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Director Is Cruising For A Cast

by R. Woodward

If you are out bar hopping in the Cleveland area late at night and notice that you are being scrutinized by a pair of searching blue eyes, the situation might not be exactly what you suppose.

If the individual with the blue eyes approaches you and says, "Hey, you want to be in a show?" do not automatically conclude that he thinks you would fall for that tired old come-

on.

Don't worry if he tells you that what he has in mind makes people sweat a lot and tends to leave them very sore the next day.

It might be choreographer-director David Michael Obele cruising for a cast.

Obele, director and choreographer of Bob Fosse's musical Sweet Charity production, playing at the Cabaret Dinner Theatre in North Royalton through July 24th. As with the production of West Side Story he directed there a few months ago, he has had difficulty finding male dancers.

Obele said that after the rehearsal that evening he was going to put on his cut-offs and go to Exedra to combine unwinding with locating some bodies that could be used in the show.

"In Cleveland male anything is hard to find," said Obele. He explained that in the Cleveland area the best looking young men do not seem to have serious theatrical ambitions.

For casting directors, he said, the situation is especially difficult in the summertime. "Besides being hard work, preparing a show always takes a lot of time, and when the weather gets hot all too many people would rather devote their limited powers of concentration to prancing and frolicing offstage," he stated.

"At least the male dancers in Sweet Charity don't have to be very macho looking," said Obele. "Even harder than finding top male dancers in the Cleveland area," he said, "is finding male dancers who are not effeminate."

David Michael Obele, director at the Cabaret Dinner Theatre.

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"We had one of the few productions of West Side Story," he said, "in which you expected the Sharks and the Jets to kiss and make up."

If supporting male dancers are hard to come by, said Obele, he had at least found a lead male dancer for Sweet Charity whose abilities he could rely on and who was easy to direct.

Jim Akoury is cast as the leader of many of the show's 15 musical numbers. Obele said that he had seldom directed as responsive and talented a performer.

"He's a very well trained dancer. I can even yell French ballet terms," said Obele. "As a singer he's a tenor who can go to high D with no strain."

Obele said that audiences ought to be especially impressed by what Akoury does with the song "I Love to Cry at Weddings."

Obele said that a lot of female talent was available for the various women's parts, and that in leading roles Gina Zelazny, Mitch Klingenschmidt, and Fanda Parker were showing themselves to be especially valuable in giving the whole show energy and basic thrust.

Obele, who studied under Bob Fosse in California, said that Zelasny seemed to have a Fosse type intellect, and that a particular ability she seems to have for analyzing the material was one of the main reasons he decided to do the show in the first place.

Besides being a top singer and dancer, he said, she shows a rare ability to command a stage, able to use her eyes to give the impact of a big close up in a movie.

He said that she has appeared in over 100 different productions and is one of the few people who could bring off Charity,all by herself.

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