CCO1 [no art ]
ANN ARBOR – A web-based service that provides performing arts producers and performing artists with a central location where they can find out about productions currently looking for artists across a wide region of Southeast Michigan celebrated its seventh birthday earlier month. Ann Arbor Auditions, founded and operated by Robert Bethune, began operation or about April 7, 2000, and Bethune thinks that's worth a celebration.
Bethune put together a very simple website and sent out a dozen or so letters by good old snail-mail to a few directors and producers around the area. Some of them started posting their auditions, and the rest of the world found out by word of mouth.
Since that time, Bethune reports, the website has carried hundreds of announcements about theatrical productions, independent films, classes, workshops and other opportunities for theater people. Producers and performers all over the area have used this service to find each other and do their work together. Bethune says, "One of my greatest satisfactions is when a performer or a director tells me that they worked on a show because this service made it possible for them to find out about each other."
Bethune looks forward to continuing this service, as he says, "for as long as I can. It's all been by word of mouth. So I keep telling people to tell their friends and fellow artists, and when they audition, I ask them to tell the producers how you found out about their show. The resource is there; it just needs to be used."
One of the ways the website operates is through a notification service. Interested performers sign up to receive a heads-up email when new opportunities are posted. According to Bethune, almost as if to help celebrate the occasion, the 175th person to join during the last 12 months signed up for the notification service on April 7.
"I feel I owe a hearty thank-you to everyone," Bethune says. "It's so important to the theater community for producers to know that a way exists for them to let the world know about the casting opportunities and other activities they offer, and for performers to be able to find out that information."
To check out Ann Arbor Auditions, log on to http://www.annarborauditions.org.
