(Disclaimer: We didn't actually break our bones, but we actually got our cast!)
As theatre students, we are fortunate in that we have expansive contacts of various local actors. My theatre program at my school has about 160 students, of which I know a majority of them.
While Luis made arrangements to rent camera equipment from one of his resources, I brainstormed three names each of the people that would be perfect for each role. I searched through group chats of the various theatre classes (both in and out of school programs) for phone numbers to text these individuals.
This is a sample of one of the texts I sent:
Here is the unique story of casting each character!!
ISA: Daniela Gomez-Dugan
Dani is one of my really close friends who has been on Telemundo and in numerous professional theatre productions throughout South Florida. I met her four years ago when I was Simba in The Lion King Jr. in my school production when she played my mother, Serafina. Ever since we have been good friends; it was an easy decision to bring her onto the cast (she was the first character cast!).
- Luis and I asked all of our actors what clothes they actually had in their closet so we knew what costumes would fit and look good together. For Isa, Dani had tennis shoes and exercise shorts just like the ones we had in mind on our character concept Google Doc. She also had a purple exercise shirt that we went with because it went with the school colors of our school, purple and gold. All Dani needed now was a ponytail holder and some of her everyday jewelry and she looked like Isa!
ANDREW: Sebastian Fishmatherin
At first, I had reached out to one of my friends who is an incredibly talented theatre student. He is one of the only male thespians I know that can do a split and a clean toe-touch, not to mention perform as the nerdy, submissive character in a performance. I sent him the text with the information for our short film and he said he would let Luis and I know what dates he was available. Turns out he had a production opening that weekend (how appropriate of a theatre student!).
Next, I reached out to one of my mentees, Sebastian. He had asked me earlier in the year about AICE Media and showed interest in it after I explained to him what the course entailed. After my explanation, he grew incredibly interested, as he is in the TV club on campus and is familiar with many of the technical aspects of the media field. We also have a connection in that we met through the theatre program at my school when he was the General in Seussical. I was incredibly happy to hear he would join the cast after he received my text and hearing me rave about this project for weeks.
- Luis and I knew that this character, without a doubt, had to wear a hoodie and cargo shorts. I had these items already, so all we had to do was grab those items from my house. Sebastian said he had a Penn State hoodie and some shorts that would work for the nerdy character so we encouraged him to bring those to our filming days. Luis and I would bring my purple hoodie and cargo shorts on that day to see what looked the best on out actor.
BRYCE: Jakob Binnings
I met this student this year, as he is a new student at my school. I met him through my school's theatre program as he is in this year's production of Monty Python's Spamalot. Jakob has participated in my media projects before, so it was reassuring to know he wanted to come back on camera and play a role in another one of my films.
- As this character was loosely based on Payton Hobart from The Politician on Netflix, Luis and I asked Jakob what dress pant/polo shirt combos he had in his closet. He didn't have a white polo, which was the main item we envisioned for this part. Instead, Jakob sent a picture of a red pant/dark turquoise polo that looked awesome together. We chose this outfit because of the subtle allusion to democrats and republicans in addition to the blue shirt foreshadowing how the character gets eliminated.
MIRANDA: Kailey Fretwell
As the Valedictorian Competition is only for seniors, I knew I wanted to reach out to only seniors for my project (or so I thought). The original actress I had acquired for the role could not film the weekend we were planning to film, so I brainstormed for even more actors. Miranda/Miles was the most difficult character to cast as we needed someone who was optimistic and happy by nature. For this reason, Luis and I decided to cast my sister, Kailey. She has been involved in theatre for at least twelve years so I knew she had the acting chops to be in a film. I also knew she had no plans at the weekend we were planning to film so it was simple to just bring her with me in my car wherever I went.
- On our character concept, Google Doc, Luis and I had envisioned this character with a vibrant tie-dye shirt (alluding to their well-roundedness and sociability) with a denim jacket sitting on top. Luckily my sister already had a tie-dye shirt and a denim jacket with some of her favorite pins on it. I told Kailey to wear black shorts and her red converse high tops to complete the outfit.
