...is this week! We only have two more nights of rehearsal before we break for the four-day vacation. As we make our travel plans, looking forward to seeing family members and eating family meals, we realize with excitement (or slight nervousness?) that we are suddenly very close to Opening Day.
Holiday Follies opens on Dec. 4. We move into the Taft Theatre on the previous Monday and Tuesday, starting in one week. That's not much time.
As always, we'll be ready in time. The big mystery with every production is how we will get there.
--
I imagine most of the children in the show are just happy to have a long break from school. I know I was, when I was their age. Thanksgiving Break was always a thing to look forward to, a chance to catch up--not just on homework or hobbies, but to catch up with family and friends, too--and relax, almost a full week of playing outside while the weather was still warm enough that you could get away with wearing a jacket; of raking, piling, and demolishing a mound of scratchy (but somehow very soft) ground-colored leaves; of relishing this first taste of the longer, winter vacation to come...the freedom, the food, the fun. It was the signal to begin thinking about the holiday season.
Now, as a grown-up actor working for a children's theatre, I find myself drifting in waves of nostalgia, more and more every day. One of the most observed perks of working with and for children is that you can remain in-touch with that "inner child," and it is a connection we are all happy to have.
I think of folks like Leo, who plays our Santa Claus, how he's always chuckling and playing at rehearsal. Or Bob, who plays the idea-crazy Ted Tastic in Holiday Follies, who does something different and hilarious at every rehearsal. Or Leslie, who plays the Stage Mother, who is always seen giving gifts or sharing home-prepared snacks. With people like this, it's no wonder The Children's Theatre is able to employ the same actors over and over, year after year, show upon show.
There are some good folks that work here. I'm proud to be a part of such a fun, and fun-loving, group.
--
Before I finish this post, I want to re-invite all you readers to buy tickets to our shows. Tickets for Follies continue to sell, and we are grateful for your support. Please consider also the Breakfast with Santa on Dec. 12, where we will be serving breakfast/brunch, raffling off wonderful gift options, and having a fun holiday celebration!
Thank you again for your patronage of The Children's Theatre of Cincinnati, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Monday, November 23, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Props...
...are beginning to appear in Holiday Follies rehearsals. As a result, the dance numbers are coming together nicely. We have all the paddles for the "Twelve Days of Christmas" number (these paddles, by the way, are crucial for a bit of audience participation) and nearly all the cell phones for the cell phone number (an original song by the incomparable Steve Goers).
It's very exciting.
Especially when rehearsing original plays like Follies, it takes longer for the cast to get a "feel" for the flow of the show--that is, we have to rehearse for more time before we realize just what story it is we are telling. With a pre-existing show, like Beauty and the Beast, a quick watch of the animated movie can give you a pretty good idea of what the show will be like. But when no one has ever done the play before, the only way to get that idea in your head is to rehearse. And rehearse. And, you guessed it, rehearse.
So when costume pieces and props come into the picture, it makes everything more real, concrete. It's the difference between walking in a dark room pretending to have a flashlight and actually having a flashlight.
--
As for me personally, these props are a welcome addition. I'm one of those actors who needs to physicalize my character--in other words, I commit much of my performance to muscle memory--and going through the motions of dialing a cell phone, or throwing a scarf, or signing clipboards, presents a new kind of challenge. Precision meets with gesture, actions meet with words.
So, in a weird trend that is hard to explain, as props and costumes can make things more complicated, at the same time, things get simpler, too.
--
I'm on the flip side of things for another holiday show, The Fantastic Toy Shoppe, which will tour throughout December as our ArtReach traveling show. You can read about the ArtReach actors on their regular blog.
For this show, directed by Roderick Justice, I am one of the co-playwrights (along with ArtReach Artistic Director Kelly Germain) as well as the properties master. I'm in charge of making the props look the way they should, and getting them to the actors so they can rehearse and perform with good props. I also did many of the props for Anne Frank and Henny Penny, which toured earlier this fall.
Hopefully, by the end of today, I will have all of the props either pulled from the shop, or bought. Among other things on my list of things to find are an attractive set of paintbrushes and a beautifully-wrapped gift box. As someone who always has trouble wrapping even the simplest of boxes, I'm setting aside extra time to give the gift box extra attention.
