The Roundup News » The Musical of Musicals searches for cast members

The Musical of Musicals searches for cast members

February 18, 2011 Arts and Entertainment, Lifestyles, Theatre Musical of Musicals

Cynthia Garcia/Roundup

“Musical of Musicals” the musical, Director Gene Putnam predicted a greater turnout for Thursday night’s final auditions and he was right.

Those who auditioned were Pierce College students, others who had heard through word-of-mouth or flyers, and people involved in production.

Professional performer Reid Lee is dating the shows musical director who advised him to audition.

Lee has a lot of experience in musical theatre and opera, therefore admitted that he didn’t do much to prepare himself for the judges.

“You know its fifteen minutes of my day to go in and perform and if they like me maybe they’ll call me back,” said Lee. “If not, then I’ll move on to the next audition, that’s the way it goes I guess”

Other students spend more time in their preparation. Pierce College student Miranda Chandler has an interesting way of preparing herself for an audition.

“Maybe I don’t talk mostly for the day, I drink tea, and do weird singing exercises,” said Chandler.

Chandler confessed she did some singing in the campus theatre’s ladies room.

“It has really good acoustics,” said Chandler.

Those that auditioned first filled out paper work in the hall way while waiting to be called to sing and dance.

The dancing section of the audition had to be taught first before they were sent in front of Putnam.

Kelly Lannuzzi, the musical’s choreographer, was in charge of teaching a simple 3-8 count dance-step for the auditions.

“If it’s not working then I’ll change it so that the dancer is going to end up looking good,” said Lannuzzi.

The most stressful part of being a choreographer is getting people to make the dance look good, according to Lannuzzi.

“My main fear is that something might be too challenging,” Lannuzzi said. “Over all I just want everything to look as clean and as tight as possible.”

Pierce student Gabrielle Danis has been acting since she was 5-years-old and confesses the hardest

part of auditioning is being judged.

“Everyone thinks they’re good to a certain level and if you don’t make it, your like ‘oh I guess I wasn’t good enough’ type of thing,” said Danis.

For others the anxiety is due to competing talent.

The environment is fun and nothing is personal but the hardest part is “watching the competition,” according to Jessica Patterson.

The majority that came out to audition said that they’d be happy to simply be apart of the production, and that it wouldn’t matter if they were cast in a big role or not.

“I’m the type of actor that has the type of passion where if I’m on stage, I’m going to have fun,” said Pierce student Jeremy Zoras, who has performed on stage before. “So anything would be a blessing.”

Putnam said that the cast roster may be posted early next week if he finds what he is looking for in Tuesday and Thursdays batch of auditions. Otherwise, he will schedule call backs on Monday.

As director of the show, Putnam admitted that auditioning is the most critical part of putting a play together and he plans on taking his time in the casting process.

“It’s like a coach and a team. If you don’t have the right team all the coaching in the world doesn’t make a difference, but remember they always end up firing the coach,” said Putnam.

Although he has a lot of work ahead of him, Putnam doesn’t loose his sense of humor; after all the musical itself is comical.

The original cast has only four characters, but Putnam will be using eight.

“What I’m doing is I have certain production ideas on how to stage it, which is ok to do,” said Putnam. “[We'll do] all that can be done with out changing the original lyrics and dialogue.”

The Musical of Musical, the Musical will come to life at Pierce College’s Dow Arena Theatre, premiering April 29th and playing through May 8th. Be sure to check the theater department’s calendar for show dates and times. http://info.piercecollege.edu/theater/