SEQUIM — A Marrowstone Island show business couple see a wealth of talent and a beautiful setting for moviemaking on the North Olympic Peninsula.
That’s why Jan Rickey and Dan Stenado, who founded Int’l Entertainment and Productions — a corporation specializing in the production and promotion of film, music and live events — will feature bands, musicians and performers, including Sequim’s Craig Buhler, at 7 Cedars Casino in Blyn at 4 p.m. Sunday.
“This is not a competition. There are no judges. This is simply an entertainers’ showcase of talent who will be booked through Int’l Entertainment,” Rickey said.
The event is billed as the 2010 Talent Search USA and will be followed by a 1:30 p.m. Tuesday stunt seminar put on by Stenado at the casino.
That event, which includes lunch and costs $45, also will feature Bob Stacy of Carlsborg.
“The purpose of this event is to offer our services in marketing and create maximum exposure to Northwest artists for tour packaging, worldwide theme parks and venues, domestic, regional and local touring for the artists we showcase,” Rickey said of the Sunday program.
Featured will be two bands from Port Angeles, Thomas Sparks and Haunebu II, and a classic rocker, the Big Fine Daddies.
Filming events
“We are filming both events for promoting the groups and to build their tour promotional package,” Rickey said.
Rickey and Stenado have had dreams of launching a film and stunt school in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley of Diamond Point areas since the mid-1980s.
Their business plans include opening a stunt and film academy that also would work with Native Americans, such as those with the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe, which owns and manages 7 Cedars Casino.
“It’s just so beautiful out here, but it’s off in the distance where it gets cut off from things,” said Stenado, who worked as actor Kris Kristofferson’s stunt double in the movie “A Star is Born” and with actor Sylvester Stallone as a boxing trainer-technician in “Rocky” and “Rocky III.”
He also met actor Robert Conrad, which led to work in the 1960s TV series “The Wild Wild West.”
Stenado, a former lightweight boxer turned coach, is president of Int’l Pro Sports and Pacific Northwest Stuntmen’s and Women’s Association.
He said he was once in the same “stable” as boxer Jerry Quarry and is still a friend with Kenny Norton.
Rickey and Stenado both have entertainment careers dating back more than 30 years.
“Producers, directors, guides and people from the motion picture film industry asked us to do something,” Stenado said.
Rickey and Stenado intend to build a film production company for all those who graduate and accomplish the courses offered.
“We will then produce two to three films a year here on the Peninsula,” Rickey said.
“We have been giving actors workshop classes and stunt apprentice programs since the 1990s on the Olympic Peninsula, Kitsap and at Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend.”
Certified stunt instructor Red Horton is also a partner with Stenado, and together they have established the state’s stunt safety guidelines.
Those interested in attending the Sunday or Tuesday events can make seating reservations at 888-290-9779.
See www.talensearchusa.biz, www.intl-entertainment.com or www.intl-entertainment.net, or phone 360-379-3068.
Performers can sign up for future talent search events at www.talentsearchusa.biz.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.