Taking as much of the "emotion" out of my personally frustrated situation as I possibly can for now, the negatives & positives about the auditioning process and the various outcomes from that so far can, I think, still best be summarised for me as follows:-
* Communication with auditionees has (I think we seem to largely agree) generally been quite poor since after the Nov/Dec. round of auditions (in sharp contrast to the many text reminders etc. we received reminding us about audition timings, venue etc. previously we have, at best, most of us been kept waiting longer than they told us we'd have to wait for an outcome
* If they are expecting reserves to maintain goodwill of any kind indefinately (as would appear to be the case) "just in case required later" they should, at least have told us what the compulsory & key dates for certain rehearsals were and whether that would be an acting/dancing/ballet or drumming focussed segment, so that we could plan accordingly and decide if we were willing to wait on that basis. No need to tell us venues or timings except am/pm/eve. at this stage perhaps if they are worried about complicating the lines of communication and/or too many people knowing too much of the detailed arrangements before they really need to know.
* The general feeling on here too is that us reserves have only a slim chance of being cast at a later date due to lack of suitable openings becoming available for us anyway yet casting continues to "mess with our heads" evidenced by their act (this week) of still extending the reserve list even further thus making the pool of choice open to them larger still - why? One has to wonder if they have already resigned themselves to the fact that, satistically speaking, very few of us not yet cast but held over from November/December auditions are willing to wait and, their latest approach is to now be very much "hedging their bets" (as I suspect could prove closer to the truth here, human nature being as it is and all that) on the basis that there is more chance of those who auditioned in February 2012 still being available come 1st May through to 27th July or whenever?
* Another commonly held view on here is that creatively and practically they wouldn't want (or be able) to slot us in to vacant slots too far down the line either. At which point does such an approach jeopardise that/those whole segment(s) of ceremony and what would the adverse time, press & cost implications of any decision taken to drop certain segments of performance from the ceremonies entirely past a certain rehearsal point? I should imagine that they will have only budgeted for so many hours of rehearsal time at commercial rates, so many costumes, so many props., so many Oyster travel cards and so much for catering etc. with a very small contingency left over in reserve for an unforseen overspend situation being an option open to them should the worst happen. Will any financial contingencies be enough to cover any slack?
* If they start tampering with numbers taking part and/or dropping segments completely they will, by then presumably, have wasted substantive sums doing CRB checks on us all as well, whether waitlisted or already cast (and one can only presume here that to be on reserve we also need to be security cleared as we know that these seemingly simple exercises take time, particularly if there are bulk applications to be processed and a government department involved). They also risk disappointing those already rehearsing who may not get the eventual opportunity to perform after all.
Whilst, personally speaking, I may not have "the look" but, unless they tell us what "the look" is (or it becomes obvious from the final screened performances) how will we ever know for sure that we have not been discriminated against on other grounds instead? Not selecting somebody simply for "how they look" is as bad if not worse than not selecting somebody for "what they can/cannot do" for you. They are supposed to be representing all of UK society in whatever demograpghic you happen to fit in that society are they not?
What I can still still offer them, however, is some flexibility with my time rehearsal-wise (if only they'd give me a better idea when I would likely be required and at what time if not details as to exactly where). I am somewhat fortunate that the new job I'm doing is flexible hours wise as only P/T and I can get by on that level of income whilst I wait for this unholy mess to resolve itself one way or t'other for me. I am also not doing exams not needing to book a holiday/wedding etc. too desperately such that I may end up having to choose that alternative over taking part in the ceremones. That does not, however, make the wait any more bearable as there are plenty of other things & invitations which would be fixed that I could miss out on unnessarily whilst they figure out if and what they are going to do with me and there's the rub.
Waiting if fine, not being selected is sort of fine (but not the end of the world for me), lack of communication with me is NOT FINE and no idea of if and when I would be required is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE. Casting, presumably, still me and my fellow reserves slightly more that we need them evidenced by their reluctance to determine our application and remove us completely for their back up plan.
Someone on here said earlier in resonse to my question "do the casting team know what they're going? " being, yes, they know what THEY are doing but do they know what THEY are also doing to our collective sanities in the meantime? probably yes to the first part of that question but perhaps only possibly yes to the second part I think. I would wager most of them have NO IDEA and are dellusioned that everyone who has auditioned so far is either (a) delirous at being chosen despite the prospect of 28 rehearsals to, effectively "carry a stick" as a certain Mr Boyle stated on the 100 days to go show last week
(b) available 24/7 several times of year to do the rehearsals/perform the part/role in the ceremony.
(c) Be able to tolerate all sorts of crap whilst on duty, such as heavy rain whilst queuing outside to go in (something else I am not particularly pleased to hear happened - would not have suffered silently if that were me).
........... to be continued (maybe)