PUHI — Two Jasmines and an Alice hopeful were among the people waiting for a shot at stardom Sunday at Puhi Theatrical Warehouse. “Chloe Rudinoff and Makenna Olson were the Jasmines during the recent Aladdin production,” said Lisa Mireles, one
PUHI — Two Jasmines and an Alice hopeful were among the people waiting for a shot at stardom Sunday at Puhi Theatrical Warehouse.
“Chloe Rudinoff and Makenna Olson were the Jasmines during the recent Aladdin production,” said Lisa Mireles, one of two people processing applicants for the open auditions.
Sunday was the third day of open auditions for “Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka, The Musical” which opens Nov. 18 and runs over two weekends at the Kaua‘i War Memorial Convention Hall in Lihu‘e. The musical’s closing is Nov. 27.
“It’s a pretty big production,” said Marly Madayag, known for student productions at Kalaheo School. “The production will have about 50 in the cast with an additional 15 Oompa Loompas and 15 other various neighborhood people.”
Open auditions started Friday at the Weinberg Gym at Island School and continued Saturday and Sunday at Puhi Theatrical Warehouse.
More than 40 hopefuls had already completed the auditioning process by Sunday, Madayag said.
“(The audition) was okay,” said Rudinoff, relieved the review in front of the panel was done. “Something happened in the song, but otherwise, it was alright.”
Makenna said she was done and simply waiting on her mother.
Makenna’s younger sister Shea, a fourth-grade student at Kalaheo School, was just there because everyone else was there.
“She’s going to audition for ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ later,” Makenna said in sisterly fashion. “She doesn’t want to be an Oompa Loompa, she’s going to try for Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum.”
Roles for the Willy Wonka production spanned all ages, from children to older adults, and information is available at the Hawai‘i Children’s Theater website.
“When people auditioning come in, we have to make sure all their forms are filled out before they audition before the panel,” Mireles said. “They need to have their photo taken because there are so many roles that require certain heights.”
Madayag was tasked with taking the photos while monitoring the door leading to the theater where the panel was seated.
“The next step is the rehearsals,” Mireles said. “Rehearsals start in August and September, on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the early evenings and Saturday afternoons.”
Rehearsals initially take place at various locations, moving to the convention hall during the final phases leading up to the curtain call.
“There’s a lot of work ahead of us,” Madayag said. “But we have an excellent artistic crew and tech crew so we’ll figure out what we have after this.”
Visit www.hawaiichildrenstheatre.com or call 246-8985 for more information.
• Dennis Fujimoto can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@ thegardenisland.com.
