Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 8, 1994 TAG: 9403090039
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DUBLIN LENGTH: Medium
While he auditioned over the weekend in the Georgetown area of Washington, D.C., he learned that he will also be considered for a role in the upcoming movie, ``Hackers,'' about young people who inadvertently create a computer virus that leaks onto national networks years later.
Parks was accompanied by his drama teacher, Rhonda Welsh, and Sherry Vaughn, drama teacher at Dublin Middle School.
It was Welsh and another drama student, Penny Norris, who filled out a casting call sheet that Welsh had received as part of casting director Mali Finn's national search for someone to play Robin.
They did it in a matter of minutes, more or less as a joke, but last week Warner Brothers called, asking if Parks could come to Georgetown to meet with the casting director.
Welsh and Parks later learned that 8,000 applications were returned for young men interested in trying out for the role, and 80 were selected to come.
Parks, Welsh and Vaughn drove to D.C. last Saturday and visited art museums and other points of interest before Parks' scheduled evening interview with Finn in a small group.
Finn's first question to Parks was the one he had been rehearsing for two days before the trip: ``Tell us something about yourself and what you do.''
``A lot of them froze up,'' Welsh said. ``The neat thing for me, as a teacher, was that [Parks] was prepared.''
Welsh's husband, Michael Karpie, had taken some photographs of Parks before the trip and Parks prepared a resume of the roles he has performed during the past four years at Pulaski County High.
After Finn asked her questions of the actors, she gave them a pep talk encouraging them to pursue their acting interests regardless of the results of this audition. Parks had his resume and pictures with him; the other auditioners in the group did not.
Welsh said it was ``a once-in-a-lifetime`` opportunity for a student from Southwest Virginia to get a casting call.
``I wish I could take every one of my students out to do something like this. I couldn't, because I would be destitute,'' she said.
The other students were supportive of Parks.
``He could end up getting a call back. He could end up never hearing anything. Either way, it was a wonderful experience,'' Welsh said.
by CNB