22/10/2026
Persuasion Director Diaries – Casting The Play
After choosing the play and pitching it to the committee (which was pretty easy with Buxton Drama League) the biggest challenge I have faced as Director is casting the show!
We are incredibly lucky to have some wonderful Amateur Dramatic Groups across Derbyshire, however, when they are all putting on shows that have a heavy reliance on male cast…. then it makes things tricky. Well, it did for me.
As you may have seen from our previous social posts, we really struggled to find a male actor aged 25 to 40 for our dual role of Mr Elliott/Benwick. What you didn’t see, is that in fact only 2 male actors came to the auditions and all but 1 male actor in our cast has been sourced by word of mouth, pleas, sacrifices to the theatre gods, and a great effort from our female cast members to persuade (see what I did there) these strapping men to come aboard!
Thankfully, our efforts have been successful, and I am happy to say we have a truly fantastic cast of actors bringing this modern Jane Austen adaptation to life. We the most recent rehearsals containing a full cast 😊
Introducing our male cast:
Dan Large is our dashing and charming Wentworth.
Sam Higginbottom is our capricious and handsome Mr Elliot, and a brief interlude as the ever-faithful Edmund.
Darren Wright as the lovable and long-suffering Charles.
Fred Denno as our grief-stricken Benwick.
Tim Warburton as both the vain and supercilious Sir Walter, and the earnest Admiral Croft.
Get your tickets now to see what these characters get up to on 12, 13 or 14 November at Buxton Pavilion Arts Centre.
https://buxtonoperahouse.org.uk/events/persuasion-buxton-drama-league-2026/
