Categories: News

Video – hundreds of young hopefuls at the Annie children’s auditions, Melbourne

Annie the Musical, produced by the Gordon Frost Organisation, is scheduled to play in four cities in 2012 – Sydney (current season), Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth.

For each season the company must completely recast the 3 young girls who share the role of Annie and the 21 girls (3 casts of seven) who play the orphans.

“We don’t publicise it enough here, how strong the swings need to be” – Kelly Aykers

Sunday February 26th was the first day of auditions for the children’s cast in Melbourne, with 240 young hopefuls selected to audition from over 700 submissions.

AussieTheatre joined choreographer Kelly Aykers in the audition room to talk about the casting process, how it differs from casting the adults in the show, and how important the ‘swings’ are in the production…

Matt Edwards

Matt is a past owner of AussieTheatre, working as digital director from 2011 to 2019. He is also a performer, most recently appeared in the Australian tour of Mamma Mia! and previously in the Australian/NZ tour of CATS and Enda Markey's acclaimed production of Blood Brothers. As well as performing Matt keeps himself busy in the digital side of the arts working with web design agency Emptyhead Digital

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  • The swing seems to be underrated.  What are they looking for in a swing orphan?  Is it considered better to land a role of one of the orphans or as the swing?

    What is the experience like for the swing orphan?  Who was the swing in the Sydney Annie production and how often did they get to go on stage - as opposed to waiting around in the wings?  What are the casting directors looking for in a swing orphan?

    Your thoughts?... 

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