REPERTORY CASTING CALL : What Pay? : A Thousand Oaks-based troupe gets an assortment of aspiring actors and actresses for its two shows.

They might have suspected there would be trouble when the Thousand Oaks-based Xanadu Theatre Company put out a notice of a casting call for two shows simultaneously--Anthony Shaffer’s “Sleuth” and John Bishop’s “Musical Comedy Murders of 1940,” now appearing in repertory at Cal Lutheran University.

They were trying to save paper, the troupe’s artistic director, Naomi Monroe, later explained, when they distributed a press release that read the “call is for males and females ages 25-60 . . . “

Anybody even marginally familiar with either show would have realized that there is no music in “Musical Comedy Murders of 1940,” and that there are no women in the cast of “Sleuth.”

But that didn’t stop singers from expressing interest in auditioning for the Bishop farce, or--even more amazingly--more than one woman from asking to read for the Shaffer play.

“It never ceases to amaze me,” Michael Arndt, the director, said recently when reminded that several actors auditioning for “Musical Comedy Murders” had evidently never even heard of the play. “But the serious actors, the people I respect, have a sense of what’s going on when they come to an audition. It just shows a level of professionalism.” A 20-year veteran director and teacher, Arndt heads the Cal Lutheran drama department, and recently directed the university’s excellent production of “Twelfth Night.” He also works with the Xanadu group, and evidently sees putting up with a lack of preparation as part of his job.

One night in May, Arndt and Monroe were looking over the prospects for the “Musical Comedy Murders of 1940” cast, and a disparate crowd it was. Some--a few--actually seemed aware of the play, a fairly recent off-Broadway production set in 1940. Most, though, didn’t.

“I’ve been out of town,” one honest--or simply unimaginative--prospective cast member said, “and only had about 2 1/2 minutes to read” the script. Compared with him, the fellow who had taken the time to track down a script at the public library a day earlier seemed as prepared as Sir Edmund Hillary was for his assault on Mt. Everest.

Arndt seemed convinced he’d be able to cast the show’s five female and five male roles that evening. As it turned out, he didn’t. In fact, very few of those who showed up that night appear in the current production.

Gene Bernath, who was slotted for a spot, was switched to a leading role in “Sleuth” during rehearsals and himself had to be replaced in “Musical Comedy Murders.” Kevin P. Kern, a student of Arndt’s at Cal Lutheran, had been called in to help read parts as would-be cast members played scenes; he wound up in a leading role. That in turn caused a leading female part to be recast: the highly capable actress who had won the part was judged too old to appear credibly opposite Kern.

Some dropped out on their own. They, of course, never would have made the final cut under any circumstances.

The play, a rapid-fire farce seemingly inspired by vintage comedies such as “The Man Who Came to Dinner,” calls for a cast of 10 and a wide number of accents--German, Italian, Irish and Swedish among them. This was news to most of the aspiring cast members, whose experience ranged from virtually nothing to that of a fellow who for 2 1/2 years played in the Broadway cast of “Beatlemania” and subsequently toured Canada and Japan with the show.

One actor, new to Xanadu, impressed Arndt with his reading. It turns out that he’d already appeared in a production of “Musical Comedy Murders,” in a respected Southern California company.

“Do you have any reservations about playing a role you’ve played before?” asked Arndt. Too distinguished a gentleman to drool with anticipation, he nevertheless seemed delighted to have found an actor actually familiar with the role.

There was a catch. The actor lives in North Hollywood, and the trip is a bit daunting. Especially when he discovered that the Xanadu players and backstage crew are in it for reasons other than money. In fact, there is no money.

“Is there some sort of a stipend?” the actor inquired, “or even gas mileage?”

“No,” Arndt replied, with a sigh, “Not at this point.” Still somewhat game for the part, the actor thought he might settle for exposure. “Do you get reviewed here?” he asked. “Newspapers? Drama-Logue?” he asked, referring to the Hollywood trade paper.

Arndt made no promises. The actor decided that the investment of several weeks and several hundred round-trip miles wasn’t worth the trouble.

Others disagreed. Though most of the Xanadu players are from the Thousand Oaks area, one of the “Musical Comedy Murders of 1940” cast, Terry Miles, lives in Malibu; another, Henderson O’Neill, in faraway Redondo Beach.

Arndt said that this is typical. “I’ve had actors commute from Redondo Beach, from Santa Barbara . . . driving an hour, an hour and a half each way. There are so many actors in Southern California vying for so few roles that it’s worth driving the distance to be able to act.

“Whether or not they have previous experience, actors really like the process of doing theater. Every time they perform, they’re gathering skills. Also, there’s that real, intangible aspect of what theater’s all about--there’s nothing that can duplicate the feeling of being onstage, in front of an audience. In many cases, that is the pay.”