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Free Series at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Brings Casting Director, Geoffrey Johnson, to Center Stage
Award-Winning Casting Director Talks to Young Actors on How to Get the Part
Broadway casting director Geoffrey Johnson will appear at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in The Right Audition to Get the Part: Geoffrey Johnson and Friends, an upcoming series of three programs for younger actors. In addition to Johnson, several artists, agents, and other theater professionals will participate in the series. The programs will be held at 6 p.m. on October 6, 2005, November 17, 2005 and January 19, 2006, in the Bruno Walter Auditorium at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza. Admission is free.
In the first program Geoffrey Johnson will share advice based on his own experiences in the theatre, including his 40 years as a casting director, and afterwards will take questions from the audience. The second and third programs in the series will feature panel discussions between prominent and active casting directors, agents, and actors, moderated by Johnson, concluding with questions from the audience. Among the discussions' participatants are noted casting directors Tara Rubin and Nancy Piccione, agent Nancy Curtis, and Tony Award-winning director Melvin Bernhardt.
About Geoffrey Johnson "I don't believe you discover actors," said Johnson. "You give them the chance to audition. They have to have the talent. They have to do it themselves." Johnson has cast 150 shows in his 40 years in the business including Amadeus, The Phantom of the Opera, and The Producers.
Manhattan-born, Westchester-raised, Johnson fell in love with theater at an early age. After receiving his B.A. in English Literature from the University of Pennsylvania he went on to earn his M.F.A. in Acting from the Yale School of Drama. From student to actor to casting director and all those in between, Johnson has lived theater at different stages and from different roles.
Honors and Awards
Geoffrey Johnson has been honored with many awards including seven specific production casting citations from the Casting Society of America and their Hoyt Bowers Award for Outstanding Casting Contributions Over the Years. He was also the first casting director to be presented with a Drama Desk Award for Casting Achievement and a Tony Honors Award of Excellence in the Theatre.
The Right Audition to Get the Part: Geoffrey Johnson and Friends
Schedule of Free Programs
Thursday, October 6, 6 p.m. The Right Audition to Get the Part: Geoffrey Johnson and Friends Talk by Geoffrey Johnson
Thursday, November 17, 6 p.m. The Right Audition to Get the Part: Geoffrey Johnson and Friends A Symposium Moderated by Casting Director Geoffrey Johnson
Thursday, January 19, 6 p.m. The Right Audition to Get the Part: Geoffrey Johnson and Friends A Symposium Moderated by Casting Director Geoffrey Johnson
Discussion panelists include:
Casting Directors: • Tara Rubin of Tara Rubin Casting, who has cast Spamelot, Mamma Mia, The Frogs and Contact
• Nancy Piccione of Manhattan Theater Club who has cast Doubt, Reckless, Sight Unseen, and Proof
Agents: • Nancy Curtis of Harden-Curtis Associates
• Lynne Jebens of The Krasny Agency
• Jay Kane of Talent Works
• Jeanne Nicolosi of Jeanne Nicolosi Agency
Actor: • Frank Vlastnik has appeared in A Year With Frog and Toad, Big, Sweet Smell of Success and is co-author of Broadway Musicals
Director:
• Melvin Bernhardt, Tony Award Winner for Da, Effect of Gamma Rays..., Crimes of the Heart, and Another World
Acting Coach • Jeffrey Stocker
The programs are presented in the Bruno Walter Auditorium at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza. Admission is free, and tickets are available on a first come, first seated basis, unless otherwise noted. For more information, please call 212.642.0142.
About The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts houses the world's most extensive combination of circulating, reference, and rare archival collections in its field. Its divisions are the Circulating Collections, Jerome Robins Dance Division, Music Division, Billy Rose Theater Collection, and the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound. The materials in its collections are available free of charge, along with a wide range of special programs, including exhibitions, seminars and performances. An essential resource for everyone with an interest for the arts--whether professional or amateur--The Library is known particularly for its prodigious collections of non-book materials such as historic recordings, videotapes, autograph manuscripts, correspondence, sheet music, stage designs, press clippings, programs, posters and photographs.
About the New York Public Library
The New York Public Library was created in 1895 with the consolidation of the private libraries of John Jacob Astor and James Lenox with the Samuel Jones Tilden Trust. The Library provides free and open access to its physical and electronic collections and information, as well as to its services. It comprises of four research centers--the Humanities and Social Sciences Library; The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; and the Science, Industry and Business Library--85 Branch Libraries in Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Bronx. Research and circulating collections combined total more than 50 million items, including materials for the visually impaired. In addition, each year the Library presents thousands of exhibitions and public programs, which include classes in technology, literacy, and English as a second language. The Library serves some 15 million patrons who come through the doors annually and another 15 million users internationally, who access collections and services through the NYPL website, www.nypl.org.
