Behind the Scenes at 'Oliver!' Auditions

MAY 21, 2006 - PORTSMOUTH HERALD
By Andrea Bulfinch

Just outside the athenaeum of Little Harbour School, talent is buzzing, nerves are jittering and mouths are moving. A slow line of people forms at the sign-in table. Head shots and resumes are exchanged for a sheet of song lyrics and dialogue.
"Auditions are the worst part because you have to show everything you can do in two minutes," says Rob Russ, a University of New Hampshire theater student, who shares his thoughts about auditioning with Portsmouth native Sarah Shanahan.

"Yes," she replies. "And then you’re nervous on top of it." She says nervous, but her composure says otherwise.

"Exactly."

This is the second night of auditions for this year’s Prescott Park Arts Festival production of "Oliver!" Tonight’s performers are auditioning for adult roles in the play. Inside the athenaeum, Michael J. Tobin, main stage director, is setting up his work area where he’ll be watching and guiding the performers.

Shanahan, an Emerson College graduate and self-described "terrible auditioner," waits in the hall, incredibly nervous, while Russ goes in for his audition.

After a few more minutes of waiting anxiously, the two change places, Shanahan takes her place in front of Tobin and Russ heads back into the hallway.

Mark Dunivin, left, cast as "Oliver," and Andrew Bridges, cast as "Artful Dodger," practice a scene during tryouts for "Oliver!"
Photo by Jackie Ricciardi

Standing in the large room, her hands shake as she reads through the lyrics to "As Long As He Needs Me" on her own. Tobin, who performed in "Oliver!" in 1985 at Prescott Park, walks into the hall to check for newcomers and returns a few minutes later to hear what she’s got. What she’s got is a booming voice.

"Can we take that again?" Tobin says.

"We surely can."

"Focus on the color and intensity of the song," he urges and closes his eyes to listen.

Following his direction, something he takes note of, Shanahan ends the song in a vocal crescendo that makes Tobin smile, obviously pleased with the color her voice gave the song.

"And that, my dear, is called a showstopper," he says. The night is already off to a promising start for Tobin, he’ll clearly have plenty of people to consider for the 36 roles in the play. He’s about a month into his new role of main stage director, but professionally, he’s been doing theater for 24 years, performing in all the theaters local to Portsmouth.

Since this is the second night of auditions, the huge wave of people has passed with the first night. Time passes slowly as Tobin and Deborah Lielasus Tomlinson, Prescott Park Arts Festival’s executive director, await more participants.

"I see a hand, I see a person!" Tobin spots signs of life in the hall.

Linette Miles from Durham is making her way into the room. She, too, walks in with confidence, but swears she still gets nervous as she prepares to audition for the role of Nancy. She says she used to hear a critical voice in her mind when she auditioned. Now she thinks about the character she’s going for instead of that voice she hears.

After a few minutes of rehearsing, she belts out the same lyrics Shanahan did earlier. Miles is no stranger to performing. Her voice has been heard in shows across the country. It’s even gone with her for a Euro-tour.

Tobin likes what he hears in her audition and inquires about her summer schedule. Chances are good she’s got the part at this point.

After a brief meeting in the hall with Miles, Tobin returns for the last stretch of the evening. Just when things seemed as though they were winding down, a lone actor strolled into the room after the role of Fagin. Mike Wright, who traveled about two hours from Keene, performed along with Tobin in the 1985 "Oliver!". Fagin is the role he’s always wanted and was worth the two-hour drive to audition for.

"What are you auditioning for? Please tell me you have a role in mind," Tobin jokes.

"Yes. I’d like to play Fagin," Wright informs him.

"I’d love to have you as Fagin. What are you singing?"

"I’m singing ‘Master of the House.’" He doesn’t just sing "Master of the House," he slips into the role, immediately giving his voice an English accent. His nose scrunches, his eyes open wide, and a smile pulls across his face as he goes on singing. It’s been 11 years since the substitute kindergarten teacher has performed in a play. Apparently, it’s like riding a bike. He sings the lyrics without hesitation, as though he gets up on stage every day.

Tobin doesn’t even follow along with the words in front of him. His eyes are on Wright, who’s completely in character and pacing across the floor. As he paces, he’s thinking about getting that character across and whether he should be doing the accents. Losing himself in character is what he enjoys most, he says.

Time for the kids

"Ladies and gentlemen, if you’re done with your forms, I can take them."

As Tobin collects the audition forms parents have just filled out for the aspiring young actors, the stairwell of Little Harbour School overflows with youth.

"Mom, there’s a paper to fill out!" An anxious voice is heard above the chatty crowd.

Tobin will cast 14 kids total. But he’ll work with 87 to find them.

