Last spring she took parts in five productions, and last summer she interned at the Berkshire Theatre Festival. As she heads for the Agassiz Theatre, she is just returning from graduate school callback auditions in Chicago.
"I feel like I’ve sort of raced with the big dogs a little bit and now I’ve come back to my home ground where I feel very safe, very welcomed," she says.
Newcomer Brian C. Polk ’09 has enjoyed tremendous success, snagging three roles last semester, including the lead in the HRDC production, "The White Rose."
Now, he must defend his title. He plans to audition for four of the 18 shows during spring Common Casting. "I’m not picky," Polk says, "and I’m certainly not someone who goes, ‘I’m above that show.’"
Barry A. Shafrin ’09 likewise impressed audiences last semester, through his portrayal of leading man Brad in the HRDC’s "The Rocky Horror Show," along with other minor roles.
Harvard veteran director Mary E. Birnbaum ’07 tapped the promising Shafrin to be the assistant director for the high-profile run of Federico Garcia Lorca’s "The House of Bernarda Alba" this spring.
And then, there’s Wojtek P. Kaszynski ’07. For him, Common Casting is all fun and games.
Unlike the other four actors, Kaszynski’s previous theater experience is "minimal."
"I was Puumba once," he says, referring to a grade-school interpretation of Disney’s "The Lion King." The role seems odd now. Kaszynski—originally from Warsaw, Poland—is blonde and beaming, hardly a porcine presence.
Now, after encouragement from friends, and aided by the all-are-welcome atmosphere of Common Casting, this applied-math concentrator will try his hand at the stage for the first time since childhood. He will only audition for Hanley’s "Chicago"
SELLING THE SHOW
"Chicago" is an independently funded production at the Agassiz Theater, without financial backing from the HRDC. Currently, the show is $5,798 in debt, flying on a loan from the Harvard Club of Mississippi, a $5,000 loan from the Agassiz Theatre, and a prayer.
But despite the obstacles, Hanley trusts he’ll do the impossible: rake in roughly $25,000 from "Chicago," and donate the funds to the Office for the Arts at Harvard, as an endowment for House drama productions.
Hanley’s expectations—while seemingly implausible—are not entirely unfounded. Last year, he directed Steve Martin’s "Picasso at the Lapin Agile" for the Winthrop House Drama Society, selling out all five shows and making an unprecedented $900.
Hanley prides himself on drawing from resources outside the traditional Harvard theater bubble—his four choreographers are members of the Harvard Dance Team, and his jazz orchestra is composed entirely of members of the Harvard Jazz Bands.
Regardless, as a non-Mainstage production, the odds are stacked against him.
"With Common Casting…you would rather take a chorus part in a Mainstage show than a lead role in a House show," he says.
