Chapter 56 Audition Casting

The director introduced the composition of the High School of Performing Arts, which is divided into three departments: acting, music, and dance. This is a public high school with enrollment across New York State. As long as you pass the admission interview in one of the three areas, you can enter the high school.

This provides children from lower-class families with artistic talent an opportunity to stand out. Without this school of performing arts, children from poor families would have no choice but to compete for art scholarships from private schools like Meg Tilly.

So, their path upward would be much narrower.

Director Alan Parker mainly presented the plot of the movie *Hot Lunch*: "This is a movie that reflects the experiences of students at a public high school of the arts. Eight students with different personalities, backgrounds, and specialties have their experiences growing up in the performing arts environment."

"We hope to hold a large-scale audition at the Academy of Performing Arts. The eight main roles, 16 supporting characters, and 600 extras for the movie will be selected from your school."

"Our High School of Performing Arts is the largest and most comprehensive public art high school in New York. This is exactly where a film like this should be set. I'm still a fan of your last movie, *Midnight Train*," said the director.

"We also hope to film scenes at your school. Additionally, there are scenes between teachers and directors in the movie. We hope that the teachers at your school and you can also star in them."

The director smiled even more.

Several parties have reached an agreement. Large auditions are held on weekends for the performing arts departments.

The auditions will be held in the school's auditorium. Two casting companies, each with three casting directors, selected eight candidates for the main roles. Students deemed suitable will be recommended to the director's office for a second round of interviews.

Ronald's job is to take photographs of each student selected in the second-round interview room, then develop and print two copies and file them with the two casting companies.

After inspecting the venue, Ronald had an idea and was about to leave when producer Da Silva approached him again.

"Are you familiar with the script?"

Ronald nodded.

"What are the background details of the student Doris?"

"Jewish, good at singing, average appearance, younger version of Barbra Streisand."

"Very good, keep it up," Da Silva pointed to his ear, indicating to report any situation immediately.

"If possible, may I ask why you're doing this?" Ronald asked, seeing that Silva was in a good mood. It's uncomfortable being caught between the producer and director this way.

David da Silva stopped and looked at Ronald: 

"You know, Alan is a very good director, but he's British. He doesn't understand the mentality of us Americans. We're born, and the final step is to win. In our movies, the hero always beats the villain and wins over beauty."

Or not? Our Jimmy Generals admitted on television that America no longer had the moral superiority needed to lead the allies.

But maybe most people still think so. Ronald knew that many people hated the idea of a great commander.

"Remember, if there's any change, let me know as soon as possible." Producer Da Silva left first.

Ronald returned to the conference room and waited to send the director back to the casting studio.

Alan Parker was still chatting, discussing his script with the acting teachers.

"My philosophy is to truly reflect social reality issues. For example, racial and class issues, so I created the character of Leroy. He's from Harlem, has a gang background, is illiterate, but has very good dancing skills and talent."

"The topic of teenage pregnancy on high school campuses is a hot topic worth discussing. A white student is pregnant with a black child. What should she do?"

"Bullying on campus, gang issues…"

The acting department professor is also a Black man. He wears black-rimmed glasses and nods frequently. He was very satisfied with the storyline that director Alan Parker had sketched about Black and poor characters and could relate.

"But won't this make everyone misinterpret the Academy of Performing Arts? Most of our students are still mainstream good students. If everyone's prepared to play this kind of role, our school will look like a very dark place."

murmured another white teacher.

Ronald felt something might happen if the conversation continued. He stepped forward and interrupted the talk, dragging Director Parker to the casting studio where actors selected yesterday were auditioning.

When they arrived at the casting studio, dozens of boys and girls were already waiting in the reception area with their agents. Ronald saw Michelle, who looked like a cat, also waiting in line.

"Alright, we can start," producer Da Silva ordered to begin the audition.

One by one, the actors were called into the audition room. Ronald was responsible for taking a Polaroid picture, recording, and filing the director's comments.

Then, the director gave each actor a two-page script to perform live.

This is the benefit of operating through a casting agency. Casting studios are very familiar with the actors and can quickly filter suitable candidates. Without a casting director, just holding auditions alone would waste a lot of time.

The script provided by the director first showed Hillary making a series of ballet moves in the practice room, followed by a dialogue scene.

Ronald took the call. The actress would first put on ballet practice clothes and do some simple rotations and positioning moves.

Then casting director Howard Fehr would do a cameo and hold a few lines of dialogue with Hillary.

Ronald didn't quite understand why it was organized this way.

He noted the director's comments and took the opportunity to ask Margery from the casting studio.

Margery told him that this audition invitation specified that the role of Hillary had to be able to dance ballet and be at least nearly professional.

However, many actors often lie about having the necessary skills to get audition opportunities and then unexpectedly practice after being selected. This step today is created to filter out those who lie about being able to perform ballet.

Sure enough, with a few simple moves, an actress who couldn't do ballet was eliminated. She couldn't even stand on one leg and fell to the floor. Margery was so angry that she wrote "Liar" on her resume.

Ronald helped her up and called the next number.

"Michelle…Michelle Puff…, that's not right; Buff…, that's not right either."

After all, Ronald came from a different era and wasn't very good at pronouncing this German-style spelling of two consonants together.

"I'm Michelle Pfeiffer, the P is silent." The cat-like girl was amused by him and laughed.

"Sorry," Ronald also smiled, "Michelle, it's your turn, please go to the dressing room, put on your training clothes, and then enter."

Michelle put on a lavender practice uniform, white ballet tights, and pale pink dance shoes. The long blonde hair that originally hung down on both sides of her face was tied and pulled into a loose bun at the back of her head. This emphasized her cat-like face shape.

Ronald took a Polaroid picture of her and attached it to the audition form. It read Michelle Pfeiffer, blue eyes, 5 feet 7 inches (1.70 meters), 21 years old this year.

Her face looked very youthful, and her voice was still high-pitched. If he hadn't looked at her resume, Ronald would have thought she was under 18 and that she would have no problem playing a high school student.

"Get ready, start, turn the legs, one circle, two circles, Arabesque." Margery pressed the play button on the recorder and began calling orders at the same time.

"Alright, that's it."

End of the chapter