Lethbridge improv troupe Drama Nutz and Fort Whoop-Up are looking for a few good cowboys for a series of five historical vignettes to be shot this summer as a way to take advantage of viral marketing. Auditions are Friday, June 22 from 1-5 p.m.at Fort Whoop-Up.
They are looking for 14 male actors between the age of 25-40 and four mature actors from age 40-60 to be involved with five vignettes about the coming of the Northwest Mounted Police; a shooting at the Fort Whoop-Up Saloon; Blackfoot Trading at Fort Whoop-Up, Alberta’s first murder trial— the shooting of David Akers and the arrival of the Spitzee Calvary and their attack on the fort. They are also looking for a narrator for the vignettes.
“It’s an idea that we‘ve been kicking around for a while,” said David Gabert, Fort Whoop-Up Senior Site host and Drama Nutz artistic director.
The vignettes will be directed by University of Lethbridge actor and Fort Whoop-up Summer staff member Greg Wilson.
“We were fortunate in our summer hiring to have an individual who knows about video editing and directing,” Gabert said.
“So we thought we’d capitalize on that,” he continued adding Drama Nutz is helping cast the production.
They are looking for actors who look like cowboys and other residents of 1870’s Southern Alberta.
“Ideally they will look like cowboys— the more western the better They will be dressed up as cowboys and people sympathetic to the area,” he said.
Actors with horse riding experience and a valid firearms certificate are encouraged to set involved, though there are non-riding and shooting roles as well.
Each of the vignettes will be approximately five minutes long and will be released on YouTube and other social media to help market Fort Whoop-Up.
They will be shot during the day and early evening, though there will be a couple night shoots.
Auditions are from 1-5 p.m., Friday, June 22 at Fort Whoop-Up, 200 Indian Battle Park Road Lethbridge.
Actors should come looking as rustic as possible and prepared to do a read through of the vignettes with Greg Wilson.
