Teen Actors Invited to Audition for Maine-Based Movie ‘Bluebird’

An independent New York production company is holding a casting call Friday, Aug. 5 at UMaine’s Lord Hall for area actors aged 15-19 for a film, “Bluebird,” being made in northern Maine this winter.

Leading roles will be available for some of the students selected for the cast, according to Vacationland Films. Bluebird is described as a dramatic feature that takes place in the frozen woods of an isolated Maine logging town, “and one woman’s tragic mistake shatters the balance of the community, resulting in profound and unexpected consequences.”

UMaine art professor Owen Smith, director of the Intermedia master of fine arts program and a member of the Maine Film Board, will co-host the auditions along with representatives from Vacationland Films. Auditions are scheduled from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Young actors will receive anything they need for the audition when they arrive.

Maine native Lance Edmands, who wrote the film, will direct and edit the script. The concept already has been recognized by several awards, including: Sundance Institute Directors Lab; Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab; Sundance Institute Producers Lab; Annenberg Feature Film Fellowship; Chris Columbus/Richard Vague Production Award; Mark Silvermann Fellowship; and Independent Film Week/No Borders.

“Support for the development of a range of film production, such as Bluebird, is an important area of needed creative growth in Maine,” says Smith. “It can and will support a range of people in the arts from actors to production crews, and also has a significant additional economic impact with needs for equipment rental and whole range of support services for the film production crew.”

Supporting such productions also is part of one of the central missions of the University of Maine’s Innovative Media Research and Commercialization Center (IMRC Center), sponsored in part by funding from the Maine Technical Institute, which will open with audio and video production facilities in the summer of 2012, Smith adds.

Information and details on the casting call is on the Vacationland Films website. In an online interview with IONCINEMA.com Edmands discusses the plot of Bluebird, along with other details about his life and work.

Contact: George Manlove, (207) 581-3756