College buddies Katherine Schaffhausen, 21, and Cyndi Vi Phelps, 19, drove from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to Six Flags Great America in Gurnee to take a shot at summer stardom.
With determination and luck, they could be among the singer-dancers to spend the summer performing at the theme park.
Schaffhausen, of Arlington Heights, and Phelps, of Clovis, N.M., both made it through the vocal audition on the first day. Schaffhausen sang “The Story Goes On” from the musical “Baby,” and Phelps twisted her way through “All That Jazz.”
Their skills and exuberance earned them a callback to the second day of auditions, this time to judge their ability as dancers. Most of the openings called for “singers who dance.” They had 20 minutes to learn a dance combination and sing songs assigned by the panel of judges.
“If they liked you, they asked you to stay, and if they didn’t, they thanked you for your time,” Schaffhausen said Sunday, the last day of auditions. “We both made it through, and they told us they would make the final choices in about a week. We both want it really bad now, but we’re trying not to think about it. We’re taking our minds off it by shopping.”
Schaffhausen and Phelps were among hundreds of performers who made an appearance over the weekend at Great America’s annual auditions.
The showbiz hopefuls, most in their late teens and early 20s, came from across the country to take a shot at about 45 summer gigs offered by the park.
Theme park jobs are in high demand by aspiring performers. Even though the pay is low, performers live in college dorms or cheap apartments for the summer. They do the same show five times a day, six or seven days a week, all summer long.
“This is good basic training,” Great America entertainment manager Todd Stickney said. “It’s not for everybody. That’s why we look not just for skills, but also for enthusiasm. We have to know that the performers we cast will bring their own spark to the stage, whether it’s the 30th show or the 300th show.”
Stickney said that during his 13 years at Great America, he has seen many performers move on to bigger and better things, including cruise line shows and professional theater gigs of all kinds. A few have made it to Broadway, he said.
Great America’s parent company, Six Flags, which manages 40 theme parks in North America, Europe and Latin America, has made the boot camp aspect of its theatrical jobs a selling point among young performers, emphasizing the valuable experience over the grunt work.
“Because we attract so many young people to these jobs, we make an effort to promote ourselves as a training ground for new talent,” said Bill Griffeth, the entertainment supervisor in charge of hiring backstage talent to handle lighting, sound, wardrobe and Six Flags TV, a closed-circuit television system broadcast in attraction queues.
Lacey Graham, 17, said she drove 10 hours from her home in Mitchell, S.D., for the audition.
The ambitious high school student has already performed in similar productions at Walt Disney World in Florida, she said.
“It’s my dream to perform for a living, and this an important step toward a career in professional theater,” said Graham, who also made it through Sunday’s cut. “Having to wait a week to find out is sort of stressful, but it was worth making the trip just for the experience. It’s exciting.”
