Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Actresses get their chance to dream of playing Selena

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Saturday, October 16, 1999

Actresses get their chance to dream of playing Selena
Stage version of 'Selena Forever' searches for unknowns to play the part in national production
By Ellen Bernstein
Caller-Times

David Pellerin/Caller-Times

Casting director Stephen DeAngelis listens to (from left) Nicole Young, 18, Monica Loza, 22, Amanda Alaniz, 18, Audrey Saenz, 18, and Becky Avalos, 17, as they audition for 'Selena Forever,' the musical based on the life of Tejano singer Selena.

Last minute musical run-throughs of the Selena hit "Dreaming of You" were heard in a local parking lot early Friday, as if all the car radios were tuned to the same Tejano station.
   But inside the parked cars outside Q Productions, young women sang and mothers coached, as dozens waited to audition for the national stage production, "Selena Forever."
   An eight-city search for an unknown actress to play the Tejano superstar Selena in a multimillion- dollar stage musical came Friday to the family-owned studio where Selena once recorded.
   Auditions of 50 would-be Selenas in Corpus Christi followed a two-day casting call in San Antonio that drew hundreds of actresses from as far as Oklahoma and New Mexico. Men also vied for the roles of singing musicians in the musical.
   Auditions are continuing in Houston today and Sunday at Talento Bilingue de Houston.

Selena

   Auditioning for New York talent scouts in Corpus Christi was an opportunity Monica Loza couldn't miss.
   "I plan on making music my lifelong career," said Loza, 22, of Zapata, who attends Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. "This is a great opportunity and I don't have to drive all the way to New York."

'Selena Forever' Auditions
Casting agents for a national stage musical are searching for a girl (age 8-11) to play an 8-year-old Selena and an adult (18 or older) to play an older Selena. They are also looking for musicians who can perform and sing.
    Girls will be asked to sing 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' and young women will be asked to sing the Selena hits 'Dreaming of You' and 'I Could Fall in Love' with or without musical accompaniment. Auditioners should bring a resume, an 8x10 photo or recent snapshot, and should not dress like Selena.
    Those attending afternoon auditions may sign up one hour earlier than times stated.
HOUSTON
Oct. 17 Adult Selena, 10 a.m.
Location:
Talento Bilingue De Houston
333 S. Jensen St.
Houston, 77003
CHICAGO
Oct. 19 Adult Selena, 10 a.m.
Oct. 20 All principal roles except Selena, 10 a.m.
Oct. 20 Young Selena, 3 p.m.
Location:
The Theatre Building
1225 Belmont
Chicago, 60657
LAS VEGAS
Oct. 22 All principal roles except Selena, 10 a.m.
Oct. 23 Adult Selena, 10 a.m.
Oct. 24 Musicians who sing, 10 a.m.
Oct. 24 Young Selena, 2 p.m.
Oct. 25 Male ensemble, 10 a.m.
Oct. 25 Female ensemble, 2 p.m.
Location:
Go For It USA
1000 Stephanie Place
Henderson, Nev, 89014
LOS ANGELES
Oct. 26 Young Selena, 3 p.m.
Oct. 27 Male singers who dance, 10 a.m.
Female singers who dance, 2 p.m.
Oct. 28 Male dancers who sing, 10 a.m.
Female dancers who sing, 2 p.m.
Oct. 29 All principal roles except Selena, 2 p.m.
Oct. 30 Adult Selena, 10 a.m.
Location:
Madilyn Clark Studios
10852 Burbank Blvd.
North Hollywood, Calif., 91601
NEW YORK
Nov. 2 Male singers who dance, 10 a.m.
Female singers who dance, 2 p.m.
Nov. 3 Male dancers who sing, 10 a.m.
Female dancers who sing, 2 p.m.
Nov. 4 All principal roles except Selena, 10 a.m.
Nov. 5 Adult Selena, 10 a.m.
Nov. 6 Young Selena, 10 a.m.

Location:
New York, N.Y. The Raw Space 529 West 44th Street New York, N.Y.

MIAMI
Nov. 8 Male singer-dancers, 1 p.m.
Female singer-dancers, 4 p.m.
Nov. 9 All principal roles except Selena, 10 a.m.
Young Selena, 3 p.m.
Nov. 10 Adult Selena, 10 a.m.

Location:
Miami Beach, Fl. Miami Hard Rock Café 401 Biscayne Blvd. Miami, Fl

   Open calls
   Producers with Luna Productions, Inc. in New York have arranged open casting calls, hoping to find two actresses to play Selena as an adult and as an 8-year-old child. Finalists will be selected in November and rehearsals will begin after Christmas, producers said.
   If all goes as planned, the musical will open in San Antonio this spring, to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the singer's death on March 31, 1995. A 30-city tour will follow the San Antonio premiere, producers said. They hope critical acclaim will eventually bring the musical to Broadway. The producer's Broadway credits include "Jekyll and Hyde" and "The Wiz."
   Selena Quintanilla-Perez was shot and killed in a Corpus Christi motel by her former fan club president. Yolanda Saldivar is serving a life sentence in prison for the murder. Young and old turn out
   Auditions for the role of the younger Selena drew about 125 girls to Edgewood Academy of Communications and Fine Arts in San Antonio on Wednesday.
   "The young ones were great. Just precious," said Tatum Barnes, assistant casting director. "They were so sweet, always backing each other up."
   Only actresses vying for the role of the adult Selena were auditioned in Corpus Christi. The turnout was less than expected in Selena's hometown, producers said. While some Selena hopefuls showed more than passing talent, others exhibited more enthusiasm than ability.
   The women auditioned in groups of five, passing along the microphone, each singing a line of a song.
   One experience
   Rhonda Garcia, a 24-year-old mariachi singer and teacher from San Antonio, rose at 6 a.m. to make the auditions in Corpus Christi. A public school teacher, Garcia arrived too late for auditions in San Antonio and was steered to Corpus Christi.
   Her confident rendition of "Dreaming of You" perked the ears of casting agents and producers seated at a long table in a television studio at Q Productions. Her proficiency at five musical instruments - viola, violin, guitar, trumpet and guitarron - was another plus, agents said.
   "I feel I gave it my best shot," said Garcia, who is originally from McAllen, and has family in Kingsville and Alice.
   For Garcia, playing Selena in a musical would be the stage role of a lifetime. "I respect Selena very much because she was taking the music from our culture to a different level."
   No 'Chorus Line' games
   Most surprising was the relaxed atmosphere of the try-outs, auditioners said. It seemed casting director Stephen DeAngelis went out of his way to comfort nervous auditioners.
   He let them rehearse before each audition to the recorded sound tracks of "Dreaming of You" and "I Could Fall in Love."
   "He really made you feel at home," said Loza, who has performed in musical theater and opera at A&M-Corpus Christi.
   Some actresses expected the impersonal auditions satirized in "A Chorus Line," taking directions from a disembodied voice in a darkened room.
   But that's not DeAngelis' style, he said.
   "I try to demystify the process," said DeAngelis, who has castmore than 200 musicals and 100 plays nationwide. "I don't want to dare people to be good. I want to encourage them."
   Selena's father, Abraham Quintanilla, could be seen in tinted glasses and a Panama hat welcoming parents and auditioners to the family's recording studio on Leopard Street.
   "This is great," Quintanilla said of the auditions, "because a lot of these kids take acting classes around here. This gives them an opportunity to show their talents."



Staff writer Ellen Bernstein can be reached at 886-3763 or by e-mail at bernsteine@caller.com.

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