Handpicked Cast Rehearsed On Warsaw Basketball Court

The young cast for ``METRO'' was handpicked by composer Janusz Stoklosa and director-choreographer Janusz Josefowicz. The members were drawn from more than 1,200 auditionees, and only a handful of those in the company have any performing experience. Incredibly, there is an American in the company. Mark-Anthony Thomas, a 27-year-old from South Carolina, not only sings and acts phonetically in Polish, but also serves as Kubiak's informal company manager. Mr. Thomas was recruited for METRO when a touring production of ``Up With People'' came to Warsaw and producer Wiktor Kubiak asked Thomas to join.

The METRO cast was housed in Warsaw at Kubiak's expense, then coached, ``Fame''-like, for some five months in the styles and techniques of musical theater and dance before rehearsals began. These rehearsals, for lack of another suitable space, were held on a Warsaw basketball court.