The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 47

THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER TEMPO THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 2003 E5 CCM seniors brace themselves, teens for tryouts By Jackie Demaline If you go -1 dest lesson, he says, was "learning to be myself." Berg, Lala and Grodsky asked one hopeful why she wanted to attend CCM. "I want to go somewhere where I'm not die best. I want to be pushed. I'll work hard. I'll do whatever I need to do to get where I want to be." None of these kids made the cut "One day last year," Lala noted, "we saw 65 people and accepted no one.

It means everything to them, and that makes it worse for us." New York is the next stop for the CCM senior class. Bohon will move in (temporarily) with older brother Justin, also a CCM grad and a breakout star in last year's Broadway revival of Oklahoma! The plan: "Starve and audition," says Neal Shrader, speaking for the class of 2003. Catch the show and say you knew them when. waited nervously for singing and acting auditions. Three minutes included 32 measures of two songs and a one-minute monologue.

Some hopefuls spend months choosing the right material, and even work with vocal coaches and drama teachers. That Saturday, CCM faculty saw a student every six minutes. Berg says 10 seconds is enough time to know. Heather Lilek and Roy Lightner are best friends from Kansas City, home to several current CCM students including Angel Reda, a graduating senior who recently starred in Vie Wild Party. A typically giggly high school senior, Lilek is given to nerves.

Before she walked into the audition room, she fretted. "I want to do a good job and be myself but it's not as easy as it sounds." Ginther concurs. Maybe the har- 1 The Cincinnati Enquirer Friday and Saturday, audiences get to play casting agent. The annual CCM Musical Theatre Senior Showcase is a warm-up of the 30-minute presentation that the dozen University of Cincinnati students will perform in New York next week for agents and producers. The College-Conservatory of Music does a revue-style audition that seniors work on all year.

This year's theme: Mars and Venus. It is their introduction to a Broadway career, if the graduating seniors have what it takes. But the first big doorway opens four years earlier, when almost 600 hopefuls from across the United States vie for about 24 available freshman slots in CCM's musical theater program. The faculty has been auditioning across the country New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Seattle since January. The first session was on the UC campus.

It looked a lot likeyl Chorus Line. Only more grueling. At 9 a.m., feet were pounding in the dance rehearsal hall. High school seniors from as far as California and Washington were learning combinations, taught by a tag-team of upperclassmen. "Kick on two, turn three, four, five, six step, going one, two, three The Cincinnati EnquirerJEFF SWINGER High school students watch a routine by a University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music student.

The exercise was designed to help the younger performers relax for their auditions. What CCM Musical Theatre Senior Showcase When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday Where: Werner Recital Hall, College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati Tickets: Free. Call the box office at 556-4183 for reservations. jump, walk back." Hopefuls scrambled to get it right as they danced across the room in groups of five.

Some of them remembered to smile. There was much chiding about hand positions. Hardly anyone remembered to keep straight jazz hands with fingers pointed skyward. Wrists flopped like a Vegas showgirl's. That's Nevada, this is Cincinnati!" Dance teacher Diane Lala urged, "Have fun, relax, be happy." Oh, yeah.

"We have the triple-threat philosophy," says department chair Aubrey Berg. "Act when you sing and move when you do both. We want performers who can integrate the skills." CCM prides itself on graduating triple threats, but very few students enter that way. Lala looks for students who have ease of movement, can shift weight, who have the ability to learn. And who have personality, high energy, magnetism.

learn that I wasn't an ingenue." Getting into UC's theater department matters. CCM is rated at the top in the nation, and one of the chief criteria is that graduates work. It's the rare Broadway musical that doesn't include a CCM grad the recent revival of Oklahoma! had five. Berg, Lala and musical director Roger Grodsky watch for both good and bad training. Part of the consideration is whether they can undo bad advice a talented youngster has gotten.

After dance auditions, students Graduating senior Blake Ginth-er remembers it well, including the anxiety and fear thick in the air. "I was a singer who looked uncomfortable on stage," says Ginth-er. "I had to learn stage presence, acting and some dance." Learning was a long process -the entire four years, says Ginther. "Morning, noon and night you live and breathe it" interjects classmate Leo Nouhan. Tiny Melissa Bohon (Princess Winifred in Once Upon a Mattress at Hot Summer Nights) says, "I had to learn to belt.

I was shocked to 111! Lytle: Soldiers respected general The Cincinnati Enquirer and the present Author seeks info Ruth C. Carter, editor of For Honor Glory Union: The Mexican Civil War Letters of Brig. Gen. William Haines Lytle, is researching a history of the 10th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. She asks that anyone with information about members of the Civil War The Spring Double Header! Win Reds' tickets AND a commemorative baseball bat! New subscribers sign up for 52 weeks of 7-day delivery of the Enquirer and win big! You'll get two tickets to see the Reds in the new Great American Ball Park AND a commemorative baseball bat! Pay $207.48 in Ohio, or $193.96 in Kentucky.

