WINSTON-SALEM, NC — As part of its 2009 public art program Inside Out: Artists in the Community II, the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) needs actors and performers of all ages, backgrounds and levels of experience. Volunteer actors will become a part of SECCA’s third public art project featuring work by Greensboro artist Lee Walton every weekend between May 3 - 30.
Walton is organizing a series of short performances that will take place at locations across Winston-Salem, from street corners and bus stops to park benches and shopping malls. Professional actors are welcome, amateurs are encouraged, and even if you’ve never acted (but always wanted to try), SECCA needs you.
Rather than traditional theater, these are “plays” of everyday life events created by Walton including such things as people singing to the music on headphones, spilling coffee, carrying too many grocery bags, or having an argument with a boyfriend or girlfriend. In these performances of typical daily occurrences, the line between life and theater is redrawn and often erased.
There is also the possibility of volunteers acting in a culminating performance event at the new Winston-Salem Baseball Stadium in mid-June. But this event, and all that SECCA has planned in May, depends on you and your dreams of being an actor. The time to apply is limited.
Please send an e-mail to Walton at lee@leewalton.com outlining your acting experience and availability for March 29 for rehearsals and filming preliminary scene dialogues. Actors who are selected must also be available most weekends in May.
Those selected will be contacted by email by March 25. Walton will film rehearsals of the performances on Sunday, March 29, from 2 to 6 p.m. at SECCA’s Auditorium at 750 Marguerite Drive.
Walton is filming the rehearsals to provide the public with a visual guide of what to look for while locating an acting sequence as it is performed live in the community. The SECCA Web site will provide the time, dates and places of the performances and the film clips as guides, but it will be up to the audience to locate the actors and scenes being performed.
Inside Out: Artists in the Community ll is supported by a grant from The Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art, and by a program grant provided by the James G. Hanes Foundation. In-kind support is provided by Sundance Plaza Hotel, Spa and Wellness Center and AdColor of Winston-Salem.
SECCA is designed to involve audiences in the art of our time. The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art is an operating entity of the North Carolina Museum of Art, an agency of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources. SECCA is also a funded partner of The Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County.