Auditions were held last weekend for the opening musical of the Hillsdale Community Theatre’s 2012 season. The play, Sweet Charity, is a classical American musical comedy by Neil Simon, said Director Trinity Bird.
Bird, who is also the assistant editor at the Hillsdale Daily News, has volunteered at the Sauk Theater and with HCT for fifteen years. Sweet Charity will be his 21st show.
“Sweet Charity tells the adventures of Charity Hope Valentine, a ‘girl who wants to be loved,’” Bird said. “The play begins with Charity on a date in Central Park. After her date throws her in the lake and steals her money, Charity begins to wonder what she must do to find true love.”
She meets an Italian movie star and finally a sweet, shy man named Oscar Lindquist.
“It’s the heaviest dance show we’ve done in quite a while,” Bird said. “It’s an emotional journey — both funny and heartbreaking.”
Rehearsals begin the week of April 9. Performances run June 7-10 and 14-17 at the Sauk Theatre in Jonesville, Bird said.
Bird said during auditions he was looking for actors with depth who could also sing and were coordinated while dancing. He said no experience is necessary to participate in any HCT play.
Bird said he encourages anyone, including college students, to participate regardless of experience.
“I love working with people who have never done a show before,” he said. “I love teaching and molding them.”
Although HCT and the Hillsdale College theater department often borrow costumes and props from each other, Bird said not many students participate, especially for summer productions.
In the late 70s, HCT and the Hillsdale theater department performed a couple of joint musicals.
“I would like to do that again,” Bird said. “It’s just a matter of time and scheduling.”
Emily Sarver, ’10, started participating in HCT productions the summer after she graduated. She started by playing piano in the pit orchestra for Bye Bye Birdie in the summer of 2010 and The King and I in May 2011. She then acted in The Drowsy Chaperone in August 2011.
“I didn’t really know about it as a student,” said Sarver, special assistant for research and programs for External Affairs. “It’s been a wonderful experience. I never had the opportunity before.”
Sarver said it would have been hard to fit in rehearsal time while in school.
Michael Jordan, professor of English, agreed.
He said he would encourage students to get involved in HCT productions only if they have extra time in their schedules. Rehearsals run for at least a full month from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. four nights a week.
He said these late-night rehearsals often keep his 13-year-old son, John William Jordan, up late, but the late nights are worth the experience.
John William Jordan has acted in four HCT plays and hopes to participate in the last play of the 2012 season, It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play.
“I got into it because I thought if you were in a play you were instantly famous,” he said. “Then it just stuck. I would have started sooner if I knew how fun it was.”
Sarver said participating in HCT is a wonderful part of her life and allows her to see valuable aspects of the community.
She said she enjoys participating in the community theater in part because of the interaction with people from all walks of life.
“The people there have more personality, more of an age range, and a broader range of experience than you find at Hillsdale [College],” she said. “The Hillsdale community is rich and vibrant. You don’t see that going to Walmart.”
Sarver said she wishes Hillsdale students could get involved to know more about the community.
Auditioning for most plays includes singing 16 bars of a ballad or up-tempo song, preferably from a Broadway musical. Auditions also include a cold reading from the script and, in the case of dance productions like Sweet Charity, a short piece of choreography.
“The Sauk Theater is a little more laid back without sacrificing quality,” Sarver said. “I know I’ll stay involved as long as I’m in Hillsdale.”
The rest of the HCT season includes The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee in August, Proof in September, 1776 in October and It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play in December. Tickets for each show go on sale two weeks prior to opening.
ejohnston@hillsdale.edu
