If a strong set of lungs or languid Southern accent is a lock for stardom, Holly Ignatius has it made.

After the 24-year-old redhead from Elyria elicited smiles during her brief audition Saturday afternoon as a Southern woman refusing a suitor’s affections, director J. Carlos Gonzalez asked Ignatius to look straight into the camera and scream as loudly as she could.

TOM MAHL/CHRONICLE

Director J. Carlos Gonzalez goes over the script with Malik St. Marie, 10, at tryouts Saturday for “Not in Ohio.”

She did — gleefully emitting an ear-piercing cry that ended after about 15 seconds with a laugh and a smile.

“I do have a good set of pipes,” said Ignatius, one of numerous people vying for roles in front of or behind the camera of Gonzalez’s movie “Not in Ohio,” an adventure-fantasy movie filled with dinosaurs and a lost city of gold, slated to be filmed in Lorain County this summer. 
Auditions were Saturday in the Lorain County Community College Center Mall.

The movie, which will be filmed over a month in Cascade Park, Mill Hollow and other Lorain County parks, has a projected budget of $350,000. It will tell the story of a group of childhood pals who reunite as adults 20 years later to search for a fabled lost city of gold described in a map they purchased online.

Gonzalez has referred to the plot as “National Treasure” meets ‘The Goonies.”
Ignatius, who has community theater acting experience and earned an award at an independent film festival in Independence two years ago, expressed the hope of everyone who showed up to audition.

“Of course, I’d be very happy to have a starring role, but I’d take any part … to build an actor’s experience,” she said.

Everyone auditioning was asked the same questions about physical fitness, allergies, fear of heights, availability during summer months and objections to working outdoors in heat or crummy weather.

They also were asked whether they would be willing to play multiple roles and adhere to a confidentiality agreement prohibiting them from disclosing the movie’s plot.

“If you aren’t selected for the role you wanted, are you willing to take another role?” asked Donna Miller, who helped oversee the auditions.

She and Gonzalez worked to put nervous auditioners at ease with a warm smile and words of encouragement.

All sounded more than eager to take whatever role or assignment they could land.

The would-be stars were informed they’d receive calls or e-mails within the next few weeks letting them know whether they had been selected for a role — either in front of the camera or behind it — in “Not in Ohio.”

Malik St. Marie, a 10-year-old fifth-grader at Elyria’s Erie Elementary School, read quietly from the script in front of Miller and Adam Muska, then asked, “If we get the part, do you call us?”

He later traded questions with a reporter as his mom, Alyssa St. Marie, looked on with a smile.

“Are the dinosaurs chasing you, or looking for something?” Malik asked.

The reporter confessed he wasn’t privy to the script.

After publicizing Saturday’s auditions in e-mails and fliers posted around the LCCC campus, Gonzalez was pleased with the response.

“I had 20 calls today alone about them,” he said. “It’s a weird process. Once I put the word out, it was like opening Pandora’s Box. You don’t know if you’re going to get a dozen people or 50.”

Matthew Eckhart, a 17-year-old Elyria High senior clad in jeans and an orange jersey, briefly used a Russian accent as he read from the script.

Midway through, he stopped and asked if he could start over.

“I did that badly,” he said.

“It’s OK, just read — don’t try to act it,” Gonzalez said.

A veteran of several high school productions, Matthew said he’s cool with not landing a speaking part.

“I’d be happy being the guy who gets the coffee,” he said.

To learn more about “Not in Ohio,” visit www.ohiomovie.homestead.com.

Contact Steve Fogarty at 329-7146 or sfogarty@chroniclet.com. 

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