Shawn Sturdevant Press Release
Theatre at Southeastern student, Shawn Sturdevant, has landed a role and an eight-month Actor’s Equity Association contract in a new musical with the Walt Disney Company. The production and rehearsals will be held at the Hong Kong Disneyland in China. Theatre patrons will remember Shawn as the chained spirit of Jacob Marley in Theatre at Southeastern’s December production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. The development of this new musical is based on a Disney animated hit movie, but since the show is in development Sturdevant was unable to disclose the name of the production.
“The way I understand it,” said SOSU Director of Theatre Dell McLain, “Disney develops musicals from their cannon of animated classics in Asia. If it is successful there, they test them on the Disney Cruise Line. If that is a success, they will then package the show for its debut on Broadway.” Disney films The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Mary Poppins, and most recently The Little Mermaid have all made the transition to theatres in New York. Successful animated films like Pocahontas and Hercules however, were unsuccessful on the company’s cruise line and therefore did not open on Broadway.
Last semester Sturdevant flew to New York for a general audition with Disney Productions, and landed the role of “Six Bit Slocum” in Disney’s new musical comedy Hoop Dee Doo Musical Review at Disney World Orlando, Florida, to open this month. His rehearsals for that show were to begin in February in Toronto.
In January, Sturdevant, a junior Musical Theatre major from Ada, received a call from Disney’s Human Resource Department where the head of Disney’s casting directing agency had seen his audition tape and asked that Sturdevant attend an audition for this new musical. He was flown to Australia for a three-day audition. “They told me that I would know by the end of the day, whether or not I landed a part in the musical.”
Theatre @ Southeastern patrons will remember Sturdevant as Winston in The Screams of Kitty Genovese, Chebutykin in Three Sisters, and most recently as Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol. At last year’s Theatre and Communications awards banquet Shawn was the recipient of the Charles Warthen Scholarship, and awards for Best Actor in a Musical, Best Male Vocalist, and Excellence in Stage Management for Do Superheroes Have To Eat Their Vegetables? “I will always remember and be thankful for the experiences I was afforded, and skills I learned from the theatre program at Southeastern,” says Sturdevant.
Shawn departs to Hong Kong late this month with rehearsals for the musical beginning on March 31st. Sturdevant said he is “excited, but also nervous because it’s a different country, different culture and different language, but working for such a renowned entertainment company will smooth out many of the bumps… you couldn’t ask for anything better.”