Open casting call in Honesdale

Blue Valentine seeks players

By FRITZ MAYER

HONESDALE, PA — The lure to get a role in a movie is powerful, especially when the movie is connected to Oscar nominees. The coming film “Blue Valentine” features two such stars, Michelle Williams who starred in “Brokeback Mountain” and Ryan Gosling of “Half Nelson.” So when the producers of “Blue Valentine” announced an open casting call at the Wayne County Visitors Center in Honesdale, area residents responded with a healthy turnout.

Male and female, young and old, in all sizes and shapes, stood on line for more than an hour in the chilly weather on April 13 for a chance to make it onto the silver screen.

Cynthia Furlong, an artist and designer who will soon be running an art gallery in Honesdale, showed up with a list of some 30 roles that producers were hoping to fill. She thought she might be a good fit for any one of about 10 parts on the list. She especially liked the role of a female school principal who would be introducing a Halloween parade.

Arthur Mitchell, a Honesdale restaurant manager, coveted the role of a doctor who has a romantic interest. He said with experience in up to 30 stage productions in Scranton, he had as good a chance as any in coming away with a role.

Anastasia Skold, a high school student from Waymart, came out of the rooms where auditions were being held. She didn’t get a lengthy audition as were given to some, but the producers did take her name and her headshot, and she hoped that she’d get a call for work as an extra.

“Blue Valentine” is described as a drama that jumps back and forth in time. It focuses on a couple when they were newly joined and excited at the prospects of life and love, and then on their 10th anniversary, when the wife is successfully moving forward but the husband is stuck the way he was a decade earlier and can’t accept his wife’s growth.

Whether the hopefuls on line get roles or not, the film has already made one group of people happy, those who live and work in the Wayne Delaware Manor, the assisted living center located just across the river from Narrowsburg, NY.

Administrator Sandy Kline says the film crew will be shooting for a day at the end of the month. As she understands it, the male and female leads meet at the facility because both have a grandparent living there. Kline said she hopes the filmmakers will include some of the residents as extras or in background shots.

She said the staff is fairly excited about the event, but the residents are not that impressed. She said that when the crew actually shows up and filming begins she expects they will be excited, too.