Fresno Beehive: From Page to Stage Series - ‘Yo, Vikings!’ cast announced

Original Post: January 12, 2012
By Donald Munro
http://fresnobeehive.com/2012/01/from_page_to_st_1.html

I’ve been following the development of the new musical “Yo, Vikings!,” an adaptation of the popular children’s book by Judy Schachner, which will receive its West Coast premiere March 2 at Children’s Musical Theaterworks. In November, when we last checked in, CMT had given a reading of the show. The next major event for director Skyler Gray was auditions, which he conducted this week. First things first, here’s the newly unveiled cast list direct from Gray:

Catriona Fray and Genevieve Becker will alternate the role of our heroine, Emma Katz. Shannah Estep will play her mother, Judy Katz, and Luke Teixeira will play her brother Ollie. George Akina will wear his librarian hat as Mr. Sigurd and Kylie Briggs will play Emma’s teacher, Mrs. Mukherjee. Greg Ruud will lead the Viking clan as Bothvar, the Fork-Splitter. Kyla Kennedy will play Nikki Tibbles, Daniel Hernandez will play Murphy Bean, and Bryce and Hannah Moser will play the Ferdinand-Munoz twins, Sebby and Zinzi. Jackie King, David Marinovich, Jacob Williams and Catriona Fray/Genevieve Becker will round out the amazingly talented cast as Emma’s classmates and fellow Vikings!

We talk with Gray more about the audition process and new developments with the show after the jump.

Question: Set the audition scene for us. How many people showed up? How did the numbers compare to a usual audition for a CMT show?

Answer: The auditions were very exciting and we had about thirty auditionees. These numbers were only slightly lower than our larger ensemble shows, but it proved that from the audition pool we could have cast the show almost three times over! The experience was pleasantly different from our summer production auditions as not all who auditioned were cast. Because of this fact, we had a nice mix of seasoned veterans, new performers to CMT, and first-time auditionees.

Did actors audition for specific roles, or did you ask everyone to do the same thing? If they did audition for specific roles, which had the most number of people interested?

Auditioning for a new musical is a very different experience than auditioning for a well known title. Many of those at the audition had read a perusal script, but had only been exposed to select audio demo tracks. So, unlike a title like Les Miserables, performers were not as picky to mark Jean Valjean only [on their audition forms], for example. Many auditionees simply marked “any.” It was a great testament to the performers being excited by the experience of a new musical, rather than only auditioning for a certain role.

How many people did you call back?

We kept a rather large callback group to see what each performer would bring to the process. This is a show that requires actors who are willing to be silly and make strong character choices. It was very exciting to see each actor’s take on these new characters and to see how many different interpretations there are for a Viking (we even had some Southern Vikings and Pirate Vikings join us for the callback!).

When last we checked in with you regarding “Yo, Vikings!”, you’d just held a staged reading. What has happened since in terms of developing the show?

Since the staged reading in November, the show has morphed only slightly. The version we used at the reading included a cast of ten actors, while our production script now features fourteen actors. A “kids ensemble” has been added to the show and the actors will also double as Vikings. This slightly larger cast size was presented to us as an option and we jumped at it! All of your favorite characters from the reading will remain unchanged, but four new friends are coming along for the journey: Pasha, Phyllis, Simon and Gunther.

In terms of the show, have the creators made any changes since the reading? Or are they waiting?

Sam Willmott and I have been in constant contact and right now we are holding off on discussing any minor edits until after we begin rehearsals. Sam and Marcus Stevens have heard this version of the show read aloud so many times in the past few years, that any questions in regards to the script will arise during the production process. But, I am very confident with the version we have and only see very minor edits in the future.

What happens now in terms of the production process? When do rehearsals begin?

Well, now that a cast has been assembled, the production team is busy finalizing their designs. Flights are being booked and scripts are being copied. Rehearsals for the cast begin on January 23rd: first off: vocal rehearsals.

What has the rest of your creative team been up to?

The design team has been hard at work finalizing their designs these past few weeks. Ian Loveall is designing the set, Laura Vogt the lights, Trina Short the costumes, Debora Bolen the hair and make-up, Victoria Robinson is our prop master and Charles Ottavio is our sound designer. It is an all-star design team and I could not be more excited to see their designs come to life!