Monday, March 3, 2008

`Good thing we have movies'


We were not sure what to expect for Sunday’s vocal auditions at Warwick’s Crowne Plaza, and so we were thrilled when a crowd was waiting for us before we began. We auditioned without a break from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. – eighty-one people in all. And we would have had more if we had not stopped accepting people at about 2 p.m., when it was evident that we would be unable to finish by closing time if we took more. Our apologies to those we had to turn away, and to everyone who had to wait – upwards of three hours in some cases. But we tried to give everyone a fair chance. Thanks to everyone who came. We will be looking for more voices as we move into future projects, check back here as details become available, and they will soon...

Eighty-one people from many walks of life: professional actors and actresses, radio personalities, teenagers, seniors, people who had been in movies and plays, folks who had never tried out for anything anywhere. Several people blew us away and we will be able to fill all nine slots with exceptional talent. We will be reviewing tape this week and next, and announcing the winners shortly. Again, thanks to everyone who came, and to the Crowne Plaza staff (even if some greedy underpaid butler pilfered Nicole’s tuna sandwich… just kidding, Bettencourt snuck it into his backpack to help feed his family, which ON THE LAKE has brought to the brink of starvation). Speaking of Bettencourt, we all learned how dangerously dictatorial he becomes when he's over-caffeinated. Thank God he is blessed with talent, or there'd be a mutiny.

Two last notes about the crew and our new slogan (for today, at least):

Dave, Lonnie, Ben, Josh, Nicole and I were there all day. Yolanda dropped by for the last couple of hours. Alex and Jeff T. were there. And once again, we were reminded of how energetically and effortlessly we all mesh, which bodes well for OTL and the films beyond.

The last piece is our new slogan: GOOD THING WE HAVE MOVIES.

This is a line from a letter home by Barbara, a wonderful young woman who died of TB at Zam when she was only 18. Barbara’s powerful, heart-breaking story is central to the film. She penned that line when describing how lonely it could get up there at the distant place on the lake, and hearing people read it while auditioning for her voice brought it home. We like it. We like her story, another great tribute to the human spirit – for despite her loneliness, Barbara emerges from her letters, photographs and an on-camera interview with her surviving sister as kind, funny, spirited, and someone we are delighted to immortalize. More on Barbara is in the Feb. 29 post.

-- Wayne

No comments: