Romarius Beard squeezed a plastic bear-shaped bottle of honey into a mug of tea Saturday morning, preparing to belt out the poppy break-up song, “Gives You Hell” for a shot at starring on TV’s hit show “Glee.” Beard, 19, a college sophomore from the Avalon Park neighborhood, is among more than 2,000 singers, actors and dancers to try out Saturday and today for a chance at a dozen spots on Glee’s reality TV spinoff, “The Glee Project” on the Oxygen network.
The show is a competition to guest star on multiple episodes of “Glee” — the Fox series that has made high-school choir cool.
“It means a lot to me because I’ve been singing and dancing since I was 4,” Beard said as he stood in a dim hallway at the Chicago Academy for the Arts, on Chicago near Milwaukee Avenue. “And I love Glee.”
He got up at 3 a.m. Saturday for the 9 a.m. casting call.
“And I’ll be here all day and night if they need me,” said Beard, who is studying public relations at Harold Washington College. He’s also a member of Full Effect Entertainment Theatrical Dance, a Chicago training and performance company.
By midday, he had advanced through a screening process in which performers sang at least twice and were interviewed to see whether they’ve got that certain something in front of the cameras — and could pull off a high-school look.
Big-wig casting director Robert Ulrich said he’s looking for “someone who’s accessible and someone audiences will fall in love with.”
“Glee is about acceptance and differences,” he said.
What makes “Glee” a success also makes casting for the reality show difficult, even “horrifying,” Ulrich said.
“What’s hard and horrifying is saying ‘no’ to people” trying out, he said. “The truth is there are so many terrific people . . . incredible singers.”
While Beard professed he was calm and confident, 19-year-old Ruthie Mbesi confessed that her “stomach was hurting” when she sang a few bars of Heart’s “Alone” for screeners.
Getting the nod from the judges, the nursing student from Troy, Mich., was more philosophical as she recalled that much of her singing experience came from church.
“You just have to realize it’s in God’s hands,” she said, smiling. “But it would be the biggest thing to happen to me in my life.”
“You just have to realize it’s in God’s hands,” she said, a smile crossing her face. “But it would be the biggest thing to happen to me in my life.”
A second casting call for the reality series will be held in January in Dallas, after which the competition will begin in earnest and continue through April. The show is expected to air next summer.
source: suntimes.com
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