Our first big gig involved the planning and onsite coordination of the professional "Ben Hur - The Stadium Spectacular" auditions at Stadium Australia in early July.
AG Productions, a company "specialising in the presentation of comedy, ballet and music – but then won’t rule anything out", engaged our services for this unprecedented stadium spectacular full of gladiator fights, chariot races and a 40 meter ark, the production is fresh from the French StadeFrance creative team to Sydney’s Homebush bay. This will be the first production presented by ANZ Stadium and they are presenting the show in association with AG & StadeFrance. The whole production team is fantastic and we wish them all the best with this grand production.
The first three days of the auditions saw us corralling and directing would be gladiators, women pirates, lepers, soldiers, merchants and more and more ferocious gladiators! Auditionees were required to devise improvised combat scenarios, yelling their lungs out while “charging the ship”, dragging one foot behind them as our bacterially challenged lepers, and sashaying the runway as seductive noble women.
We worked with the incomparable crew from McGregor Casting who expertly registered each auditionee and had them all colour-coded so beautifully into their groups that it was impossible for them to become misordered, misplaced or mystified about the requirements and obligations of auditioning! Go McGregor Go!
We have yet to plan and implement the final day of auditions for Ben Hur, which it is believed will engage over 500 members of the general public, and take place on the hallowed field of play at Stadium Australia! Hooray! While for a sensible, intelligent individual this would be enough to inspire a keen desire to run and hide in the isolated foothills of the Himalayas, we crazy mass choreography freaks are enduring sleepless nights in eager anticipation of this monumentous gathering of would-be soldiers, lepers and pirates. CHARGE!!!
Photo courtesy of the 2006 Stadefrance production
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