{"id":1438,"date":"2020-10-30T06:23:08","date_gmt":"2020-10-30T06:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/?p=1438"},"modified":"2021-03-13T13:22:56","modified_gmt":"2021-03-13T18:22:56","slug":"auditioning-for-do-i-hear-a-waltz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/auditioning-for-do-i-hear-a-waltz\/","title":{"rendered":"Auditioning for \u201cDo I Hear A Waltz?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Do I Hear A Waltz? – Elizabeth Allen, James Dybas, Christopher Votos (seated), Sergio Franchi, Julianne Marie.<\/p><\/div>\n

I moved from my home town of Chicago to NYC, had been here for a short time and was lucky enough to get the theatrical agent Gus Shirmer interested in getting work for me. I remember the telephone ringing, getting a call from Gus, telling me that I had an interview appointment with casting director Eddie Blum at the Rodgers and Hammerstein office . This preliminary appointment was to determine if Mr. Blum thought I was right for the role of the leading man\u2019s (Sergio Franchi) son in the new Rodgers and Sondheim musical \u201cDo I Hear A Waltz?\u201d<\/strong>.\u00a0 <\/span>The musical takes place in Venice, Italy and I tried to look as \u201cItalian\u201d as possible.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After about 10 minutes into our conversation, Mr.Blum told me that Mr. Rodgers wanted to cast actors of Italian descent. Since I\u2019m a Polish\/Ukrainian boy from the South Side of Chicago, I told a fib and said that my name had been shortened from Dybaselli and that my father was from Sicily and my mother was from Palermo. Mr. Blum said that the show takes place in Venice not the \u201cthatsa nicea\u201d South of Italy and how would I prounounce the word\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>S-I-S-T-E-R ?\u00a0 <\/span>seester or seestah ?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Since I had no idea what a Venitian accent sounded like, I had to think fast and using my hand said \u201cmezzo mezzo, right between the two\u201d.\u00a0 <\/span>Of course I was lying thru my teeth ! The name of he game is still \u00a0\u201cGet The Job !\u201d<\/p>\n

I left his office feeling as if I had made a good impression. A couple of days later, I got another call from my agent who said that they wanted to see me to meet with and sing for Mr. Rodgers, Stephen Sondheim and the British director John Dexter for the role of\u00a0 <\/span>Vito Di Rossi.<\/p>\n

I was given sides (a couple of pages from the script) to look at and to be familiar with. I decided to sing \u201cTorna A Sorriento\u201d in Italian, which I felt would cement my Italian ancestry.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Before my call back, I went to the Lincoln Center Library for The Performing Arts and looked for and found Arthur Laurents\u2019 script of the play \u201cTime of the Cukoo\u201d which “Do I Hear A Waltz?” was being based on,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

and saw that the role of Vito DiRossi was played by an actor named Ruggero Romor. I took the script home with me, and had the bright idea to look in the NYC telephone book to see if Ruggero might have a listed telephone number. BINGO ! There it was, in black and white.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I had two telephones in my apartment and placed a tape recorder beside one of them. I made the call and when Ruggero picked up, I pressed the record button and the rest is history. I explained who I was and that I was calling to hear his pronunciation of several words. Sister was one of the words.\u00a0 <\/span>He told me that I was lucky to have called that day because he was no longer acting, he was now a seaman, and was leaving New York on a ship that was sailing for Italy the next day. Now I had his accent on tape saying \u201cMy most little sister, she is ill, and my papa had to take her to the doctor.\u201d \u2026\u2026..and several other lines from the script. Talk about \u201cSerendipity\u201d, I hit the jackpot !\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I aced the audition and opened on Broadway at the 46th Street (now the Richard Rodgers) Theater on March 18, 1965. It was indeed Buona Fortuna. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Grazie, Ruggero Romor.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I moved from my home town of Chicago to NYC, had been here for a short time and was lucky enough to get the theatrical agent Gus Shirmer interested in getting work for me. 