Auditions for spring and fall plays a success

Earlier this week, the Buena Vista University theatre department held auditions for the winter and spring productions.
 

The winter show will be directed by Dr. Michael Whitlatch, Professor of Theatre. The show, Proof by David Auburn, follows the life of a young woman who is following in the footsteps of her deceased fathers genius/illness. The interest in the play was overwhelmingly female, resulting in an all woman cast despite two male roles.
 

It will be interesting to see the effects the gender change of the characters will have on the relationships in the show, as well as the show in general. Dr. Whitlatch had anticipated this possibility, and is positive that the point to the play will not be affected by this change.
 

The cast will consist of senior Carrie New, first-year Kylie Peterson, junior Cassidy Ptacek, and sophomore Cindy Barahona.
 

The spring show, A Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Gondini, will be directed by Dr. Bethany Larson, Assistant Professor of Theatre.
 

This is a Commedia Dell’Arte show, meaning masks will be used in performance. The audience is sure to crack up at the antics of the characters on stage.
 

Eight of the twelve cast members are first-years, many of them making their debut in university theatre. The cast includes first-years Alex VanMaanen, Taylor Burgraff, Laura Schachtner, Carlos Rivadeneyra-Salcedo, Ashlyn Norris, Vanessa Ellsbury, and Sahara Scott, sophomores Nicholas Andersen and Cindy Barahona, and juniors Noel Hoffman, Cassidy Ptacek, and Brandon Williams.
 

This year Dr. Whitlatch and Dr. Larson decided to hold auditions together. The directors each use their own individual casting methods. Whitlatch conducted open auditions, where actors took turns reading excerpts from the script.
 

Larson’s auditions, however, were closed. Actors recited a one minute monologue the first night, and read from the script for call-backs the next evening.
 

The theatre department also offered options to students not on campus this semester as they have in the past.
 

"When students are studying abroad or off-campus during a particular semester, we offer them options for auditioning for shows: junior Noel Hoffman auditioned while she was here on a break [from the Second City comedy school in Chicago], sernior Andrew Lupkes auditioned via email/video from Wales, and 2008 alum Kelly Goetz did likewise from London," Larson said.
 

On Monday night each of the directors worked with the actors on the stage in Anderson Auditorium for a half an hour. For call-backs, Dr. Larson worked out of Anderson, and Dr. Whitlatch was located in Harold Walter Siebens Forum.
 

Sharing the auditions went smoothly, and the actors who wished to audition for both shows had no difficulty in accomplishing just that.
 

“Overall, we ended up with two very strong casts, and audiences can expect two very exciting productions this year,” Whitlatch said.