“Bound together by the secrets we keep.” It was one line, but it tripped up many acting hopefuls.
The auditions for a part in the second season of the hit drama series, Intersexions, made a stop at Cape Town University of Tech- nology in the Mother City last week.
They kicked off in Joburg at the beginning of the month and end off in Durban next week.
Although the rain threatened to cut the outdoor festivities short, it soon became clear that nothing – least of all a few droplets of rain – was going to stop 1 200 hopefuls from being seen.
Intersexions is a drama that focuses on the way that the HI virus and Aids can become a common thread in risky sexual behaviour and having multiple sexual partners.
Although it’s not a woe-is-me kind of show, the series did paint a more realistic picture of how even the most cautious people can get the virus through an unfaithful partner.
The domino effect was shown in vignettes featuring different people in each episode. So it should go without saying that the next season will be similar.
For the audition, the hopefuls – most of them in their early 20s – were asked to download a script from the Intersexions website.
The four scripts were monologues – by a young woman, a young man, a middle-aged man and a middle-aged woman.
The hopefuls were also allowed to act out a monologue of their choice.
Interestingly, in the line that snaked around a building on the campus, there were a lot more women than men.
The first phase was to register to audition, then the candidate would be auditioned, using the website script, by one of the many judges stationed in a tent. They included Intersexions actress Noxee Maqashalala and other screen stars.
From there, hopefuls passed by the judges had to deliver their monologue in front of a camera and Phuthi Moloto, SABC1’s portfolio manager for drama. They had to end by saying “Bound together by the secrets we keep” – but the line seemed to bind the tongues of many of them.
That said, there were a few good actors. One even prompted Moloto to instruct Sara Chitambo, from Johns Hopkins Health and Education in SA, to “put a star next to his name”.
• Intersexions 2 will air on SABC1 in January. The final auditions take place at UKZN’s Howard College Campus in Durban on September 8.
To find out more about the auditions, visit www.intersexions-tv.co.za