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Started my career working in Bob Simpson Revues at the Edgewater Beach and Del Prado Hotels in Chicago. Moved to NYC and landed my first Broadway show playing the role of Vito DiRossi in Richard Rodgers\\\/Steven Sondheim\\\/Arthur Laurents\u2019 Do I Hear A Waltz?. Next came George M!, Via Galactica (oh, the stories one can tell about this one week space odyssey disaster with music by Galt MacDermot and directed by Sir Peter Hall), 42nd Street, Sunset Blvd., The Scarlet Pimpernel and Pacific Overtures, originating the Sondheim songs Someone in a Tree and - extolling the merits of \u201cDetente\u201d - Please Hello. Toured with shows like Camelot (Mordred), J.C. Superstar (Herod), 42nd Street (Andy Lee - 3 years and over 1000 performances throughout the U.S.A.,Toronto & Tokyo) and Guys and Dolls (2 years as Harry the Horse). Kind of makes my head swim when I think of all of the cities we played for sometimes six months and other times just one night. Over the years, I\u2019ve had the good fortune to study acting with Mary Tarcai, Uta Hagen, Herbert Berghof and Bobby Lewis; voice with Keith Davis, Amelia Haas and Denes Striny; dance and movement with Edna McRae, Luigi and Anna Sokolow. I\u2019m deeply indebted to all of them for giving me the knowledge to create and maintain the craft. Being in NYC - and being in the the right place at the right time - gave me the opportunity to audition for Jerome Robbins\u2019 American Theater Lab, and asked to be one of the original members of the group. We had a rigorous schedule of daily classes which included improvisational and experimental theatre games (think Grotowski). Gregg Lawrence writes about our American Theater Lab in his book Dance with Demons: The Life of Jerome Robbins. And what actor doesn't consider a few years in Los Angeles? While living there, Equity Waiver Theatre was in full flower and my motto was \u201csuit up, show up, and say yes.\u201d This resulted with my becoming a six-time recipient of the Drama-Logue Critics Award. What a blast it was working with Ray Bradbury and Jose Feliciano creating the role of Villanazul in The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit at The Pasadena Playhouse, to also work with George Rose in the L.A. premiere of Drood !, to play the wacky Tristan Tzara in Travesties, Jigger in Carousel, Tom in That Championship Season and several roles in The Great American Playwrights Show (10 short plays, 10 different roles), which we took on a six city tour after it\u2019s run at the Odyssey Theater. Regional Theatre thrives around the country and it\u2019s been great playing diverse roles in Plaza Suite, Jekyll & Hyde, Breaking Legs, Nine, Annie Get Your Gun, Singin\u2019 in the Rain, The Sea Gull, Tovarich (doing a duet Charleston number with Ginger Rogers), Hello Dolly - with both Ann Miller & Betty Grable -, Romeo & Juliet, Kiss Me Kate (yeah,another gangster role), the King in The King and I, and last but certainly not least playing the role of Barnum for three months, walking the high wire while singing (as we crossed the Bermuda Triangle) aboard the S. S. Norway in the 700 seat Saga Theater. So many other shows and stories have happened through the years. Most recently I played yet another bad guy. This was a Casa Manana - Dallas Theater Center co-production of the play To Kill A Mockingbird. The role of Bob Ewell is now one of my favorite characters. He\u2019s a lean, mean, lyin, drunken, creep. Who, me ??? The cast was brilliant and our director Wendy Dann is one of the best. Most recently Writer\\\/director Zachary Volker cast me in the role of Lou Mullin - a wacko con man - in his short film called Club Magic Moment, which has been showing at film festivals throughout the country. Scrapbooks and my theatre memorabilia are a part of the Newberry Library\u2019s archives. James Dybas Papers: Newberry Library - Chicago, IL https:\\\/\\\/mms.newberry.org\\\/detail.asp?id=814&alpha=D\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/JamesDybas.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/performingartslegacy.org\\\/dybasjames\\\/author\\\/dybasjames\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Auditioning for \u201cDo I Hear A Waltz?\u201d - James Dybas","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/auditioning-for-do-i-hear-a-waltz\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Auditioning for \u201cDo I Hear A Waltz?