News
This month, the Lake Dillon Theatre Company took a new approach to finding talented actors for its summer repertory.
Rather than attending two conferences (the Unified Professional Theatre Auditions in Memphis, Tenn., and the Southeastern Theatre Conference, which changes locations every year), Lake Dillon Theatre directors decided to go to New York and choose from the cream of the crop.
In previous years, artistic director Chris Alleman and producer (and events manager for Keystone Neighbourhood) Josh Blanchard traveled to the aforementioned mass auditions, which draw approximately 850 actors each. The problem: The actors audition in front of a bunch of theater companies, and after the conference, the race is on to snag the best. The whole process becomes complicated when, say, Lake Dillon offers a job to an actor, and he says he's waiting to hear from yet another theater. Blanchard compared it to rushing for a fraternity or sorority: Once the organization decided they wanted someone, that someone might be waiting for another offer.
And, perhaps more importantly, the auditions never attracted a large amount of cultural diversity, and this summer, Lake Dillon is looking for ethnic actors to fit the bill.
So, on Dec. 27, the Lake Dillon Theatre Company posted a call for actors in Playbill, Backstage and on the Colorado Theatre Guild website. Within the first day, 400-450 applications inundated them. After a week, Alleman and Blanchard were working late nights, slugging through a thousand headshots and resumes.
Of those, they called more than 300 to audition in New York last week. Now, Alleman plans to always travel to New York to cast, because “the talent was just incredible.”
Two of this summer's shows, “Rent” and “Hair,” particularly require a diverse cast. But even a trip to New York only netted about 100 actors who weren't Caucasian. It did produce better odds than the auditions they usually draw from, which attracted maybe 100 minorities, out of 850 actors, Blanchard said. As Alleman explains it, the most talented ethnic actors already have jobs, because the ratio is low to begin with.
Nevertheless, Alleman and Blanchard found more talent than they knew what to do with. They've narrowed their choice down to 25 actors and can only pick about 15. In addition, they're still accepting video submissions by Colorado actors through Friday, Jan. 29. They canceled the scheduled Colorado audition, because they had a low response and couldn't justify flying their choreographer, Julianna Black, and their musical director, Jonathan Parks, from Los Angeles and Atlanta, respectively.
Oh, and speaking of musical directors, this summer, Lake Dillon Theatre has a 21-year-old prodigy.
“He can play anything you put in front of him,” Alleman said. “I won't be able to afford him in a couple of years, because he'll be playing in New York.”
The jaunt to New York cost about the same, or perhaps even less, than going to the national auditions, Blanchard said, but it did involve more infrastructure, in terms of bringing in Black and Parks, as well as processing a ton of paperwork.
“It took a lot more organization, but it was nice to do it on our terms,” Blanchard said. “It was worth it because the overall quality of the people we saw had a higher level of talent and were a more diverse group.”
Another advantage to the New York audition process: Only actors who were interested in performing at Lake Dillon Theatre showed up, as opposed to the conferences, which brings in actors who may be interested in working at other locations in the nation. It also adds some prestige to the Lake Dillon Theatre Company, because Dillon is the only Colorado company — other than the Arvada Center and the Denver Performing Arts Center — to cast in New York, Blanchard said.
The last challenge Alleman and Blanchard now face is selecting actors who can pull off all five shows Lake Dillon Theatre produces during the summer.
“If we were casting for just one show, it'd be really easy,” Alleman said. “But the types (for each show) are really different. It's like a Tetris puzzle on my desk.”
Alleman and Blanchard will continue to match headshots to all of the varied roles in all five shows, until they find the right combination.
But one thing is clear: Alleman found a winning combination with the plays he chose this summer — “Rent,” “Hair,” “Smokey Joe's Cafe,” “Rapunzel: A New Children's Rock Musical” and “A Totally Awesome '80's Revue” — because last month he had already sold 90 summer repertory season passes, compared to a total of 45 passes he sold for last summer's shows.
“I think we'll come close to hitting 150 (passes sold), and I think that says a lot about how people are going to enjoy these shows,” Alleman said.
“We wanted to do a powerful and audience-friendly summer,” he said, explaining that audience-friendly meant productions people are familiar with, so as to play it safe in this current economy. “'Hair is making a comeback across the country, and when I look around Summit County, I see characters of ‘Hair' snowboarding and skateboarding — and now we have all the pot shops!”
