It’s not everyday an accomplished theatre director comes to the Island to coach budding, young talents.But American Steve Huntsman, who directed ‘Peter Pan’, ‘Hairspray’ and ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ in Las Vegas, is hoping to take local talent to the next level.‘Once On This Island’, a Caribbean adaptation of fairy tale ‘The Little Mermaid’, will be put on by entertainment group Troika in August.Mr Huntsman is here to help with the audition process — an additional open call takes place tomorrow at the Old Berkeley building at 6.30pm.He leaves soon after but returns next month to get the young actors, singers and dancers in top shape for the performance.Mr Huntsman said he was inspired to sing and act after seeing his grandmother Doloris’ passion for the arts.“She was heavy into singing and musical theatre when she was a kid and into her adulthood, so I also had her as an example.“I trained and took singing lessons from her [from around age six] and it was then I decided I wanted to be on stage. I knew that was where I wanted to be.”Mr Huntsman started off his career as an actor and performer and said most of his experience was gained from practice, rather than formal schooling.“From there it was just a natural route to go into teaching others what I had learned, what I didn’t like and what I enjoyed.”He is involved in aspects of costume and production design in addition to being a director.Said Troika co-founder Shoa Bean: “With his experience as a director [particularly musicals], as a set and costume designer and also a performer, we felt it necessary to have someone of this calibre work on our first musical.“We were also very impressed with the quality of his previous work and felt that it was definitely in line with what Troika aims to do with our productions.”She said they were pleased with the quality of talent and level of passion shown by persons who auditioned.“We were very impressed and happy that we were able to catch some talent and cast some of the roles.“There are some people who haven’t been able to audition yet due to being overseas in school and have submitted their videos. After we view those we will definitely have the strong cast we are looking for.”Mr Huntsman was impressed with the maturity of the young people who auditioned last Saturday. “I was really impressed with how Troika has prepared the kids for doing the audition.“They knew what to expect and were very poised and professional so we could get an idea of who they were and their work ethic from the get go.”The director said he was excited to teach them about different story telling techniques and the importance of working together.“With this piece it’s a real community effort. It’s an ensemble piece so it’s not like you have the lead and everyone else supports that performance, it’s very much an ensemble piece.”Ms Bean added: “Steve always puts his own feel to a piece. He doesn’t like to do cookie cutter pieces where you have seen it before and it’s the same old, same old.“We are trying to put some type of flavour to it in a Bermuda way, but with Steve also putting his creative ideas and building upon that.”Persons between the ages of 13 and 20 unable to attend last weekend’s audition are encouraged to attend tomorrow’s open call.There are still several roles that need to be cast as well as musicians for the orchestra. For more information e-mail info@troikabda.com or phone 537-7590.Useful website: www.troikabda.com.