CASTING chapter 222

I don’t recall how many auditioned for Portrait Player for the 1980 tour. I announced how many men and women I needed so that reduced some of women. I had expected to only cast three women, but in rethinking housing and other needs I upped it to four. I had not yet established the tour, but knew I was hoping to get to Nyack and Simpson Memorial Church and then on out to Long Island, NY. That would be a very long tour. We had never been to any churches in the Maritimes so I also had that dream in the back of my head.

Since I had a some small connection with the LIFE ’80 committee I knew a tour group would be sent from each Alliance College to The YMCA Camp of the Rockies in Estes Park, Colorado in the first week of July. I wanted to be that group. I knew we would be different than any of the other schools and believed we could make a significant impact. If all that came together, it would be the longest tour any school group had ever made (and ever did make).

I don’t recall if I explained the possible tour or not, but most likely did. I guess it would be easier to tell them the tour was shorter than expected than try and stretch it out later. I knew I would have to sell it early, but I felt like I needed the play completed before I tried.

When I saw the girls at auditions I knew I had to ask if they were willing to cut their hair. I explained that it would be necessary for two of them to play a young boy. Rhonda Mix hair was already the shortest so I suspected it would not be a problem for it to be a little shorter. Lori Buck was the shortest girl to come. Her hair was long. I wanted her to play Robert. We talked privately. I told her she could leave it as long as she wanted right up to the premiere. She had to think about that for a while, but agreed.

I was going to need people to play: Mrs. Ethel Bell, 14-year old Mary Bell, and eleven-year old Robert Bell. I had already decided to drop the two Shaw children. It was purely a space issue. Mrs. Bell took care of all four kids on the raft when the Shaw children’s parents could not be found after the ship sank. If could have been a hugely dramatic moment, but again, space was an issue. By this time I had decided that the girl rotating out of the performance would run the lights. And sound.

The primary male character was to be the Bo’sen. I wanted Garry Tollefson. I can’t help it. I knew what he could do and that he would be a key leader on the team. Let’s just say, I trusted him. I also trusted Terry Dyck and David Thompson. I had not predetermined the roles they would have, as the script was not finished. The rest of the guys would partially play composites. That is, a combination of personalities of several sailors, with one exception. One would be the captain. Several sailors died while on the raft and I would have one die. He would represent the three (I believe that was the number) that died.

More was said in the book and my correspondence about a guy name George. As it turned out, Bob Bell and George had made contact years later and so Bob fed me more information about him. The other interesting character was the cook. I didn’t know much but I liked what I knew. He would give me someone worried about the food and maybe fishing, I only assumed they fished but that made sense. That really only left two characters to be the “everyman” (a combination of the other twelve sailors) and one of them would die.

I am sure I told them what I was planning to do, but I know I did not cast the play at that time. I wanted to give time to discern what their talents were, and I wanted a completed script. That was done by late fall. There would be changes as the actors got into their roles and we would develop the final play together. But I had my cast and could begin work on skits. There would be plenty to work on and time to get to know them.

The final team was: Carolyn Magnus, Rhonda Mix, Betty Wolfe, Lori Buck, Garry Tollefson, Terry Dyck, David Thompson, Duncan McDonald, Gary Strangway, and Grant McDowell. Con Hild would represent the college and rotate in and out with me on the actual tour. That decision followed casting after the tour was established.