Michelle Danner, top Hollywood casting director and acting coach to A-list Hollywood actors such as Salma Hayek, Penelope Cruz, Chris Rock, Christian Slater and Gerard Butler, will facilitate the Hollywood 2 SA Master Classes in Johannesburg (Old Mutual Theatre on the Square) and Cape Town (The Waterfront Theatre School) during February.
South African acting professionals, beginners, parents, casting directors, agents, producers, directors and filmmakers are expected to attend the workshops.
Addi Lang together with TV producer Wendy Leissner Machanik and Elize van Herk (The AWEsome Team) are the appointed South African representatives for the workshops.
Says Lang: “The first phase is for Michelle Danner to identify talent through her master classes, with the second phase being the Hollywood 2 SA Talent Search, which offers opportunities to singers, songwriters and composers to enter the competition. The 12 finalists will perform at the Old Mutual Theatre on the Square in Sandton on 24 February 2013.’
Prizes are valued at R200,000 for each of the three winners sponsored by multimedia production company Ministry of illusion.
Celebrities who are involved as co-judges for the Hollywood 2 SA Talent Search include ANAIS, the brand ambassador to Lifeline who is currently taking South African audiences by storm as a singing sensation, and Bollywood film director and actor Akrum Amod (Indian Cinema Award winner for Bollywood movie Pyaar Ajnabee Hai in 2012). The MC is Rosie Motene, award winning actress, producer, TV presenter, voiceover artiste and international MC.
“To have one of Hollywood’s finest here in South Africa doing master classes falls in line perfectly with our theatre’s objectives of nurturing and developing the talents of aspiring performers,’ comments Daphne Kuhn, producer and artistic director / owner of the Old Mutual Theatre on the Square.
Delia Sainsbury, owner of the Waterfront Theatre School in Cape Town, recently met Michelle Danner at the Edgemar Centre for the Arts (patrons are Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg) and believes that all South Africans are truly blessed to have Danner visiting South Africa.
