Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
AUDITIONS will shortly be taking place for parts in The Lion King – the next ambitious production by Music And Stage for Kids (MASK) to be staged in June, writes Stan Szecowka.
The local theatre company that provides Bahrain’s young talent a forum to test and develop their acting and musical abilities will be casting its net on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, March 21-23.
“The cast of this show will be entirely student-based with opportunities for young people of all ages,” said Lydia Martin, director of BSB Academy of Performing Arts and MASK.
The two-hour long auditions will be held at the British School of Bahrain. For the first part each participant will be taught a number of songs from the show and will then sing in a group and individually, if they wish to be considered for a principal part.
This will be followed by a dancing audition where a simple dance routine will be taught and similarly a drumming audition where each student’s rhythmic ability will be assessed.
Finally, the students will be asked to present a piece of devised drama based around an element of the story which they will prepare with one of the show’s directors earlier during the audition.
The Lion King is a musical based on the 1994 Disney-animated film of the same name with music by Elton John and lyrics by Tim Rice along with the musical score created by Hans Zimmer with choral arrangements by Lebo M.
The MASK production will be along similar lines to the Broadway-style version with original Swahili African chants alongside the show music. The plot is powerful. A young lion prince is born, thus making his uncle Scar the second in line to the throne. Scar plots with the hyenas to kill King Mufasa and Prince Simba, thus making himself King.
The King is killed and Simba is led to believe by Scar that it was his fault, and so flees the kingdom in shame. After years of exile he is persuaded by his former playmate and now sweetheart Nala to return home to overthrow the usurper and claim the kingdom as his own.
“We are looking for two lively children to play the parts of the young Simba and Nala and we may even use a ‘real’ baby as the newly-born Simba who is presented by baboon Rafiki in the opening scene,” explained Lydia.
“Rafiki is a very important pivotal part and needs to be played by an actor or actress of considerable stage presence with a powerful singing voice. Other parts are Mufasa – Simba’s father, Scar – his evil brother, a whole host of dancing lionesses, Zasu – Mufasa’s unwitting parrot advisor, the older Simba and Nala, Timone and Pumbaa, the hyenas and numerous other all-singing, all-dancing animals.
“We need lots of older students too for the ‘adult’ roles so if you want to be a star of the stage then don’t miss this chance! We will also need lots of African drummers and percussionists who should also sign up for an audition,” added Lydia.
The production team will be led by Lydia and Danny Furness, head of music at BSB, who is the brainchild behind the project. The directors will be professional actor/director Daniel Gott from London and Hayley Furness, head of drama, Bahrain Bayan School. Assisting with the music will also be Ollie Tunmer who performed in the musical STOMP! in London’s West End.
Ollie will be training the African drummers and percussionists for the show which will feature a chamber orchestra made up of academy students and other local and expatriate musicians.
For more details, call 17610943 or 39047734. Audition fees will be BD5.