RILEY: Ameerah Adetoro
I met Ameerah four years ago through my school's Student Government Association. She is very smart and aware of social media trends, making her perfect for the tech-savvy Riley. Ameerah uses TikTok (it is to Gen Z what Facebook is to Gen X) as her primary social media platform and creates allot of videos to post there. As we've grown closer, I discovered her long history as a dancer and even encouraged her to join the theatre program at our school. I was ecstatic when she said yes to my text!
- During the character conceptualization, I envisioned Riley wearing the color orange, which symbolized new fashion trends and the "new wave" of social media through apps like TikTok. Orange is a common color used by "clout clothing lines" such as Supreme and Off-White, indicating that an orange shirt was to be the costume for Riley. Ameerah didn't own an orange shirt herself, so I asked my entire cast of my show if they had an orange shirt. Only one student had one—it was an orange and navy blue striped polo with a white collar that looked super trendy and would look perfect with ripped jeans and a white pair of shoes. She sent me a picture of the shirt that night and I LOVED IT!!
CHARLIE: Cristian Velasquez
This bundle of sunshine I met last year through my school's theatre program. He is now good friends with my sister and was very easy to get a hold of. Within seconds I was able to bring him aboard the short film team and cast our non-gender conforming character Charlie as none other than Cristian.
- Charlie's costume was easy. Cristian, our actor, is a thespian already so I asked what theatre shirts he owned. He responded saying he had a purple shirt that said "Theatre Camp" on the front which would be perfect for the character. Funny enough, I also asked him to wear the black pants and crocs that he wears frequently as they'd made a great outfit for a quirky theatre-goer.
Z: Jack Sussman
I had a difficult time trying to cast this character as I was looking for people who had deep voices and could perform as dumb characters. I texted one of my theatre buddies that I've known for 6 years if he was available to be in the film, to which I received no response. Next, I recalled when I saw my school perform Beauty and the Beast this February and texted Jack, who played the burly character, Gaston. He has been involved in theatre for 3 years and said yes to filming, although he had no prior experience with acting in films.
- The pants and shoes were easy for Z. Black jeans (ripped or unripped) and an old pair of vans would fit the grungy vibe we wanted this character to have. Jack didn't have a colorful jacket that looked like our character concepts though, so I had to ask around for an appropriate shirt. As I walked into my computer science class the day Jack was cast for the part, I saw one of my friends wearing a black hoodie with each sleeve a different color: one was cyan and the other pink. I asked him if I could borrow it for the weekend and he said yes!! This was a lifesaver. to complete the look of the character, I planned to give Jack one of my blue beanies as well.
COURTNEY: Taylor Stark
This character had her name written all over it. Sassy, bossy, authoritative and more, Taylor was the only name I had down for this character. She has been involved in theatre for the past 5 years and has been in numerous short films in the past. I was genuinely shocked when she agreed to come on board for this role and I'm excited to see where the film will take us.
- I had a very specific jacket in mind for this character. It was brown and fuzzy just like a teddy bear. When Taylor was sending me photographs of some possible clothing options that matched Luis and my character concept document, she sends the exact jacket I was envisioning which I eagerly told her to bring. She also owned a white shirt and pant that was perfect for the role in addition to some badass pink heels that completed Courtney's entitled look.
GARRETT: Jake Fretwell
Hey, that's me! As I was the original Garrett in my project last year, Luis and I had decided I would reprise my role. We just made the executive decision to limit my screentime as much as possible so that I could be behind the camera the majority of the time.
- As the original costume for Garrett was a turtle neck, I knew I'd have to "modernize" Garrett's outfit. I already had black shoes and blue shorts that matched the color of Garrett's previous blue pant black converse combo. Instead of the yellow turtle neck, I opted for a yellow hoodie, which would make the character appear younger to the audience (this was to offset the facial hair I am growing for an upcoming show of mine).
Otherwise, our cast has come together!! We are going to decide on specific production days within the next two days in our "Valedictorian" group chat based on everyone's availability. Hopefully, all goes as planned!
Till next time, have a great day,
While Luis made arrangements to rent camera equipment from one of his resources, I brainstormed three names each of the people that would be perfect for each role. I searched through group chats of the various theatre classes (both in and out of school programs) for phone numbers to text these individuals.
This is a sample of one of the texts I sent:
"Hey Ameerah!!