\u201d - James Dybas","og_description":"I moved from my home town of Chicago to NYC, had been here for a short time and was lucky enough to get the theatrical agent Gus Shirmer interested in getting work for me. 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Started my career working in Bob Simpson Revues at the Edgewater Beach and Del Prado Hotels in Chicago. Moved to NYC and landed my first Broadway show playing the role of Vito DiRossi in Richard Rodgers\/Steven Sondheim\/Arthur Laurents\u2019 Do I Hear A Waltz?. Next came George M!, Via Galactica (oh, the stories one can tell about this one week space odyssey disaster with music by Galt MacDermot and directed by Sir Peter Hall), 42nd Street, Sunset Blvd., The Scarlet Pimpernel and Pacific Overtures, originating the Sondheim songs Someone in a Tree and - extolling the merits of \u201cDetente\u201d - Please Hello. Toured with shows like Camelot (Mordred), J.C. Superstar (Herod), 42nd Street (Andy Lee - 3 years and over 1000 performances throughout the U.S.A.,Toronto & Tokyo) and Guys and Dolls (2 years as Harry the Horse). Kind of makes my head swim when I think of all of the cities we played for sometimes six months and other times just one night. Over the years, I\u2019ve had the good fortune to study acting with Mary Tarcai, Uta Hagen, Herbert Berghof and Bobby Lewis; voice with Keith Davis, Amelia Haas and Denes Striny; dance and movement with Edna McRae, Luigi and Anna Sokolow. I\u2019m deeply indebted to all of them for giving me the knowledge to create and maintain the craft. Being in NYC - and being in the the right place at the right time - gave me the opportunity to audition for Jerome Robbins\u2019 American Theater Lab, and asked to be one of the original members of the group. We had a rigorous schedule of daily classes which included improvisational and experimental theatre games (think Grotowski). Gregg Lawrence writes about our American Theater Lab in his book Dance with Demons: The Life of Jerome Robbins. And what actor doesn't consider a few years in Los Angeles? While living there, Equity Waiver Theatre was in full flower and my motto was \u201csuit up, show up, and say yes.\u201d This resulted with my becoming a six-time recipient of the Drama-Logue Critics Award. What a blast it was working with Ray Bradbury and Jose Feliciano creating the role of Villanazul in The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit at The Pasadena Playhouse, to also work with George Rose in the L.A. premiere of Drood !, to play the wacky Tristan Tzara in Travesties, Jigger in Carousel, Tom in That Championship Season and several roles in The Great American Playwrights Show (10 short plays, 10 different roles), which we took on a six city tour after it\u2019s run at the Odyssey Theater. Regional Theatre thrives around the country and it\u2019s been great playing diverse roles in Plaza Suite, Jekyll & Hyde, Breaking Legs, Nine, Annie Get Your Gun, Singin\u2019 in the Rain, The Sea Gull, Tovarich (doing a duet Charleston number with Ginger Rogers), Hello Dolly - with both Ann Miller & Betty Grable -, Romeo & Juliet, Kiss Me Kate (yeah,another gangster role), the King in The King and I, and last but certainly not least playing the role of Barnum for three months, walking the high wire while singing (as we crossed the Bermuda Triangle) aboard the S. S. Norway in the 700 seat Saga Theater. So many other shows and stories have happened through the years. Most recently I played yet another bad guy. This was a Casa Manana - Dallas Theater Center co-production of the play To Kill A Mockingbird. The role of Bob Ewell is now one of my favorite characters. He\u2019s a lean, mean, lyin, drunken, creep. Who, me ??? The cast was brilliant and our director Wendy Dann is one of the best. Most recently Writer\/director Zachary Volker cast me in the role of Lou Mullin - a wacko con man - in his short film called Club Magic Moment, which has been showing at film festivals throughout the country. Scrapbooks and my theatre memorabilia are a part of the Newberry Library\u2019s archives. James Dybas Papers: Newberry Library - Chicago, IL https:\/\/mms.newberry.org\/detail.asp?id=814&alpha=D","sameAs":["https:\/\/JamesDybas.com"],"url":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/author\/dybasjames\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/200"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}