A 7-year-old Kate Constantine is excited as she finds her seat in the athenaeum. With a cast on her arm, a purple headband holding back her brown hair and a smile on her face, she swings her legs and sneakered feet under her chair. Her mother, Maura, sits next to her as Tobin welcomes the crowd. If she is cast, this would be her first time performing at Prescott Park and in a "real-life play." She’s done pageants at her church, but nothing like this. This would be different. This would be onstage, outdoors and in front of hundreds of people. She’s not scared.

She takes her place among the first group of 10 kids on the stage. They sing and dance and clap together, holding back a few laughs. This is professional after all. Then each person sings a song on his or her own. More intimidating, it seems, for their parents.

Jumping off the stage, Kate finds her mom.

"Congrats, you did great!"

"Thanks mom! Can we go home now?"

The cast on her arm that she acquired after a playground accident on the swings didn’t hold her back at all. In fact, she’s very resilient, her mom says. A broken arm is nothing compared to the heart surgery she had as a baby. Though she’s ready to leave, she takes a seat in her bright pink leggings and green shirt to watch a friend audition in the next group. A member of the junior choir at St. John’s, she’s mostly excited about the singing.

"That’s why I’m so good at it," she explains. She even added a British accent to her solo singing.

In the next group is Chance Jabre, a third-grader at Dondero School. The singing goes well for him, but the dialogue trips him up a bit and he grabs his head in defeat.

"The lines were just too close together to read comfortably. I was trying to read too fast," he said. He practiced the singing on the way over to the auditions with his grandfather, Shakrallah.

Tobin wants the whole experience for these kids to be a positive one. His friendly smile shows no intimidation and he has a natural knack for working with children. When he’s not flipping through the headshots and resumes of the youngsters, he’s taking notice of certain things - who’s singing the loudest, who had "the look," who had the toothy grin and who was excited to be there. Though having so many children to choose from is a positive thing, decisions for casting will no doubt be difficult to make because of it.

And the night is still young.

"Hi. Who are you?" Another fearless performer walks into the room.

"I’m Scott."

"Hi Scott."

Nine-year-old Scott Hermenau has played at Prescott Park before. He was the Mayor Of Munchkinland in last year’s "The Wizard of Oz." He was also in "Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." He just got back from a trip to Los Angeles where he auditioned for commercials, television pilots and movies. He’s used to the audition thing. And in this room, it’s clear he’s comfortable.

Jumping up on stage, he kicks his sneakers off. It’s not a superstition, it’s more in the name of safety - his sneakers have wheels on the bottom. He does a little dance, wiggles his toes and uses an accent. When it comes time to sing solo, his voice fills the room. Clearly, this is not a daunting task for someone who was just auditioning at NBC.

Standing onstage in front of Tobin and his peers, Hermenau is thinking about how he’s presenting himself, getting into character, and making conscious effort to get the words right.

His dream role, he says, is Oliver. His future dream includes Broadway, if he "can make a living off of it." Otherwise, he aspires to be an astronaut.

Finding Oliver

"OK, gentlemen, I don’t see anyone in the hallway, so I’m going to start with you three first."

"OK."

Three young men get up from their seats and take a seat onstage to chat with Tobin and audition for the lead role. Among them is 13-year-old Andrew Bridges whose hair hasn’t been cut since last November when he performed in Seacoast Repertory Theatre’s "Peter Pan." Then he took a villager role in "Fiddler On The Roof." Still no haircut. Now, he’s up for the role of the Artful Dodger. No haircut in sight. But he doesn’t mind one bit.

"I just want to do it. I want this show to be good. I want to accomplish something." He says.

Tobin gets the group ready to sing "Consider Yourself" and asks if anyone knows what it means to "color the words." Of course they do.

"Don’t just say the words, make them meaningful," one of the young talents says.

"Exactly. It can make all the difference in the world. That’s how I want you to sing this song."

With a few more words of direction, Tobin plays a CD for the boys to listen to.

"That’s as far as we’re going to go," he tells the group, stopping just after "drinks are on the house."

"OK, well let’s try that again," he says and they listen to the CD one more time. One by one, they fill the room with their voices.

Mark R. Dunivin, the smallest member of the crowd, joins the others onstage. When it’s his turn to do a solo version of "Where is Love," he’s directed to look at the mural on the wall and sing his heart out to the zebra, lion, monkey and forest of hand-painted animals. Dunivin, whose voice isn’t quite as bold as the others, but has a sincere quality to it, does as he’s directed.

"Wheeeeeere is love?" His eyes widen as he sings the words as though he’s hoping for the monkey to respond. His voice raises to the higher notes and his head lifts as he sings, selling the song to the animals as well as Tobin. He doesn’t know it yet, but his schedule is about to become very busy. There are lines to learn, accents to get just right and costumes that will need fitting. All the things of the lead role, Oliver.

After his audition, still with the innocent and fearless confidence of a child, he has one thing he’d like to say.

"Thank you, Mr. Tobin."