Luis (from AMT 2) and I are making our short film about students in a competition to win their school's valedictorian (instead of the traditional GPA system). You'd be perfect for the part of RILEY:
If you did not see on her Instagram, YouTube, or Twitter account, Riley is a competitor in The Valedictorian Competition. However challenged she may be in face to face conversation, she is not only outgoing but LOUD on camera. Riley's extreme differences in personality parallel to her classmate's perception of her: they either love her or they're annoyed by her. She is always wearing the trendiest outfits, always ready for a photo. Riley aims to be the next big social media influencer; her current claim to fame is one viral TikTok.
Im also sending the first draft of the first scene. LMK if you are interested ASAP so that we can pick filming days!!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/14r3pTEqFOZqILOM5r_mowv2L7IWcVyd6rO97CPfgBWU"
Here is the unique story of casting each character!!
ISA: Daniela Gomez-Dugan
Dani is one of my really close friends who has been on Telemundo and in numerous professional theatre productions throughout South Florida. I met her four years ago when I was Simba in The Lion King Jr. in my school production when she played my mother, Serafina. Ever since we have been good friends; it was an easy decision to bring her onto the cast (she was the first character cast!).
- Luis and I asked all of our actors what clothes they actually had in their closet so we knew what costumes would fit and look good together. For Isa, Dani had tennis shoes and exercise shorts just like the ones we had in mind on our character concept Google Doc. She also had a purple exercise shirt that we went with because it went with the school colors of our school, purple and gold. All Dani needed now was a ponytail holder and some of her everyday jewelry and she looked like Isa!
ANDREW: Sebastian Fishmatherin
At first, I had reached out to one of my friends who is an incredibly talented theatre student. He is one of the only male thespians I know that can do a split and a clean toe-touch, not to mention perform as the nerdy, submissive character in a performance. I sent him the text with the information for our short film and he said he would let Luis and I know what dates he was available. Turns out he had a production opening that weekend (how appropriate of a theatre student!).
Next, I reached out to one of my mentees, Sebastian. He had asked me earlier in the year about AICE Media and showed interest in it after I explained to him what the course entailed. After my explanation, he grew incredibly interested, as he is in the TV club on campus and is familiar with many of the technical aspects of the media field. We also have a connection in that we met through the theatre program at my school when he was the General in Seussical. I was incredibly happy to hear he would join the cast after he received my text and hearing me rave about this project for weeks.
- Luis and I knew that this character, without a doubt, had to wear a hoodie and cargo shorts. I had these items already, so all we had to do was grab those items from my house. Sebastian said he had a Penn State hoodie and some shorts that would work for the nerdy character so we encouraged him to bring those to our filming days. Luis and I would bring my purple hoodie and cargo shorts on that day to see what looked the best on out actor.
BRYCE: Jakob Binnings
I met this student this year, as he is a new student at my school. I met him through my school's theatre program as he is in this year's production of Monty Python's Spamalot. Jakob has participated in my media projects before, so it was reassuring to know he wanted to come back on camera and play a role in another one of my films.
- As this character was loosely based on Payton Hobart from The Politician on Netflix, Luis and I asked Jakob what dress pant/polo shirt combos he had in his closet. He didn't have a white polo, which was the main item we envisioned for this part. Instead, Jakob sent a picture of a red pant/dark turquoise polo that looked awesome together. We chose this outfit because of the subtle allusion to democrats and republicans in addition to the blue shirt foreshadowing how the character gets eliminated.
MIRANDA: Kailey Fretwell
As the Valedictorian Competition is only for seniors, I knew I wanted to reach out to only seniors for my project (or so I thought). The original actress I had acquired for the role could not film the weekend we were planning to film, so I brainstormed for even more actors. Miranda/Miles was the most difficult character to cast as we needed someone who was optimistic and happy by nature. For this reason, Luis and I decided to cast my sister, Kailey. She has been involved in theatre for at least twelve years so I knew she had the acting chops to be in a film. I also knew she had no plans at the weekend we were planning to film so it was simple to just bring her with me in my car wherever I went.
- On our character concept, Google Doc, Luis and I had envisioned this character with a vibrant tie-dye shirt (alluding to their well-roundedness and sociability) with a denim jacket sitting on top. Luckily my sister already had a tie-dye shirt and a denim jacket with some of her favorite pins on it. I told Kailey to wear black shorts and her red converse high tops to complete the outfit.
