Emily Gale wants to interview

[bcnups]

According to starsinmyeyes.tv Emily Gale is writing a book, (about a youngster who auditions for "Dirty Dancing"), and would like to do some research on the musical theatre audition process. (Both open and closed, I imagine). I have suggested she might logon to this Forum to see if anyone would like to respond. No doubt you'll do your own checking out, but meanwhile, her e mail address is em@emilygale.co.uk. Her site is http://www.emilygale.co.uk.

[Hecouldshine]

Hi Emily. welcome to NAPM. Your book sounds really interesting. I'm not sure that Dirty Dancing has any under 16 roles in it though. Girls of 15 would not generally get roles in musicals unless they looked young and were playing much younger people - because of the licence rules, it is easier to find a young looking older girl of over 16,(and often musical theatre trained over 21 year olds), to play teenagers as they would not need a performing licence. Hopefully someone else can explain that better than I can ! I don't know how you can get round that, or whether you can rethink her age, or the musical?

Hope someone else can fill you in on the audition questions....

Good Luck

[igloobabe]

My dd could be your 'Allie'! Except for myself, my MIL and hubby, the rest of our family are totally disinterested in the things she does most of the time. My parents have always been rather disapproving of the performing arts - basically if it wasn't to do with church, we didn't do it.

DD is of the age where it is almost impossible to get roles in anything other than amateur productions (nearly 13) but has won local competitions got into several big singing finals.
She is too tall to play a child in the west End, but as hecouldshine says, too young to play an adult or even a teen due to licencing laws. (Apparently this is not so in the states - so maybe Allie could be American?)

DD goes to a local drama group, has singing lessons, goes to one dance lesson and guitar lesson per week. I run my small toddler music business purely to pay for classes- every penny goes on fees. She has an agent (free )but so far this has not secured her any work. She gets most of her openings from Starnow, a talent website which is low cost and easy to update. She is used to getting really big parts in her local group, so it would be likely that if up against the 'seasoned stage school pros' that frequent all the London audtions, she would be knocked back

If your Allie's family are disinterested, you will have to think of how she can afford to be a rising star in her local community - singing lessons /dance etc cost an arm and a leg! So I guess her parents have money but no passion?

A fifteen year old would almost certainly have to be accompanied by a parent or guardian to an audition. I also agree that due to the content of Dirty Dancing it is unlikely they would use anyone under 18 for the main parts.

Sorry this ia all a bit disjointed - hope some of it helps!

[EmilyGale]

Thank you very much igloobabe and Hecouldshine - it's really kind of you to take the time, and I'm so glad I asked for this insider info before I went ahead and ruined the whole book

I'll have a good look at the licensing laws, have a rethink about the part she's going for and see how I can get around those issues you've raised.

I'm really grateful for this. Thanks again.

Emily

[Hecouldshine]

Thank you very much igloobabe and Hecouldshine

You're welcome

The government had the licensing law reviewed earlier this year, and made some recommendations

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatter ... erformers/

but we don't know whether the law will change, which makes it difficult for you to get too technical about it in a book that won't be actually published for another 12 months plus, I guess?

I think someone posted details of an open audition for dirty dancing in the 16-20 auditions section on here once, but it seems to have gone I think it was copied from here http://uk.starsinmyeyes.tv/ArticleDetai ... z12bcljTPj

Meant to say, your Girl Aloud book has some great Amazon reviews

[EmilyGale]

Thanks for the round of applause and for that link... I've changed a few details and think I'm on the right track now - thanks to this forum!

Cheers,

Emily