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Friday, March 29, 2024

Studio 301 holding Spring Awakening auditions today and tomorrow

Calling all actors and aspiring actors: Do you have the talent to star in Studio 301’s upcoming rendition of Spring Awakening?

The student-run theater group’s winter show will be auditioning actors starting today from 5 to 10 p.m. in the Wyatt Pavilion. Additional auditions will be on Friday at the same time with callbacks on Saturday.

“We’re looking for people who are comfortable with difficult language,” said Mitchell Vanlandingham, director and sophomore linguistics and French double major. “Also I want the actors auditioning to be able to take risks.”

There will be seven to nine roles available, depending on the talent pool present.

Both male and female actors are needed for the play and auditioners are asked to prepare a one to one-and-a-half minute classical dramatic dialogue along with a headshot, resume and their work and class schedule for winter. The sign-ups for the 10-minute auditions are in the main office, located in the Art Building.

“If you’re at all interested in auditioning or being a part of Spring Awakening, come out to auditions and see what happens,” said Ulysses Morazan president and senior dramatic arts major in an e-mail interview. “It’s taking that first jump to audition that can lead to an amazing, theater-filled winter quarter.”

Frank Wedekind’s Spring Awakening is set in provincial Germany in the latter half of the 19th century. The controversial play deals with adolescent angst, sexuality, suicide and ineffectual parents. Capturing the bizarre and inimitable comic spirit that comes with the trials and tribulations of coming of age, Spring Awakening is an unrelentingly tragic play. In 2007 it inspired a wildly popular musical of the same name, which won eight Tony Awards.

“Every quarter Studio 301 puts on a play that undergoes a voting process with all members involved,” Morazan said. “Our members have selected Spring Awakening (the play) for its 2011 winter show.”

Studio 301 Productions is the only student-run production company on the UC Davis campus. The company is student-directed, student-designed, student-produced and provides a hands on experience for young people.

“Spring Awakening attracted me because the conditions mirror the conditions [of sexual education] today,” Vanlandingham said. “There has been a general commoditization of sex, but there is an unwillingness to talk about it.”

This will be Vandlandingham’s UC Davis directorial debut, and the sophomore couldn’t be more excited to get the process started. Previously he has been involved in Studio 301’s production of Hair and the Dead Arts Society’s spring 2010 showcase. Most recently, Vandlandingham performed in the theater and dance department’s production of Gallathea.

“I had a brilliant time working with Studio 301,” said Anna Kritikos, first-year undeclared major, who performed in Studio 301’s rendition of Rumors. “Everybody was so talented, capable and funny. Spring Awakening will be an amazing show, Mitchell Vanlandingham seems like a very passionate and talented director and he’s working with Gordon Martin Meacham, who is a very delightful and talented person as well.”

ANASTASIA ZHURAVLEVA can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.

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