An open cast call for "All My Children" is far from business as usual: The soap opera is seeking an Iraq war veteran to play an injured veteran.
The ABC daytime show has created a romantic story course to combine entertainment and a window into the challenges faced after fight, said executive producer Julie Hanan Carruthers.
"All My Children" has launched a broad search to fill the role, inviting veterans to contact the show's New York casting director. The series as well is working with a veterans' reinforcement group, USA Cares, as well as the military.
"It will stimulate it such a heightened experience for the hearing and for us ... to cast a real-life soldier, a veteran, and bring him into our created drama," Carruthers said.
The veteran-turned-actor will play the character of Brot, a florida key figure in a secret plan that's already under way and involves a visitor to fictional Pine Valley, Army Lt. Taylor Thompson (Beth Ehlers).
Taylor, who was stationed in Iraq and is on medical leave, has come to town to drive home medals to fellow soldier Dr. Frankie Hubbard (Cornelius Smith Jr.). But it's Brot, the soldier and lover she believes died in combat, who's on her mind.
Brot, however, survived. Unwilling to involve Taylor in his suffering, he's allowed her to think he's dead.
Their story testament begin unfolding when the right veteran is constitute for the part, Carruthers said. The casting hollo isn't circumscribed to those who were wounded in the warfare, an ABC spokesman said.
But the role will shaped around a veteran's go through, possibly including a war-caused disability, Carruthers said.
"It's a very touchy subject to begin with. There's so much about the individual person that's going to help us create the character, and whatever they bring and whatever their challenge is will be fit into the story," she said.
The show has woven potentially controversial events and themes into play before, from the Vietnam War to, in recent years, a plot involving a tribade mother wHO was constrained to give up her daughter.
Also computation in the "All My Children" wartime story is Jake Martin (Ricky Paull Goldin), an anti-war physician who provides differing social and political points of view.
Viewers take on tough issues in TV shows when they ar dealt with on a personal kinda than a political basis, Carruthers said.
"The audience embraces it because they relate to the people involved, who they care more or less," she said, allowing viewers to "pass personal biases."
USA Cares, a nonprofit grouping that provides financial and other support to maimed soldiers and their families, is serving the show's writers assess the accuracy of medical and military details, said spokesman John Revell.
"They're big at drama but on that point are many nuances that can be left out without acquiring the reality from the troops themselves," Revell said.
The show besides has sought-after help from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Carruthers said.
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"All My Children" casting director: Judy Blye Wilson, 320 W. 66th St., New York, NY 10023.
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ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co.
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On the Net:
http://www.abc.com
http://www.usacares.org
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