<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This article originally appeared in the winter 2011 Harker Quarterly<\/a> and was reprinted in Harker News Online<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n This October, a unique combination of events conspired to\ngive performing arts students a at a hitherto unexplored area of their craft:\nthe Broadway casting call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It started when Laura Lang-Ree, K-12 performing arts\ndepartment chair, was contacted by Lisa Schwebke \u201904 about hosting a talent\nsearch she was associated with. Casting for a Broadway revival of \u201cAnnie\u201d is\nunderway and the West Coast casting call for the lead role and her orphan buddies\nneeded a place to audition hopefuls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Schwebke, a musical theater graduate\u2028of the Harker Conservatory certificate program,\nhad interned and apprenticed at casting agency Telsey + Co., which was holding\nthe casting call, and she now works as a talent agent with the Gersh Agency,\nwho would love to place some\u2028of\ntheir talent in the show. Lang-Ree and the Telsey representative worked out the\ndetails and the deal was done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The payoff was that Harker Conservatory certificate\ncandidates and other performing arts students had\u2028an\nintense weekend in late October, attending a college casting workshop Friday\nafternoon, a workshop on casting in general that evening, and putting the new\ninformation to use at the casting call held at Blackford on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Friday Afternoon<\/p>\n\n\n\n Schwebke was up to bat first. She hosted the Friday\nafternoon discussion in Nichols Hall with students in Cantilena, an upper\nschool choral group, and the Advanced Scene Study, Choreography and Study of\nDance classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Schwebke, perched on the edge of\u2028the stage, spoke about the satisfaction\u2028 in her non-acting job and how\nshe actually likes the casting side better\u2028than\nperforming. A Manhattan resident who attended New York University\u2019s Steinhardt School, she noted the\u2028training she received while getting her\nConservatory certificate has helped her virtually every day of her career. \u201cThe\ndiscipline and foundation in the arts I learned [at Harker] comes into play\nevery single day of my life,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t think I would have gotten that\ntraining anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her best advice for current Conservatory candidates is to\n\u201cbe open to all the possibilities. I really didn\u2019t understand that there were\noptions other than to be an actor, and I\u2019m having so much more fun doing what I\nam doing now that I ever did when I was acting. I loved [acting], but to help\nother actors and to use different parts of my brain that I maybe wasn\u2019t using\non that track is such a treat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Friday Evening<\/p>\n\n\n\n That same evening, Schwebke and Telsey casting director\nRachel Hoffman teamed up for a Conservatory-sponsored workshop, \u201cHow Broadway\nCasting is Done.\u201d They discussed the difference between a talent agent and a\ncasting director, gave tips to the students about following different courses\nin college, and answered the students\u2019 various questions about \u201cthe biz.\u201d\nTwenty-five Conservatory candidates attended the workshop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was great,\u201d said Lang-Ree of the audition workshop. \u201cIt\nwas a unique look at the business of casting; not only could my students gain\ninformation about casting and understand it in a whole different way, but they\ngot to show\u2028their stuff as\nwell. I had a couple of students prepare their work\u2028to show it to Rachel for feedback. That was very\ninformative not only for the students who were brave enough to do that but for\nthe students watching. You learn so much by observation in the arts,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sunday<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, Sunday, 30 Conservatory candidates in two shifts\nhelped manage the flow of tiny hopefuls to and from the audition rooms, as\nHoffman and two of her New York colleagues finished up a yearlong search for\nthe next cast of \u201cAnnie,\u201d being revived on Broadway next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gathering in the Blackford campus\u2019 outdoor eating area, the\nmorning shift of 15 interns was instructed on how to help those auditioning to\nfill out the proper releases, where the prospective Annies and orphans would go\nfirst, and where to take them when they moved to the second round or were\nthrough for the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those trying out for parts began arriving at 8:30 a.m.,\nsettled at picnic tables and passed the time until called.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe amphitheater is the holding room,\u201d said Alice Tsui,\ngrade 11 and a theater certificate candidate. Once called in, hopefuls \u201cgo in\none by one and sing to them. It is very exciting,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Interns first led those auditioning in groups of eight to\nthe initial try-out room, helping build energy and confidence by having them\nskip or weave between the poles along the walkway. While waiting outside the\nauditioning rooms, interns read parts to cue those auditioning, high-fived\nthose exiting and gave advice on speaking with emphasis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI thought it would be a really good experience,\u201d said Tsui,\n\u201cespecially because it was a real Broadway audition. I thought it would be a\ngreat chance to see what goes on\u2028beyond\nthe walls of high school and it has been\u2028fascinating.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAuditions went great,\u201d said Hoffman. \u201cHaving the casting\ncall at Harker has been a win- win all around. Harker has been a beautiful\nfacility. The interns have been fantastic. I think they\u2019ve had fun and they\nhave been great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI love that high school kids are the interns because little\ngirls that age always look up to older girls, so they have been fantastic about\nbeing encouraging; a big part of this is to encourage self-esteem\u2028in these girls. The interns\nhave been fantastic at that throughout the day!\u201d said Hoffman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lang-Ree was on cloud nine with all the outside expertise\nflowing to Conservatory candidates. \u201cIt has been an incredible opportunity to\nhave that kind of one-on-one contact with live theater on Broadway,\u201d she said.\n\u201cIt has allowed students to see the business from a very personal point of\nview.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Between the Friday\u2028\nafternoon session, \u2028the\nFriday evening\u2028 session\nand Sunday\u2019s \u2028casting\ncall effort,\u2028\u201c interns have had an \u2028opportunity\nto see\u2028 the business from\u2028 multiple sides, and that is\nsomething that is really important to the Conservatory teachers,\u201d Lang-Ree\nsaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhile we all understand that passion and joy of performing\nand we all still perform ourselves, there is something about knowing that there\nis more to being in the arts than being the one shining star on Broadway \u2013 that\nthere is this whole world open to them to remain in the arts their entire lives\nin directing, casting, stage management or even being that star on Broadway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis whole process was so successful from our end, and\nhopefully from Telsey\u2019s. We all got along so well they may return in February\nfor a workshop and we hope to piggy back on that. This is a home run for us and\na home run for them, so we would do it again in a heartbeat,\u201d concluded\nLang-Ree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This article originally appeared in the winter 2011 Harker Quarterly and was reprinted in Harker News Online. This October, a unique combination of events conspired to give performing arts students a at a hitherto unexplored area of their craft: the Broadway casting call. It started […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[193],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-and-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=985"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":986,"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985\/revisions\/986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}