Rather than attending two conferences (the Unified Professional Theatre Auditions in Memphis, Tenn., and the Southeastern Theatre Conference, which changes locations every year), Lake Dillon Theatre directors decided to go to New York and choose from the cream of the crop.
In previous years, artistic director Chris Alleman and producer (and events manager for Keystone Neighbourhood) Josh Blanchard traveled to the aforementioned mass auditions, which draw approximately 850 actors each. The problem: The actors audition in front of a bunch of theater companies, and after the conference, the race is on to snag the best. The whole process becomes complicated when, say, Lake Dillon offers a job to an actor, and he says he's waiting to hear from yet another theater. Blanchard compared it to rushing for a fraternity or sorority: Once the organization decided they wanted someone, that someone might be waiting for another offer.
And, perhaps more importantly, the auditions never attracted a large amount of cultural diversity, and this summer, Lake Dillon is looking for ethnic actors to fit the bill.
So, on Dec. 27, the Lake Dillon Theatre Company posted a call for actors in Playbill, Backstage and on the Colorado Theatre Guild website. Within the first day, 400-450 applications inundated them. After a week, Alleman and Blanchard were working late nights, slugging through a thousand headshots and resumes.
Of those, they called more than 300 to audition in New York last week. Now, Alleman plans to always travel to New York to cast, because “the talent was just incredible.”
Two of this summer's shows, “Rent” and “Hair,” particularly require a diverse cast. But even a trip to New York only netted about 100 actors who weren't Caucasian. It did produce better odds than the auditions they usually draw from, which attracted maybe 100 minorities, out of 850 actors, Blanchard said. As Alleman explains it, the most talented ethnic actors already have jobs, because the ratio is low to begin with.
Nevertheless, Alleman and Blanchard found more talent than they knew what to do with. They've narrowed their choice down to 25 actors and can only pick about 15. In addition, they're still accepting video submissions by Colorado actors through Friday, Jan. 29. They canceled the scheduled Colorado audition, because they had a low response and couldn't justify flying their choreographer, Julianna Black, and their musical director, Jonathan Parks, from Los Angeles and Atlanta, respectively.
Oh, and speaking of musical directors, this summer, Lake Dillon Theatre has a 21-year-old prodigy.
“He can play anything you put in front of him,” Alleman said. “I won't be able to afford him in a couple of years, because he'll be playing in New York.”
The jaunt to New York cost about the same, or perhaps even less, than going to the national auditions, Blanchard said, but it did involve more infrastructure, in terms of bringing in Black and Parks, as well as processing a ton of paperwork.
“It took a lot more organization, but it was nice to do it on our terms,” Blanchard said. “It was worth it because the overall quality of the people we saw had a higher level of talent and were a more diverse group.”
Another advantage to the New York audition process: Only actors who were interested in performing at Lake Dillon Theatre showed up, as opposed to the conferences, which brings in actors who may be interested in working at other locations in the nation. It also adds some prestige to the Lake Dillon Theatre Company, because Dillon is the only Colorado company — other than the Arvada Center and the Denver Performing Arts Center — to cast in New York, Blanchard said.
The last challenge Alleman and Blanchard now face is selecting actors who can pull off all five shows Lake Dillon Theatre produces during the summer.
“If we were casting for just one show, it'd be really easy,” Alleman said. “But the types (for each show) are really different. It's like a Tetris puzzle on my desk.”
Alleman and Blanchard will continue to match headshots to all of the varied roles in all five shows, until they find the right combination.
But one thing is clear: Alleman found a winning combination with the plays he chose this summer — “Rent,” “Hair,” “Smokey Joe's Cafe,” “Rapunzel: A New Children's Rock Musical” and “A Totally Awesome '80's Revue” — because last month he had already sold 90 summer repertory season passes, compared to a total of 45 passes he sold for last summer's shows.
“I think we'll come close to hitting 150 (passes sold), and I think that says a lot about how people are going to enjoy these shows,” Alleman said.
“We wanted to do a powerful and audience-friendly summer,” he said, explaining that audience-friendly meant productions people are familiar with, so as to play it safe in this current economy. “'Hair is making a comeback across the country, and when I look around Summit County, I see characters of ‘Hair' snowboarding and skateboarding — and now we have all the pot shops!”
