Interview: Sarah Alida LeClair on AUDITION SIDES by Riot Productions - the Audition, the Ex, and the Things Never Said

Sometimes the last place you expect to run into your ex is a waiting room—and sometimes that waiting room turns into a reckoning. We sat down with playwright, performer, and Riot Productions co-founder Sarah Alida LeClair to talk about "Audition Sides,” a razor-sharp short play about two actors trapped together in an uncomfortably romantic callback that refuses to end. What begins as an all-too-relatable professional hurdle quickly becomes something far messier: a collision of unresolved love, old wounds, and the careful masks we wear when we’re trying to be impressive, employable, and emotionally intact at the same time. By turns laugh-out-loud absurd and quietly devastating, "Audition Sides" captures the surreal pressure of high-stakes rooms—and the very human cost of pretending you’re fine when you’re anything but.

LeClair is deeply woven into the DNA of "Audition Sides." She is both the play’s writer and one of its performers, appearing alongside Timothy Benson as one half of the former couple at the center of the story, with Josalyn Johnson as the callback proctor. Directed by Rhiannon McAfee, and with lighting design by Hayden St. Clair, the piece places LeClair inside the world she has written, connecting the play’s themes directly to performance and execution.

“Audition Sides” traps two actors in a callback that never ends—emotionally or theatrically. What was it like stepping into a story where the stakes are so intimate, exposed, and painfully familiar to anyone who’s ever auditioned?

I love getting to bring the narrative from "Audition Sides" to life right from the first moment--my character learns the dance call is running long, the producers don't want to see any of the 32 pages of sides they asked for, and there's a completely new scene to read, and on top of that she's paired up with her ex for the impossibly romantic callback scene? It's so satisfying to tell the story of how hard it is to be an actor, and the sometimes unreasonable parts of what we have to do to get on stage; and so satisfying to hear from women that they feel seen by this character's experience.  It's empowering, but also painful. I tried to make sure the conversations between the two characters are balanced, so I wrote him to say things to me that cut at my worst fears about myself. I wanted to show that the person who sees you most clearly sees both the best and worst of you in all your broken pieces. The question I think a lot of women have in trying to process an important relationship is whether what the person said they saw in you was real. Was what they had real? Those are the conversations we have in "Audition Sides," navigating the line between polite self-preservation and the desire for honesty. 

Your character is forced to confront a past relationship in a space that usually demands professionalism, polish, and emotional restraint. How did you navigate playing vulnerability and unresolved love inside an environment that’s designed to erase personal history?

To really explain how hard what we do in the audition room is, I tried to show the cracks in her professionalism. You have someone who is very successful at this and I wanted the audience to see how hard it is for her, even though she's good at it. I have this character, the Proctor (played hilariously and with flawless comic timing by Josalyn Johnson) who's constantly coming in and interrupting their most intimate conversations, and it forces these two actors to visibly code-switch between their bright and cheerful professional facades and the growing urgency for both of them. She wants honesty from him, and every time that proctor comes back in they're a step closer to going into the room and potentially never seeing each other again, so she needs that honesty NOW. She's annoyed by the proctor and loses more and more patience and decorum with her as the conversations with the man become more intense, and so we start to see her really having a harder and harder time maintaining her composure--both in responding to the proctor's absurdity and in keeping restraint with the man. It's what being a woman is! She's trying to be a successful professional while also being successful at this breakup while also being successful being true to herself and maintaining her voice--it's impossible! She's unlikeable in some of that, ugly, exhausting at times; but I hope also empowering in her honesty and flaws and how recklessly she loves. 

Audiences have described the play as both funny and heartbreaking. How do you and your scene partner balance the comedy of audition-room absurdity with the very real grief, anger, and longing underneath it?

