39 The Bethel College Theatre Department completed one day of auditions for the spring musical, “Seussical.” However, at the end of the auditions, director Richard Young announced that there would be no callbacks. “It was like a jig-saw puzzle and it just went together,” said Young when asked the reasoning behind the decision. “It went together really well and we just said ‘Yeah, this works! We don’t need to call anybody back.’” There are 28 roles in the show, but the leads include multiple characters from Dr. Suess’s books like Horton, Gertrude McFuzz, The Cat, Jojo, Mayzie LaBird and the Sour Kangaroo. When asked about the workload involved, Young said, “There were a lot of people and there are a lot of fun roles in the show. Because there are so many roles, we have a crazy rehearsal schedule.” Since there are so many roles, this musical will require more work and time than the previous shows from 2014 like “The 39 Steps” and “Electra.” “We looked at it the other day and figured out that we have over 100 hours of rehearsal scheduled,” said Young. “There’s 92 pages of script and it’s a musical so there’s a lot on each page.” The workload isn’t what is freaking out the students, though. Amy Liston, a junior majoring in American Sign Language (ASL), auditioned for her first show at Bethel. Liston previously held the role of Gertrude McFuzz in the Suessical performed at Lawrence School in Sagamore Hills, Ohio. According to Liston, callbacks are a regular part of auditions. “It definitely threw me off a little bit,” said Liston. “It’s very strange. I mean, usually there are always callbacks. Even on Broadway, there’s always callbacks. I guess they knew what they were looking for and they must’ve found it.” Liston wasn’t the only one who was surprised by the lack of callbacks. "Yes, there were no callbacks,” said freshman Joel Lininger, piano performance major. “My only thought about it was that I guess I was a bit surprised, but it must have been pretty decisive. I'm trying not to worry about it too much. I'll find out tomorrow whether I made it or not.” The cast list will be released at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014. The opening night for the show is on Thursday, March 26, 2014.
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