Ellington

Actor David McNeill White began envisioning his directorial debut, “Life with Hope,” while sitting in a service at Rechoboth Baptist Church in Soddy-Daisy.

“I thought, ‘Everyone in this building has a story, but no one knows their story,’” he said. “I thought, ‘What would people think if they knew their secrets?’”

Now White is recruiting 30 to 40 actors, half women and half men, to star in his Web series about real-life scenarios people in general struggle with, the paths people choose and the results. Auditions will take place at Heritage House, at 1428 Jenkins Road in East Brainerd, June 7 starting at 6 p.m. He is taking online auditions as well.

He said he hopes to recruit those mostly high school age up to adults, but also needs two young girls, one young boy and a grandmother for the roles.

“The story follows several people and their connections with each other,” said White. “There’s a girl in the series that gets into drugs and prostitution. A guy loses his wife. And a guy runs out of money to pay the bills for his family.

“A lot of Christian movies show people going to church in the end and everything is perfect, but that’s not how it works in real life. Problems don’t solve themselves when you convert to Christianity.”

He said the gospel message will be presented in a way that will appeal to the audience. People are already requesting church Bible study materials to go along with the series, according to him.

Through the auditions, White is looking for actors that can ad lib to make the lines better. He said an agent from Atlanta has already contacted him to say that some of her clients are interested in auditioning for the first season’s planned 18-20 episodes. Though there is no pay involved, participation will give the actors exposure and experience, White said.

He envisions short 10-minute episodes with a powerful message and a cliffhanger at the end to keep the audience watching more episodes.

“I want people to make it sound great,” he said. “I want the audience watching online to be entertained. I want people to take away from it that nobody’s perfect, life is hard, but there’s always hope.”

Through auditions, he also hopes to find experienced and behind-the-scenes crew. Will Taylor of Red Bank will be filming the series with two digital HD cameras.

“We will need 10 houses to film scenes in,” said White, adding that he plans to film scenes in Soddy-Daisy parks and Highway 111.