part of what we talked about a lot when we were changing the rule was that it was going to hurt large shows,” said Bencowitz. “This is a large musical. The parts are there, I’d love to give them to Harvard people. I can’t cast people who don’t audition.”

She says that Cabaret saw 200 people during that season’s Common Casting. As of last night, she had auditioned about 60, less than half of whom have been from Harvard.

—Staff writer Laura L. Krug can be reached at krug@fas.harvard.edu.