Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Auditions!

Two very popular musicals, neither done around here very often, are offering auditions to interested performers. If "Rent" and/or "Damn Yankees" flip your switches, this is your chance to light your candle or show off your heart. (C'mon. You gotta have heart. All you really need is heart!)


You can see the audition notice for the Station Theatre's "Rent" here on their Facebook page. They want men and women 18 to 30 to fill eight major roles and the ensemble. They're asking that auditioners bring a 90-second cutting of a song (with accompanying sheet music) and that everybody dress comfortably for the dance audition. That means no jeans and dance shoes (character or jazz) preferred.

Director Mikel L. Mathews, Jr. and his musical director, Alan Zelck Smith, will hold their "Rent" auditions on Saturday, May 26th, at 3 pm and Sunday, May 27th, at 6 pm at the Station Theatre, located at 223 North Broadway in Urbana. Just think! You can be in "Rent" on Broadway! Performances are scheduled for July 12 to August 4, 2012, so you'll need a lot of summer availability to do this show. Probably not 525,600 minutes. But you never know.

For more information, check out the Station's website and Facebook page. You can also peruse this post about their summer schedule in general.


And then there's "Damn Yankees," the baseball musical with all that heart. Or "Heart." It's also got "Whatever Lola Wants," the song Sofia Vergara is currently drinking Diet Pepsi to in a TV commercial. "Damn Yankees" is known as a dance show, with the incomparable Gwen Verdon dancing Bob Fosse's choreography in the original 1955 Broadway production and subsequent film.

Jennifer Lumsdon will direct "Damn Yankees" for Prairie Fire Theatre here in B-N, and she says she is looking for "new faces and new voices" as well as "all talented actors/singers/dancer in Bloomington/Normal and surrounding areas. Please tell your friends and everyone you know that is a performer to sign up for auditions for Prairie Fire's production of 'Damn Yankees.' The auditions are this Friday and Saturday and you can sign up at the website: www.prairiefiretheatre.org."

As Lumsdon notes, there is an audition request form on the website, with blocks of time set aside to see potential "Damn Yankees" cast members from 6 to 9 pm on Friday, May 11th, and 1 to 4 pm on Saturday, May 12th. Performances of this show will be held August 4 to 12 at Normal Community High School.

"Rent" and "Damn Yankees" couldn't be more different, even though each features a seductive woman trying to get a guy through song and dance. They're also both fine opportunities for singers and dancers. Go for it!

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