In a unique opportunity for young people interested in acting, the Classic Theatre Festival will be holding auditions for young female performers, aged 9-12, on Saturday, November 1 in Perth.
While the Festival has yet to announce its upcoming 2015 summer season, Artistic Producer Laurel Smith is planning one show that features a spunky 10-year-old girl in a number of key scenes. Smith plans to cast two girls to share the role during the play’s 8 times a week performance schedule.
“Perth as a community has probably one of the highest-per-capita numbers of people in the country when it comes to community theatre and youth theatre, and we know from our experience of auditioning young people last year for our youth troupe how many people have come through, for example, the Perth Academy of Musical Theatre, which has done so much to provide training and opportunities for young people with a knack for theatre,” says Smith.
For next season, the young actors chosen will be working alongside some of the country’s top professional talents in the Festival’s mainstage shows. They’ll also be picking up a paycheque. “Like anyone who works in a professional job, the young female performers who get this job will be getting a paycheque, perhaps a start for saving for higher education a few years down the road,” Smith says.
While the Classic Theatre Festival has so far only cast adults in its shows over its five year history, Smith has a great deal of experience working with young people, especially in projects linked to the Toronto District School Board and Arts York, where she developed a number of pieces that brought to life key moments in Canadian history and also spoke to contemporary youth issues.
Smith also conceived, dramaturged, and directed last year’s hugely popular Perth through the Ages theatrical historic walking tour, a youth theatre training project that employed a half dozen young people throughout the summer. That project will return in 2015 with new stories and characters, and Smith will be holding auditions for young people for this project in the near future as well.
In the meantime, anyone interested in auditioning should submit a resume and head shot no later than October 26 to info@classictheatre.ca.