I think anyone who's ever been in a rehearsal room with someone who you genuinely enjoy has experienced how fun it is. The conversations under your breath that only your scene partner can hear while you're standing there doing something absurd over and over again are one of the most delightful parts of being an actor; it makes you trust each other, makes you a team, makes it easier and more fun to get through the difficult stuff. I think it's why so many actors remain good friends with genuine affection for each other after doing a show together. We tried in both this production and previous one to not forget about the fun these two actors had together, and how despite how tense their energy is with each other they can't resist but to make each other laugh and enjoy each other's company. Tim is an incredibly talented comedic and dramatic actor, and so unselfconscious, so he'll play and try the scene with melodrama or innuendo or heartbreaking sincerity, and we'll end up finding something there. Then, because we've tried the scenes so many different ways, the lines I wrote as comedic inside jokes between the two actors really BECOME inside jokes. I think you'll see moments when our characters share a look that acknowledges how much they enjoyed each other--so that the heartbreak is you do see why these two are wrong for each other, but you also want them to work it out. 

Director Rhiannon McAfee speaks about the “quiet violence” of audition rooms, particularly for women. Did this piece change or sharpen the way you think about auditions, casting spaces, or your own experiences as an actor?

The conversations we've had in development, rehearsal, and the audiences for this play have really helped me see that this construct--the surplus of women in theatre and the scarcity of men--is not something to be angry about, it's just fact; and where we have most power is to see how we can address this inequity. 

I'd love for folks just to acknowledge how hard the audition room is for women, and how hard that makes us work, fight, and train when we have fewer opportunities for so many of us. It makes me so happy when theatres, understanding that women are going to go to their coaches, spend money, spend hours, and obsess over every potential way to succeed in what they've asked of us, give lots of time to prepare, release the sides in advance, and give packets that are reasonable in size. I always appreciate it when a creative team sets aside sufficient time to see what they asked us to prepare. We can't change that there are so many of us for so few roles, but when theatres give us the chance to shine, if not for this show but perhaps for the next one, it makes us feel like our hard work is being valued. I'd love for theatres to be honest about acknowledging that men often don't come to auditions, and have open calls for men before they call the women in, and see if that doesn't put us all on more equal footing both in the callbacks and in the rehearsal room. And obviously since my work with Riot is so focused on creating more opportunities for womxn+, I'd love to see more theatres pledge themselves to having even numbers of women and men in lead roles on their seasons. So many theatres in San Diego have shown us that it's possible! 

Riot Productions centers womxn+ voices with agency, complexity, and emotional truth. As a performer, writer, and teacher, what does it mean to be part of a company that’s intentionally creating space for these stories—and how do you hope audiences carry this one with them after they leave the theatre?

It's my favorite thing to get to hear so many different stories from so many different womxn+ not only in scripts and on stage but in our development, rehearsals, and after the shows. My favorite playwright and good friend Carla Navarro really inspired me to see that even in the shortest scripts with the smallest casts narratives can be balanced, complex, emotional, and real--I was so fortunate that she partnered with me for our very first production, a festival of her short plays, all of which have these qualities, and that set the tone for everything we do. As an actress I don't want to exist as a character that does nothing in my own right except stolidly support the people around me while they grow. I think that's the role society expects of us as womxn+. It's thrilling to have the opportunity to see my writing being performed, and to act in roles that satisfy me as a performer; but also to see our writers and actors feel that same sense of satisfaction as we create something in each piece that connects with our audiences and makes them feel seen. 

I hope audiences see in this conversation between our two flawed main characters that there doesn't have to be a villain and a hero, a winner or a loser in a relationship. Sometimes we just need space to figure out together how to navigate what to do with the love left over, because sometimes love isn't enough. Our characters struggle to find common ground but end up being utterly real with each other, and I hope that sparks conversation with the audience about how painful the process of getting at the truth in a relationship can be, but ultimately how worthwhile. 

How To Get Tickets

“Audition Sides" by Riot Productions is playing  Friday, January 30th, and continues through Sunday, February 1st. Performances will run Friday and Saturday at 7 pm, and Saturday and Sunday at 2 pm. All shows will be presented at the MOXIE Theatre, 6663 El Cajon Boulevard, San Diego. Tickets for this production are $20 and can be purchased at https://buytickets.at/riotproductionsinc/1947096.