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Or fill out the coupon (below) and mail in to: The Cincinnati Enquirer, Circulation Attn: Cashier-Reds, P.O Box 116, Cincinnati, OH 45273-9639. From Page El lier than a Yankee," Carter writes in the book's introduction. The Lytle name is, of course, familiar to anyone who knows Cincinnati. With only a little effort one can quickly visit the Lytle landmarks. Start at Lytle Tower at the corner of East Fourth and Broadway, walk a block east to Lytle Park, take the steps down to One Lytle Place apartments, then hop in a car and motor through the Lytle Tunnel.

When a dozen people enjoying a sunny lunch hour recently at Lytle Park were asked whether they knew anything about the park's namesake, none did. Political backgrounds But 140 years ago, everybody in Cincinnati knew of William Haines Lytle, member of a prominent, upper-class Queen City family. His grandfather, William Lytle, established Williamsburg in Clermont County, and in 1809 moved to Cincinnati, where he became an entrepreneur and philanthropist President Andrew Jackson appointed him U.S. surveyor general in 1830. One of his sons, Robert Todd Lytle, served in the Ohio General Assembly and the U.S.

House of Representatives and was U.S. surveyor general. Robert Todd's oldest child and only son was William Haines Lytle, born in Cincinnati on Nov. 2, 1826. He lived in the family mansion, on land that now includes Lytle Park.

He attended college and studied law in Cincinnati. At 21, he left to serve in the Mexican War, but missed most of the fighting. Back in Cincinnati, he successfully ran for the Ohio Assembly, served one term, then returned home to practice law. Throughout his life he enjoyed writing poetry. Critical of abolition His hometown was populated by a number of abolitionists, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, who lived in the city from 1832 to 1850.

But many others held differing views, including Lytle. Carter writes: "He believed abolition would result in huge social and economic problems and criticized Republicans for asserting that abolition could be accomplished by peaceful or legal means." In 1858 he ran for lieutenant governor of Ohio, and lost; two years later his bid for the Democratic nomination to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives also failed. Lytle stayed involved in politics, campaigning for Stephen Douglas for president in 1860. By the eve of the War Between the States, Cincinnati was one of Name.

regiment contact her at or write her at 121 Pi-kemont Drive, Wexford, PA, 15090. es attempting to halt a Confederate advance into Kentucky. The armies met at the battle of Perryville, during which Lytle was shot behind the ear. Confederates captured him, and later released him on parole. Lytle was promoted to brigadier general in March 1863 and given command of the First Brigade, Third Division, 20th Army Corps of the Army of the Cumberland.

Six months later, on Sept. 19, he led troops into battle near Chickamau-ga Creek. "He was always at the front," Gampfer says. "He was a genuine leader, and was thought of very highly by his men." On the battle's second day, the 36-year-old general was indeed at the front, on horseback, leading a counterattack to stop Confederates who had broken through Union lines. Several bullets struck him and mortally wounded him.

City mourns He had never married, and was the last male in the family to carry on the Lytle name. (His sisters married, however, and Lytle descendants recently funded a renovation of the Cincinnati Historical Society's genealogy room, now called the Lytle Library.) "Reaction to Lytle's death in Cincinnati was remarkable," Gampfer says. "It was the biggest military funeral procession in the history of the city." He is buried at Spring Grove Cemetery. Six weeks before his death, when presented the Maltese cross by members of his old regiment, Lytle ended a speech this way: "That the day of ultimate triumph for the Union arms, sooner or later, will come, I do not doubt for I have faith in the courage, the wisdom, and the justice of the people. It may not be for all of us here today to listen to the chants that greet the victor, nor to hear the brazen bells ring out the new nuptials of the States.

"But those who do survive can tell, at least, to the people, how their old comrades, wheUier in the skirmish or the charge died with their harness on, in the great war for Union and Liberty." E-mail jjohnstonenquirer.com Address. City ST Zip Home Phone E-mail Address Payment Options: Enroll me in fZPay and charge my credit card $17.29 in OH or $16.16 in KY each month. Account Expiration Date Signature Check enclosed ($207.48 OH or $193.96 KY) or charge my credit card for a 1-year subscription. Please make payable to The Cincinnati Enquirer. Must be paid in advance.

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Lytle, though, had not reached his potential. Writes Carter: "He was a man without a fixed purpose in life when the Civil War and the call to his country's duty touched a deep need to devote himself to a cause." Lytle's sympathy for the rights of Southern slave owners did not outweigh his strong, pro-Union stance. In May 1861, he accepted a commission as colonel in the 10th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Lytle's first taste of battle came on Sept 10, 1861 at Carnifex Ferry, in what is now West Virginia. While leading a charge on horseback, he caught a Confederate bullet in his left calf.

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