RILEY: Ameerah Adetoro
I met Ameerah four years ago through my school's Student Government Association. She is very smart and aware of social media trends, making her perfect for the tech-savvy Riley. Ameerah uses TikTok (it is to Gen Z what Facebook is to Gen X) as her primary social media platform and creates allot of videos to post there. As we've grown closer, I discovered her long history as a dancer and even encouraged her to join the theatre program at our school. I was ecstatic when she said yes to my text!
- During the character conceptualization, I envisioned Riley wearing the color orange, which symbolized new fashion trends and the "new wave" of social media through apps like TikTok. Orange is a common color used by "clout clothing lines" such as Supreme and Off-White, indicating that an orange shirt was to be the costume for Riley. Ameerah didn't own an orange shirt herself, so I asked my entire cast of my show if they had an orange shirt. Only one student had one—it was an orange and navy blue striped polo with a white collar that looked super trendy and would look perfect with ripped jeans and a white pair of shoes. She sent me a picture of the shirt that night and I LOVED IT!!
CHARLIE: Cristian Velasquez
This bundle of sunshine I met last year through my school's theatre program. He is now good friends with my sister and was very easy to get a hold of. Within seconds I was able to bring him aboard the short film team and cast our non-gender conforming character Charlie as none other than Cristian.
- Charlie's costume was easy. Cristian, our actor, is a thespian already so I asked what theatre shirts he owned. He responded saying he had a purple shirt that said "Theatre Camp" on the front which would be perfect for the character. Funny enough, I also asked him to wear the black pants and crocs that he wears frequently as they'd made a great outfit for a quirky theatre-goer.
Z: Jack Sussman
I had a difficult time trying to cast this character as I was looking for people who had deep voices and could perform as dumb characters. I texted one of my theatre buddies that I've known for 6 years if he was available to be in the film, to which I received no response. Next, I recalled when I saw my school perform Beauty and the Beast this February and texted Jack, who played the burly character, Gaston. He has been involved in theatre for 3 years and said yes to filming, although he had no prior experience with acting in films.
- The pants and shoes were easy for Z. Black jeans (ripped or unripped) and an old pair of vans would fit the grungy vibe we wanted this character to have. Jack didn't have a colorful jacket that looked like our character concepts though, so I had to ask around for an appropriate shirt. As I walked into my computer science class the day Jack was cast for the part, I saw one of my friends wearing a black hoodie with each sleeve a different color: one was cyan and the other pink. I asked him if I could borrow it for the weekend and he said yes!! This was a lifesaver. to complete the look of the character, I planned to give Jack one of my blue beanies as well.
COURTNEY: Taylor Stark
This character had her name written all over it. Sassy, bossy, authoritative and more, Taylor was the only name I had down for this character. She has been involved in theatre for the past 5 years and has been in numerous short films in the past. I was genuinely shocked when she agreed to come on board for this role and I'm excited to see where the film will take us.
- I had a very specific jacket in mind for this character. It was brown and fuzzy just like a teddy bear. When Taylor was sending me photographs of some possible clothing options that matched Luis and my character concept document, she sends the exact jacket I was envisioning which I eagerly told her to bring. She also owned a white shirt and pant that was perfect for the role in addition to some badass pink heels that completed Courtney's entitled look.
GARRETT: Jake Fretwell
Hey, that's me! As I was the original Garrett in my project last year, Luis and I had decided I would reprise my role. We just made the executive decision to limit my screentime as much as possible so that I could be behind the camera the majority of the time.
- As the original costume for Garrett was a turtle neck, I knew I'd have to "modernize" Garrett's outfit. I already had black shoes and blue shorts that matched the color of Garrett's previous blue pant black converse combo. Instead of the yellow turtle neck, I opted for a yellow hoodie, which would make the character appear younger to the audience (this was to offset the facial hair I am growing for an upcoming show of mine).
Otherwise, our cast has come together!! We are going to decide on specific production days within the next two days in our "Valedictorian" group chat based on everyone's availability. Hopefully, all goes as planned!
Till next time, have a great day,
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