Watching these ArtReach rehearsals have been a leisurely revelation for me--fun and informative. It's a great learning experience to see one's script come to life. I've already learned quite a bit about how to make each character sound different. The main lesson I'm taking away so far is that I need to work on giving each scene specific purpose and action; in other words, each character has to change in some way in every scene they are in, so that each scene is necessary to the overall story. It's easy to write dialogue between two people who are just sitting around, but audiences find that boring to watch. It's much harder to create dialogue that shows how each character feels, what they want, and how they are changing.
In children's theatre, as in all things, people are constantly changing, learning something new every day. Plays should reflect that.
--
As a final note at the end of a lengthy post (sorry!), I want to encourage you once again to buy tickets to our Breakfast with Santa as well as our holiday show Holiday Follies, which opens Dec. 4. Come see us!
It's very exciting.
Especially when rehearsing original plays like Follies, it takes longer for the cast to get a "feel" for the flow of the show--that is, we have to rehearse for more time before we realize just what story it is we are telling. With a pre-existing show, like Beauty and the Beast, a quick watch of the animated movie can give you a pretty good idea of what the show will be like. But when no one has ever done the play before, the only way to get that idea in your head is to rehearse. And rehearse. And, you guessed it, rehearse.
So when costume pieces and props come into the picture, it makes everything more real, concrete. It's the difference between walking in a dark room pretending to have a flashlight and actually having a flashlight.
--
As for me personally, these props are a welcome addition. I'm one of those actors who needs to physicalize my character--in other words, I commit much of my performance to muscle memory--and going through the motions of dialing a cell phone, or throwing a scarf, or signing clipboards, presents a new kind of challenge. Precision meets with gesture, actions meet with words.
So, in a weird trend that is hard to explain, as props and costumes can make things more complicated, at the same time, things get simpler, too.
--
I'm on the flip side of things for another holiday show, The Fantastic Toy Shoppe, which will tour throughout December as our ArtReach traveling show. You can read about the ArtReach actors on their regular blog.
For this show, directed by Roderick Justice, I am one of the co-playwrights (along with ArtReach Artistic Director Kelly Germain) as well as the properties master. I'm in charge of making the props look the way they should, and getting them to the actors so they can rehearse and perform with good props. I also did many of the props for Anne Frank and Henny Penny, which toured earlier this fall.
Hopefully, by the end of today, I will have all of the props either pulled from the shop, or bought. Among other things on my list of things to find are an attractive set of paintbrushes and a beautifully-wrapped gift box. As someone who always has trouble wrapping even the simplest of boxes, I'm setting aside extra time to give the gift box extra attention.
Watching these ArtReach rehearsals have been a leisurely revelation for me--fun and informative. It's a great learning experience to see one's script come to life. I've already learned quite a bit about how to make each character sound different. The main lesson I'm taking away so far is that I need to work on giving each scene specific purpose and action; in other words, each character has to change in some way in every scene they are in, so that each scene is necessary to the overall story. It's easy to write dialogue between two people who are just sitting around, but audiences find that boring to watch. It's much harder to create dialogue that shows how each character feels, what they want, and how they are changing.
In children's theatre, as in all things, people are constantly changing, learning something new every day. Plays should reflect that.
--
As a final note at the end of a lengthy post (sorry!), I want to encourage you once again to buy tickets to our Breakfast with Santa as well as our holiday show Holiday Follies, which opens Dec. 4. Come see us!
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Festivities...
...are quickly approaching as the end of the year draws near! Please buy tickets to the following Children's Theatre-sponsored events:
- Holiday Follies. Our winter show opens on Friday, Dec. 4th, with a public 7:30pm show. Other public shows are on the two following weekends (Dec. 5-6 & 12-13), Saturdays at 2pm and 5pm, Sundays at 2pm. Price for Children: $7.
- Breakfast with Santa. The kids will be sure to enjoy a holiday-themed, fun-filled breakfast, at 11:30am on Saturday, Dec. 12, just before the matinee of Holiday Follies. In addition to some classic holiday decorations, we will provide activities and food, as well as a special visit from the jovial man in red himself! Price for Breakfast & the Show: $40; for Breakfast Only: $25.
--
We continue our rehearsals of Holiday Follies. Among other wonderful surprises, Jack Louiso's creative choreography brings to life such holiday classics as "Winter Wonderland," "The Twelve Days of Christmas," and "Hanukkah, Oh, Hanukkah." The arrangements, by the talented Steve Goers, are beautiful renditions of the songs we all know and love.
