June 23, 2006 -- After our brutally long day yesterday, we’re relieved to have a much lighter day today. On tap are the scenes that take place just outside the entrance to the lions den. We set it up this way to enable us to be able to use George Dyer as King Darius. We just loved George’s work as Nimrod, the leader of Zarahemla, in Vol. 8, which we actually shot prior to Vol. 7. We realized he would be ideal for the role of Darius, but when I contacted him to discuss it, he told me that, while he would love to do the role, he was in Arkansas doing the opera “Carmen.” In order for us to be able to use him, we would have to push our start date, never a thrilling prospect, and organize it such that we would need to have him record his song tracks and get him fitted with a costume on his first day of shooting. After thinking about it for about a second, we began working on exploring what it would take to adjust our schedule. It was painful at the time, but in retrospect, totally worth it.
George has such an incredible voice. We’ve long admired George’s talent, but had no idea how to use it, because he is known for his tremendous operatic voice, and opera voices can be a challenge for children to enjoy. But a few months ago, I attended a function commemorating the life accomplishments of a noted religious leader, and George was one of the invited performers. During the course of the evening, he sang a song called “Granada,” which played up the character’s pomposity. It really started my wheels turning. When it came time to put a face on the unnamed wicked people of Zarahemla, we created the character named Nimrod, and reached for the phone to see if we could entice George to take the role. I wasn’t sure how a performer of George’s stature would feel about playing a Gilderoy Lockhart-type of character named Nimrod. He was totally gracious about it and dug into the role with great enthusiasm.
Now, in Daniel, it was time to let George be a good guy.
The role of Daniel was played by a Liken newcomer, Casey Elliott. Casey was sent our way by Summer Naomi Smart, who starred with him in Hale Center Theater’s “Aida.” We are ever grateful to our talented alums who refer their talented colleagues our way.
Casey was another who showed up during the last couple of days of our audition period. Because we shot Vol. 8 just a few weeks prior to Vol. 7, our preproduction schedule was on the brisk side. We feel we were truly blessed to have Casey come our way right when we needed him.
Today, George and Casey sing a beautiful duet called “Peace.” It is my favorite song of the show. Very moving. Two great voices.
The set for this scene is tiny. It is built on a mezzanine level on the opposite side of the actual entrance to our lions den. It can handle maybe a dozen people comfortably. Counting the camera crew and actors, there are probably two times that. When it is time for me to get out and head on over to video village, I take advantage of a fun exit feature – the lions den slide – to get down in a hurry.
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