Written by John Mark Adkison
In preparation for next spring’s script production course, Harding graduate Grant Dillion is creating the Harding Actors Bank to catalog a digital database for current Harding students interested in acting for the script production students’ film projects.
On Saturday, March 26, Dillion, who will be teaching the script production course, hosted an all-day audition in the Reynolds Recital Hall for students wanting to be a part of the database.
“We advertised the event as welcoming ‘anyone who can act, or at least thinks they can act,'” Dillion said. “We knew that type of approach would bring in an eclectic mix of professionals, novices and completely clueless amateurs; and that mix is exactly what we wanted. We never want the productions to be limited by the database, so as long as a student has the desire to act in front of a camera, we are happy to have them in the database.”
Sophomore Allison Musslewhite, a theater major, was one of the students who auditioned for the database. She said it was a requirement for each person auditioning to read a dramatic and comedic monologue. The students also had to fill out paperwork and get a head shot picture taken.
“It was pretty professional,” Musslewhite said. “But still very chill. The audition only took about 10 minutes. Film is a different animal altogether [from theater], so it would be good experience to have when I go out into the real world, but also I am not go- ing into film. If it happens, it happens, and if it doesn’t happen, also cool.”
Dillion said the idea of the casting database came to him as a way for the students in the script production class to cast actors quickly and not have to worry about making casting calls for every production project. Before beginning work on their filming projects, they will be able to go through the database and select which actors they think will best fit the production.
“I know personally from working as an advertising director that many times you need to know what kind of actors you have access to before you even begin to write a commercial or video spot,” Dillion said. “This database will allow the students to search through and see theavailable talent at Harding before they even begin to draft their productions.”
The all-day audition event brought in a good mix of students with varying degrees of acting skills, according to Dillion, which is exactly what he wanted.
“Around 25 students auditioned for the database,” Dillion said. “Theater majors made up around 70 percent of the actors, while the other 30 percent was a random mix of students who were passionate about acting and simply thought the ideasounded like fun.”
Dillion said that whilean all-day audition event is unlikely to occur again this year, he would be willing to audition more students.
“If someone wants to join the database, all they have to do is contact us on Facebook by joining the Harding Actors Database group and let us know they would like to join,” Dillion said. “We will then set up a time to photograph and videotape their performance and add them to the database on an individual basis.”
