Auditions coming for Lethbridge Musical Theatre and Chinook High School’s production of Newsies

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Extra, extra, read all about it, Lethbridge Musical Theatre has joined forces with Chinook High School to bring award winning musical Newsies to the Yates Theatre, Nov. 1-9.
“This project is a hybrid project with Lethbridge Musical Theatre and the choral and musical theatre program at Chinook High School,” said director Dave Mikuliak, who is excited to  be directing the first main stage Lethbridge Musical Theatre production is several years. The massive cast of 60 will include a combination of students and  community members, so there are separate auditions for the public on June 5 from 7-9 p.m.  at the Country Kitchen, but you need to sign up for a slot though Lethbridge musical theatre’s new website https://lethbridgemusicaltheatre.wordpress.com/
 Auditions for students are June 4 at Chinook High school. Chinook High School students will have their own auditions, as Newsies will be part of their curriculum, which focuses on acting, singing and dancing.


“We did Les Mis which is more singing and dancing and  Fiddler on the Roof, which is more book based, so I’m excited to continue that with Newsies,” Mikuliak enthused.
 The 2012 Broadway show  is inspired by the 1899 New York newsboys strike,which also inspired a 1992 movie.


“Though the musical and  the movie are quite different,” said Mikuliak, who is excited to combine the energy and budget of LMT and Chinook High School.
“ So the newsies will be youth, though it’s written so they can be girls too as that part of the show is written for higher register voices. And the adult characters can be adults,” he continued, adding there are some familiar names like newspaper tycoon Joseph Pulitzer.


“ Lethbridge Musical Theatre hasn’t done a mainstage production at the Yates Theatre for about four years, so it is very cool to be able to help bring that back now they‘re in  a financial position to do something like this.,” said Mikuliak, who has been involved in many LMT productions over the years including Guys and Dolls and Oliver. The last LMT mainstage production was Guys and Dolls in 2014., though they have put on a couple smaller shows to raise funds including Nunsense and Nunsense 2.


“LMT played an important formative role in my life when I was on my 20s and 30s  from 1989 to about 1994,” he enthused, adding he directed Finnegan’s Rainbow in 1995.
“ It’s funny, but a lot of the cast probably wouldn’t even have been born, when I directed my last LMT show. So it’s pretty special to be back,” he chuckled, adding he was excited to research the background for the show.

“It’s about children’s rights and worker’s rights and union rights,” he said, adding there are some parallels to Oliver, which was based on Charles Dickens’ novel “Oliver Twist’
“They both took place during the Industrial Revolution and  both involved children  in the workforce, who  for lack of a better term, were abused.”
He is looking forward to having a good cross-section of the Lethbridge theatre community involved in the production.
 He hopes to have the production cast in June. There will be an intense eight week rehearsal period beginning after the Labour Day weekend.
“it’s a very high energy show and it’s a Disney show, so it’s very family friendly,” he said.

 


While "Newsies" features many roles for youth  they are also looking for students aged current Grade 8 (so next year they would be Grade 9 students) and older. 
“If we need to cast a role or two with students that are aged younger than that, we will do a separate audition call following this first round of auditions,” he noted.
 He noted auditioners will be asked to read from the script, but ideally should be prepared to sing something from the show. Excerpts are available on the LMT website
REGISTER FOR A SPOT AT https://lethbridgemusicaltheatre.wordpress.com/
Please email our Stage Manager, Tyler Strang to schedule any audition times and if you have any questions. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Audition times for each night are as follows:
5:00 – 6:15 p.m. (12 actors)
    •    5:00 - 5:25 (group movement/dance audition) 

    •    5:25 - 6:15 (individual vocal audition) 
5:40 – 7:05 p.m. (12 actors) 

    •    5:40 - 6:05 (group movement/dance audition) 

    •    6:15 - 7:05 (individual vocal audition) 
6:25 – 7:55 p.m. (12 actors) 

    •    6:25 - 6:50 (group movement/dance audition) 

    •    7:05 - 7:55 (individual vocal audition) 
7:15 – 9:05 p.m. (12 actors) 

    •    7:15 - 7:40 (group movement/dance audition) 

    •    8:15 - 9:05 (individual vocal audition) 
8:00 – 9:55 p.m. (12 actors) 

    •    8:00 - 8:25 (group movement/dance audition) 

    •    9:05 - 9:55 (individual vocal audition) 
Callbacks will take place on Thursday, June 6th, Tuesday, June 11th, and Thursday, June 13th (if necessary). 


— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor
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