Also, we will include a brand-new Kwanzaa song, written specially for this show by our very own Deondra Kamau Means!
The show revolves around the cast of the touring show Holiday Follies as they try to make it back home to Cincinnati for their final show of the season. But the fly-by of a magical sleigh disrupts the trip, and the tour bus gets stuck in the show. With only hours to spare, the cast finds itself trying to stay cheerful--and warm--as their curmudgeonly stage manager tries to get help...
This collection of inspiring songs and an uplifting story should be on everyone's event list this holiday season! Don't miss this one-of-a-kind show!
- Holiday Follies. Our winter show opens on Friday, Dec. 4th, with a public 7:30pm show. Other public shows are on the two following weekends (Dec. 5-6 & 12-13), Saturdays at 2pm and 5pm, Sundays at 2pm. Price for Children: $7.
- Breakfast with Santa. The kids will be sure to enjoy a holiday-themed, fun-filled breakfast, at 11:30am on Saturday, Dec. 12, just before the matinee of Holiday Follies. In addition to some classic holiday decorations, we will provide activities and food, as well as a special visit from the jovial man in red himself! Price for Breakfast & the Show: $40; for Breakfast Only: $25.
--
We continue our rehearsals of Holiday Follies. Among other wonderful surprises, Jack Louiso's creative choreography brings to life such holiday classics as "Winter Wonderland," "The Twelve Days of Christmas," and "Hanukkah, Oh, Hanukkah." The arrangements, by the talented Steve Goers, are beautiful renditions of the songs we all know and love.
Also, we will include a brand-new Kwanzaa song, written specially for this show by our very own Deondra Kamau Means!
The show revolves around the cast of the touring show Holiday Follies as they try to make it back home to Cincinnati for their final show of the season. But the fly-by of a magical sleigh disrupts the trip, and the tour bus gets stuck in the show. With only hours to spare, the cast finds itself trying to stay cheerful--and warm--as their curmudgeonly stage manager tries to get help...
This collection of inspiring songs and an uplifting story should be on everyone's event list this holiday season! Don't miss this one-of-a-kind show!
Monday, November 2, 2009
Holiday...
...spirit is in the air as we move into the second week of rehearsals for Holiday Follies! We've managed to start blocking after several rewrites of the script. And after a productive Saturday rehearsal in which we learned most of Steve Goers' new arrangements of holiday medleys, songs and interludes, I'd say we're in pretty decent shape, one week in.
This is going to be a stunning musical spectacle, for sure. With beautiful music underscoring a charming story--about a cast and crew wrapping up their holiday tour of a show coincidentally called Holiday Follies, when suddenly a mysterious flying sleigh gets their bus stuck in a snowdrift, leaving them stranded in the snow a full hour away from their destination, the Queen City itself--we are excited to make this a glorious, glowing tribute to the winter holidays.
There are obstacles, however. A lingering sickness--not the notorious flu, thank goodness--is making its way through the entire cast, and so everyone is pumping the hand sanitizer and plugging the antibodies. And because frequent rewrites at the beginning of the process made it difficult to hit the ground running, we are doing our best to go with the changes and make them work, without losing what we have gained already. Not that the rewrites have been total rewrites, or even terribly extensive ones; it's just that any show, no matter the season or the content, requires of its actors and creators just a little bit more than the last one. It's always a complicated process, putting on a show, but we're going to get through it, to the best of our ability. Again, we are fortunate to have an industrious staff and a strong team of inspired (and inspiring) directors and designers.
And, of course, a sensational cast.
So here it is: Monday, with more blocking and choreography coming up tonight. I believe that by the end of this week, we will all at least know where we are going, and when, and why. It's going to be a wonderful holiday spectacular!
I'm going to mention ticket sales again, only because we want to make sure everyone gets a chance to see the show. And while I do, please also consider that on Saturday, Dec. 12 at 11:30am is our Breakfast with Santa event, which is priced at $40/person for the breakfast and a ticket to Holiday Follies immediately following, or just $25/person for the breakfast only.
You can order tickets to Breakfast with Santa under Step 4 on our Public Order Form. Or, of course, by calling The Children's Theatre of Cincinnati offices at 513.569.8080, and speaking to Pam Young (ext. 13).
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