At the Players Guild of Dearborn, casting falls to, what else, the Casting Committee led by Bob Jones, the Casting Governor. About a month before the audition dates, an audition notice for the show is distributed by email to more than 800 theatre people in southeast Michigan. The audition notice provides information about dates of auditions, performance dates, and, more importantly, information about the characters in the show. The notice is designed to give people interested in auditioning some insight into what the director and the casting committee might be hoping to find.
For A Little Night Music the audition notice also included information about the music the characters would be required to sing and the vocal ranges for the songs. The audition information was also posted on the guild’s web site: playersguildofdearborn.org.
There are usually two nights of auditions and they usually take place on the Monday and Tuesday after the opening weekend of the previous show. This means that, for much of the season, the Guild has a show running and a show in rehearsal. Auditionees are only required to attend one night of auditions, but many come for both nights.
Auditions are open and non-members may try out. When non-members are cast they must agree to become dues-paying members. People who auditioned for A Little Night Music were required to sing a little, act a little, and dance a little. The casting committee and Harold Jurkiewicz, the Director, paired-up auditionees so they could see how people would look in various roles. This helps the committee answer questions such as, “Will this fellow look good as Fredrik playing opposite this gal playing Anne,” or “How will these two sound singing together?”
We had 40 talented people audition for A Little Night Music. The level of talent is always amazing and makes casting decisions difficult. After the last night of casting for A Little Night Music, the discussions and process of making the final choices ran into the early morning hours of the next day.
Here is the cast list for the show.
The Liebeslieder Singers are Shardai Davis of Dearborn, Brian Townsend of Dearborn, Jillian Drapala of Dearborn Heights, Julie Ballantyne Brown of Dearborn, and Mark Byars of Garden City.
Chorus Members are Tim Carney of Livonia, Dana Welsh of Dearborn, Diane Cliff of Dearborn, Deborah Lavely of Grosse Ile, Mark Ripper of Northville, Inez Hernandez of Ecorse, and Takesha Walker of Detroit
Fredrika Armfeldt – Jade Reynolds of Oxford
Madame Armfeldt – Diana Reynolds of Taylor
Frid – Kerry Plague of Canton
Henrik Egerman – Mike Suchyta of Dearborn
Anne Egerman – Lindsey MacDonald of Canton
Fredrik Egerman – Tom Murphy of Allen Park
Petra – Chelsea Burke of Plymouth
Desiree Armfeldt – Sally Goodman of Dearborn
Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm – Brett Reynolds of Pontiac
Countess Charlotte Malcolm – Valerie Haas of Inkster
Osa – Corinne Fine of Canton
The Guild is an all-volunteer organization and everyone in the cast is an amateur in the finest sense of the word in that they participate in theatre for the love of it.
Sally Goodman (left) was cast as Desiree.
Jade Reynolds was cast as Fredrika.