 |
 |
 |
|
| Photos courtesy Christian Busath |
|
J.D. Taylor (on the left) with Broadway actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson. BOTTOM: Christian Busath (on the right)
with Broadway actor Josh Gad. |
|
Can you spell Broadway?
Last semester, two BYU-Idaho students, Christian Busath, a senior from Elk Grove, Calif., and J.D. Taylor, a senior from Calgary, Alberta, were flown to New York City to audition for a Broadway play, titled The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.
Last year, Busath and Taylor were in New York with a group of students from BYU-I. The group saw six plays on Broadway, including Spelling Bee, which features six adolescents, played by adult actors, who compete in a fictional spelling bee.
Both Busath and Taylor were impressed by the show, as was fellow theater student Ben Parkes, a senior from Riverton, Utah.
“It was one of the most insightful shows I’ve ever seen,” Parkes said. “It was brilliant.”
The three promised each other that if they had the opportunity, they would try out for the play. In October 2005, they heard of an audition for Spelling Bee in San Francisco.
“We heard from a person who heard from a person that they were having an audition,”
Taylor said. “We didn’t even know if it was legit or not.”
Nevertheless, to San Francisco they went. The trio of students impressed casting director Tricia Tomey, who commented to Busath as he finished his audition, “You non-Equity Mormons are sweeping this audition.” Equity is the national union for stage actors.
Busath and Taylor were called back for additional auditions in Los Angeles and New York. In New York, the two auditioned in front of the director and producers of the play, including David Stone, who produced the Broadway hit Wicked.
At the final auditions in New York, Busath and Taylor were each competing with another actor for their respective roles. Neither student was chosen for the traveling production, which opened last week in San Francisco.
Both Busath and Taylor plan on auditioning for future Broadway plays and may even have a chance to play in Spelling Bee, when the current actors’ contracts expire.
“I’ve fulfilled a part of my dream,” Busath said. “I want others to say ‘I can do it, too.’”
