New Bristol summer theater to put on 'Rent'

By James Drzewiecki
Staff Writer
BRISTOL — "Rent" is coming to a new non-profit summer-stock theater program that is being put together by Bristol Central High School’s Lindsey DiPietro.
DiPietro is an a 11th-grade English teacher who teaches two drama classes and is also the drama advisor at Bristol Central.
Her love of drama came when she was 8 years old, when she appeared in her first show.
"My uncle is a director and put me in my first show, ‘The Wizard of Oz,’" DiPietro said.
Her love only grew from there and continues to be very active in drama, having just directed Central’s spring musical, "Footloose."
Now, Dipietro is in the process of setting up summer-stock, and "Rent" will be the first show that they will tackle.
"This particular show is for kids 18 and under but in subsequent years, I will open it to high school-aged up through recent college grads," said DiPietro. "We wanted to start with a youth production and then go from there."
This is a program that she has big hopes for and wants to see it continue for years to come.
"The mission is to have a musical production every summer, which involves kids from all three high schools," DiPietro said.
Composer and playwright Johnathan Larson was the creator of "Rent." He took home two posthumous Tony Awards and one posthumous Pulitzer Prize for his work.
"Rent" is a rock opera that follows the lives of a group of struggling bohemians in New York City’s East Village. The play takes place in a period, 1989 to 1990. In that year we see the characters deal with loss, love and AIDS. It’s truly a very real look at modern-day life.
"I’ve always wanted to direct ‘Rent’ so I’m thrilled that it’s now available for production," DiPietro said. "I would also love to direct ‘Aida.’ The music is so amazing and I just love that show."
Auditions for ‘Rent’ will be held Sunday from 5 to 9 p.m. in the Bristol Central High School band room.
To be in the play, you must be 18 or younger at the time of the audition. Be prepared to sing 16 to 32 bars of music. Play organizers suggest singing the part of the song that shows your range. People auditioning should bring sheet music that has chords or a CD with the background (karaoke) track. Make sure that there are no vocals on the track. Find a rock/pop song or more modern "rock" musical song to sing, do not sing a classical musical theater song. Dress comfortably and not in costume.
This will be a closed audition, so no one will be able to watch. There will be a $100 participation fee if cast in the show, which can be paid with two payments of $50.
Callbacks will be held June 1 and June 3 through 7. In callbacks performers will read from the script and be asked to learn a small dance combination.
"We have so much talent in Bristol and I think it would be great for kids to work with other people their age as well as other directors," DiPietro said.

Casting Call For American Jubilee

The Feature Film, American Jubilee is currently looking for actors.
Filming will begin in July of this year. This film is currently non-union; however, we may use SAG actors (this is currently under negotiations).
American Jubilee is a feature comedy with existential elements. The screenplay was written by Ryan Casey (Director of Crushing Pennies, Executive Director of Ditch, and Producer of Sensory Perception).

To see some of Mr. Casey's past work:
Crushing Pennies Trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsrSPFefHBM

Sensory Perception (Dir. Al Signore) Trailer -
http://www.youtube.com/user/mezentius777#p/a/u/0/z48he1AER4c

Please see Character Breakdown below (to see if you might fit in one of the needed roles).
To apply, please send your headshot to - Dan@AJmovie.com
If we find a fit, we will email you with details about auditions (we will be holding auditions in early June).
Please forward this message to anyone who might be interested in this film.

Casting Breakdown

AVERY "Vance" McCormick - 30, average build. Lives at his father, OTIS' house and believes that he is staying there to take care of his womanizing father. Avery is a follower, dabbles, not good at knowing what he's good at and/or, not good at knowing what other peoples' needs are.

KENZIE McCormick - 20, average to thin build. Tries to fix things, engineer, very analytical/left-brainer, touchy, critical even of her family. Was offered many scholarships because of her ability to understand engineering/the mechanics of how the physical world works.

