Hello Friends of Parlando,

Landon Harris, a 13-year old vocal student of Parlando Voice Faculty Member Gene Roberts was cast on August 25,

Landon with Stephen Daldry, Tony-Award Winning Director of Billy Elliot

2010 for the national touring company of "Billy Elliot The Musical."  Winner of 10 Tony Awards including Best Musical in 2009, Billy Elliot is the celebration of one boy's journey to make his dreams come true. Set in a small town in northeast England during the 1984 British National Union of Mineworkers' strike, the story follows Billy as he stumbles out of the boxing ring and into a ballet class, discovering a passion that inspires his family. 

A talented ballet and tap dancer, Landon has been training in ballet for 10 years.  Landon was most recently trained at the National Ballet Academy of Denver by highly accomplished Artistic Directors Andrei Vassiliev and Cornell Callender.  Previously he was trained at the Academy of Colorado Ballet by Michelle Dolighan-Rodenbeck currently of Classic Dance Academy in Centennial.  Landon received tap training from Diane Caputo-Patzer of Classic Dance Academy.  He was trained in acrobatics by Ben Way, Head Gymnastics Coach at the Silverthorne Recreation Center and Dan Zimmerman from Mats on the Move.

Landon Harris, Age 13, Voice Student of Gene Roberts

The audition process for Billy Elliot was uniquely long.  Landon's journey began with a private audition in New York in June 2009 followed by a callback in July when he auditioned for the Tony Award Winning Creative Team of Stephen Daldry and Peter Darling.  Follow-on auditions took him to Austin, Denver, Leeds, England and London, England where he worked with the London Resident Director, Dialect Coach and London Resident Choreographer.  The production brought Landon to New York in April 2010 for a four-day workshop and another audition for the Creative Team.  They brought him back to New York in May for 9 days of training where he was taught one of the major tap numbers in the show "Angry Dance" created by the Tony Award winning Choreographer, Peter Darling, and took ballet classes with the Broadway Billy's.  A video tape of Landon dancing "Angry Dance" was requested by the show's Associate Choreographer in August for review by Peter Darling and an additional video tape was requested by the Associate Director in August of Landon reading sides for the Tall Boy/Posh Boy role as well as the Michael role.

 On August 25th, Landon's months of hard work paid off when he received a call from the Children's Casting Director confirming that the show wanted him for the national tour in the role of Tall Boy/Posh Boy and an understudy for Michael.  Landon began rehearsals in New York on September 7, 2010 with some of Broadway's top directors, choreographers, dialect coaches, music directors and fight coaches.  Landon learned to speak with a "Geordie" accent and a "Posh" accent.  He is the only child in the show who switches between two accents in the show.  In October, Landon traveled to Durham, North Carolina for a month of technical rehearsals in preparation for the opening of the tour.  Landon's professional debut took place on October 30, 2010.  Since Durham the tour has traveled to Cleveland, Minneapolis, Charlotte, Tampa and Houston.  Landon will be home for a week in March and then will move on to runs in Seattle, Portland and Tempe.  Billy Elliot the Musical opens at The Buell Theater in the Denver Performing Arts Complex on May 11th for a four-week run before heading on to Dallas and then 12 weeks in San Francisco. 

To learn more about Gene Roberts, please click here: http://parlando.org/faculty-theater.html#roberts

Congratulations Landon, we are proud of you!


Best,