Acting out

May 6, 2010

Dear Julie,

Last weekend, some of the seniors graduating from the School of Visual and Performing Arts at Southeast Missouri State University volunteered to showcase the talents they honed at the university. To prepare them, the school imported from New York City a choreographer, an audition expert and an Emmy-winning casting director for nine hours of workshops.

Anyone who wants to work in the theater must learn how to market himself or herself, theater and dance department chair Dr. Rhonda Weller-Stilson says. "They're their own business."

A showcase is like a minirevue. Each actor or actress gets two shots. The songs are abbreviated to just over a minute, the monologues limited to less than 45 seconds. At one point a video of Dana-Leigh Formon dancing was projected on a screen. The students' performances Saturday were scintillating. Striking for me was how much their abilities had grown since first seeing many of them on stage as freshmen. Anyone who enrolls in the Holland School of Visual and Performing Arts knows they have some talent. Students have to audition to get into the department. But the assuredness onstage last weekend was gained through many trials and errors.

Lacey Hayes transferred from another college but at Southeast quickly picked up singing roles in "42nd Street," "1940s Radio Hour," "Sweet Charity" and "Big River." She's performed in dance concerts and last summer had a front-of-the-house internship at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in Greenwich Village. She has done it all.

Cody Heuer started almost invisibly as a bartender in "Picasso at the Lapine Agile." Most recently he was the strong-voiced lead in "Carousel."

Chelsea Serocke can hold a stage alone and has a powerful voice. Desmond Gray, who's also a talented choreographer and dancer, was a boy when cast as the lead in "Romeo and Juliet." Now he is a commanding presence.

A national touring company is looking at one of the students as a result of the showcase, and Sarah Tochtrop already has a job as an entertainer with a cruise line. Next stop Sydney. Gray will appear in "Aida" in Chicago this summer. Heuer is off for Montana's Big Fork Summer Playhouse this summer to play one of the leads in "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels." Two of the department's design tech graduates have jobs with summer theaters.

The showcase was only a trial run. Next spring for the first time a select group of Southeast seniors will go to New York and present a showcase before agents, casting directors and others in the business. The university will partner with another university to rent a theater.

Weller-Stilson says the New York professionals will tell aspiring actors where they can fit. That Danielle Hargis' funny, quirky style is a big strength. That Audrey Stanfield is both stunning and smart. That Serocke also projects intelligence, but her girlishness means she'll go up for younger roles.

Meagan Edmonds demonstrated that the university has long turned out fine actors. She was here a decade ago when the department was less performance-oriented but has been working in theater in New Hampshire since then. She came back to school this semester to finish her degree and convincingly brought Lady Macbeth back to life Saturday.

Scott Hamann has a similar story. He graduated a decade ago and, like many actors needing work, gravitated to the restaurant business. But acting wasn't done with him. He returned to school and won major roles in "Biloxi Blues," "Twelfth Night," "Big River" and "Rumors."

After graduation, he and the other students who performed plan to head for New York to see what they've learned and begin auditioning for real.

Love, Sam

Sam Blackwell is a former reporter for the Southeast Missourian.