There’s a feeling (which is probably true) that audiences and critics will see the company as more prestigious, exotic, whatever, if they bring in talent from elsewhere, especially New York, LA, or abroad. It’s unfortunate, but true.
A relatively small company will tend to hire locally for comprimario roles, but will almost always hire leads from elsewhere (once they’ve reached the level that allows them to not only attract talent from elsewhere, but pay to bring them in and house them).
Then couldn’t an enterprising singer simply register with an agency in New York or London and land local gigs?
ETA:
For that matter, an enterprising agent could open a New York office and solicit business from all over.
Yup. Or you can just lie (or at least fudge) on your resume. Lots of people sort of pretend they live with their parents and list their address instead of their own (local) one.
The problem arises when you are relatively well known (for whatever reason) to the people running the auditions, who will know whether you’re really local or not. For instance, the director of Union Avenue Opera Theatre (the “other” St. Louis company) had a close relationship with the University where I did my Master’s (and my Bachelor’s, but I didn’t know him then). The other person who sits in on auditions and assists in casting teaches the Opera Class, and is my voice teacher’s wife. I can’t really get around that one.
There are ways around that.
Yes, thanks a lot. Very interesting!
I’m told this is old, but it was new to me:
Original (a minute will do)
This clip defies this white boy’s sense of rhythm.
This one. I cannot stop watching it–it’s hypnotic. Also, my husband is totally in love with this girl. No idea why? 
I’ll bet there’s also the issue, if they hire locally, of seeing the same handful of people in the lead roles, over and over and over, and that gets boring. It’s like radio commercials around my small town. There seems to be only one local ad agency that does jingles, and so we’ve got the same woman singing the jingles for every single commercial, for many years now, and it’s getting really old.
Charlie the Unicorn!
It’s kinda surreal, but watch it til the end - the end is a bit of a twist.
Thanks, now I have to scrub my brain.
For that I give you Mighty Horse.
Not work safe, with all the language you’d expect from “Deadwood.”
Oh, this is by far my favorite. Hilarious. Its called the swear jar , created by bud.tv. Seriously, I wish all offices would do this…
The ending of this show was good on it’s own, but here’s proof that some people have far too much time on their hands.
This one is my favorite.
Rated R for strong language and animated violence.
This video always cheers me up when I’m down. Favorite game/favorite song.
Enjoy.
The Killers are generally good for total WTF videos, but thanks to YouTube I stumbled upon the one for All These Things That I’ve Done yesterday and this one is definitely way up there.
The most bizarre part is when I realized that in some kind of crazy way it actually makes sense.