All-Star Cast Of Performers Comes Face-To-Face With Larger-Than-Life Dragon Creatures

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After an exhaustive casting process throughout 13 major cities around the world, RZO Dragon Productions, Global Creatures and DreamWorks Animation are proud to announce the extraordinary cast of the unprecedented live entertainment event, How To Train Your Dragon Arena Spectacular.

Beginning its global tour in Australia in March 2012, high-flying, fire-breathing dragons will be brought to life in this epic arena adventure, which is inspired by the Academy Award®-nominated DreamWorks Animation film, How To Train Your Dragon. From the masterminds behind the phenomenon Walking With Dinosaurs – the Arena Spectacular comes one of the most ambitious live shows ever created. How To Train Your Dragon Arena Spectacular advances the technology to a whole new level, resulting in 24 larger-than-life, battle-ready Dragons. But it is the international cast of 23 performers who truly provoke emotion and ignite the imagination of the audience as they interact on-stage with these amazing beasts. Using aerial acrobatics, hip hop, dance, martial arts, parkour, and circus skills, the incredibly talented cast of performers will compete with, wrestle and even soar around the arena on the backs of these fantastical creatures.

“We travelled around the world twice searching for our amazing cast, auditioning over 2000 people. It was a long search but worth it. Our cast is really breathtaking. We have found the most extraordinary group of performers from across the globe, extreme athletes who can integrate their amazing skills into character and comedic routines, and in their own way astonish as much as the incredible dragons they are to perform with,” says Director Nigel Jamieson.

From November 2011, the international cast will gather at Sydney’s Fox Film Studios in the vast vaulted space of the old show grounds ‘Hall of Creative Industries’. Here they will commence three months of intensive rehearsals and training alongside the 24 life-like dragons, towering up to 10 metres in the air, with the ability to breathe fire, fly, bank and turn, and take the breath away with the flick of a tail.

In a massive coup for Australia’s performing arts industry, two young Australian performers have been cast in the lead roles of Hiccup and Astrid for this worldwide production. Due to the intense physicality of these roles, two actors are required to share each of these roles.

Melbourne actor Rarmian Newton, who won a Helpmann Award for his performance in the Australian production of Billy Elliot the Musical (2008), will play the lead role of Hiccup, the unlikely Viking hero who makes a dragon his best friend. Rarmian has the epic challenge of flying around the arena on the back of an animatronic dragon, falling, being caught mid-air and at times hanging by a dragon fin!

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