OTIS McCormick - 60, average build. Womanizer. Retiring anesthesiologist. Through exposition we realize that OTIS has an affliction of causing women to be thoroughly interested in him - years of this and his floating from woman to woman (after he and his wife divorced and she passed) is what caused his nervous breakdown.

JUNE "Junie" McCormick - 45, normal build. JUNIE has no filter on life. But this is not necessarily a bad thing... Junie is good at heart and sometimes wishes she could better communicate with the McCormick children.

LYSSANDRA Catfield - 30, Sexy. OTIS' next semi-blind neighbor who lives above them in the two family house. She supposedly takes care of her sick mother. LYSSANDRA has a sharp sense of humor that stings most people.

RANDY "mittens" OR "the Gull" Gullchrest - 45, normal to larger build. A local thief. RANDY is somewhat of a cultured person - he listens to classical music in the broken down school bus he lives in. He is somewhat hip, but this is somewhat eclipsed by his obsession with thievery. RANDY is living his dream.

CASSIE Bright - 23, Average to thin build. Otis' girlfriend. Natural beauty. Somewhat earthy. Smart, knows what she wants at all levels of life, calm, realist, kind, has a heart inside, loves animals (because they reciprocate love without any complications and also she likes taking care of them as she does OTIS).

CLAUDE McCormick - 9, the youngest of the McCormicks. Runs a gambling ring at school, has no parental discipline, using only what he sees on TV as a moral compass. Claude is afloat in life.

NADINE- 25 to 30, a very attractive uptight, thin to average build, uber-trendy dressed, as if she were auditioning for Fox News, reporter.

RUDY (a.k.a. Billy the Kid) - 45, male - school principal. Normal build. Randy is laid-back and into Billy Joel.

Young KENZIE - 10, female - innocent-looking; long-hair is needed for this scene.

Young RANDY- 5, male - slightly larger build is preferred.

For more information, contact CT Casting Director, Dan Clark at: Dan@AJmovie.com

Scream 4 Poster and Release Date

Scream 4, as the poster says, will introduce new rules to follow in order to survive a horror movie. The movie is set to start filming soon and will be released April 15, 2011.
Wes Craven will be returning to direct (he directed the first three films) and Kevin Williamson will return as the writer. Williamson wrote Scream and Scream 2, he didn't write Scream 3 (which wasn't great).
There is a lot of plots I've read about, but I won't post any of them until I know which one is real. I do know that they want to make a brand new trilogy, with new characters and storylines. So, if this one is a success you should look for Scream 5 and Scream 6 to follow.
Courtney Cox, Neve Campbell and David Arquette will be coming back to reprise their roles. They are the only cast members confirmed at this time.
I'm a huge fan of the Scream films. The original Scream is one of my favorite horror movies of all-time and I'm excited to see the franchise coming back. Hey, Wes Craven I'll be in the movie and I'll work for free.

Halo: Reach Beta: First Impressions

Halo: Reach Beta went live yesterday and of course being a fan of the series I was very excited for it.
When you first get into the game you will notice that the controller schem is different than Halo 3, but that can be easily fixed by editing your schem under settings. I set mine back to similar controls that were in Halo 3.
I know it’s only the second day of beta testing but I wanted to point out things that I felt were positive and things that are just annoying.
First, let me list what I think the pros are for the game.

PROS
- The level design and the speed of the game keep its Halo feel. I do not believe we should make the jumping higher, its fine the way it is.
- I love how the pistol has its scope back.
- Skilled players have more of an upper hand.
- Stalker, Scout, and Airborne Armor perks.

CONS
- Melee combat is awful and really needs to be looked at.
- The grenades in the game are way overpowered.
- Armor Lock needs to be changed, so close combat between two players can be fair.
- The Assault Rifle should not be so weak.
- Guard armor perk seems to be pointless.

With that said it looks like the final product will be a winner if those things are tweaked/fixed. I’ve been having fun with the beta so far and will update if anything big happens.