Despite being nervous, Jorge Fogear, theatre major, had fun rapping like a chicken during his audition for the upcoming musical, “The Boys from Syracuse.”
Fogear, who is in Jerry Prell’s Intro to Musical Theater class, decided to show up and audition, “I recently re-enrolled in school and this is something I’ve always wanted to do. I’ve never had the guts or knowledge on how to do it.”
After the audition he felt relieved and said, “I let the nerves get the better of me because I’ve never actually auditioned for anything before. So it was a new experience.”
Auditions for the theatre department’s upcoming musical, “The Boys From Syracuse,” had a low turnout Feb. 18 and Feb. 19.
The first day of auditions only had four participants and the second day didn’t fill up the roles.
During auditions, across from the stage, Prell sat with Hector Salazar, musical director, and Christopher Albrecht, choreographer.
According to the play’s director, Prell, there were a lot of interesting characters and funny situations involving romantic mix-ups in the musical.
“Energy is most important because the show was written in the 1930’s,” he said. “It was written like a vaudevillian piece so it’s very presentational, very slapstick, (it has) a lot of high energy and very farcical.”
The production is based on a Shakespeare play, “The Comedy of Errors,” which deals with the story of two separated twins.
It has been presented on and off Broadway since 1938. In the musical the twins, Antipholus of Ephesus and Antipholus of Syracuse, are separated during a shipwreck as children.
Their servants are also long lost twins. When the pair came to Ephesus one of the twins is mistaken as the husband of the other twin’s wife.
According to Salazar, “The Boys From Syracuse” wasn’t the first choice of musical and there were plans to present the musical “Into the Woods” by Stephen Sondheim instead. It is a musical based on tales by the Brothers Grimm.
But due to having the rights pulled, the theater department decided on “The Boys from Syracuse,” after deciding between different musicals.
“We vetoed several shows, we talked about the pros and cons… the needs and demands not only of the cast but set requirements, cost requirements, the size of the orchestra and all that.” said Salazar, musical director.
Aries Johnson, a musical theatre major, who had only heard about the auditions the first day on February 18, was eager to audition.
“This will probably the first thing I’ve done since high school which was three years ago … I really want to gain that experience and continue doing productions so I can get better.”
For students who couldn’t attend the Feb. 18-19 auditions, an additional date has been given: March 10 at 7 p.m. at the Burnight studio theatre.
