Solebury School's Performing Arts Newsletter- October 2013

Performing Arts

2013 Solebury School

October

Issue 2, 2013

Take A Performing Arts Class Winter Trimester

Inside

Who’s Who in Chorus The Mad Woman of Challiot Fairytale Court Room Rocky Horror Special Feature: Meet an alum who is studying Musical Theatre in college: James Booth - 2011

It’s time to take a risk and try out your creativity! Want to sing? Join Chorus or Master Singers with Phyllis Arnold. Want to dance? Join Swing Dance with Rebecca Wilschutz. Want to act? Join Advanced Acting or the Acting Master Class with Shawn Wright. Want to try your hand at playing in a band? Join Jazz Roots Ensemble, Rock Band, and Indie Music with Cathy Block or Instrumental Ensemble or European Art Music with Greg Lipscomb. Want to work back stage take Production Crew with Michael Barocca or Sound Systems with Chris Langhart!

Performing Arts

October 2013

Middle School Theatre Snow White and the Seven Dwarves!

Law and Order: Fairytale Style As Fairy Tale Courtroom Prepares to Open Breaking and entering, willful destruction of property, attempted murder, corrupting a minor, conspiracy, attempted kidnapping and cannibalism are just a few of the charges that will be presented in the trials against the Big Bad Wolf and the Wicked Witch! Join in on the fun as you, the audience, become the jury.

You decide the outcome of each trial and the actors will change the end of the acts based on your votes.

Fairy Tale Courtoom features all of our middle-schoolers. Many students will be featured in double roles. The show is under the direction of Rebecca Wilschutz with assistance from 10th grader Jonathan Fleming. Kimberly Borukhovsky is creating the unique costumes.

The cast includes Logan Dean as the Judge; Robbe Genyn as Doc and Piggy #2; Adelaide Groth-Tuft as Sleepy, Piggy #1 and Gretl; 2

Andrew Fellows as the Defense Attorney; Jacob Goodman as the Scarecrow and the Baliff; Lorenz Markhoff as the District Attorney; Michael Melchiondo as Badger , Hansel and Bashful; Caitlin Miller as Dorothy and Snow White; Emma James Riley as Grandma and the Wicked Witch; Ben Roxey as Piggy #3, the Magic Mirror and Sneezy; Stella Stinnett as Little Red Riding Hood and Sleeping Beauty; Ben Weinberg as B.B. Wolf and Grumpy; Garritt Zalewski as Prince Charming and Happy; and Eli Ziff as the Boy Who Cried Wolf, The Flying Monkey and Dopey! The cast will be joined on stage by Andy Wilschutz who will play Toto! Andy was a rescue dog and a donation basket will greet you at the door to help Rescue Me Yorkies!

Please join us in the Performing Arts Center on Wednesday, November 13 at 7:00 or Thursday, November 14 at 1:00 for this free show!

Performing Arts

October 2013

Music Notes:

Chorus, Master Singers and Jazz Roots And Lily Mae! Meet the Solebury Chorus as they prepare for their November 15 concert where they will be performing: "Sentimental Journey" by Bud Gree, Les Brown and Ben Homer "Come To Me, O My Love" by Allan Robert Petker "Some Nights" by Nate Ruess, Andrew Dost, Jack Antonoff and Jeffrey Bhasker "Hallelujah, Amen" by George F. Handel

Coming Events: Soccer Under the Lights: Saturday, October 19 starting at 5:30 pm on the soccer field.

Halftime entertainment will feature the Solebury Dance Team.

Open House: Sunday, October 20 from 1:00 – 4:00 pm – See the Master Singers, Middle School Actors, Musical Theatre Dance Class, Dance Team and Fall Production Actors in rehearsals.

Junior/Senior Showcase: Sunday, October 27 at 2:00 pm in the PAC Jazz Roots Concert: Wednesday, October30 at 7:00 pm in the PAC Fall Drama: November 7,8 and 9 at 7:00 pm Middle School Show: November 13 at 7:00 pm and 14 at 1:00 pm Music and Dance Concert: November 15 at 7:00 pm

Chorus Members: Emma Black, Isabella Blasucci, Afrah Boateng, Marion Breeman, George Cai, Laeuna Chisolm, Jian Dempsey, Yuriy Dmitriyev, Alexis Federico, Jonathan Fleming, Michael Glass, Katherine Gregory, Adelaide Groth-Tuft, Susan Huang, Haley Huxley, Claire LeGall, Jennifer Lin, Victoria Markhoff, Tatsuki Matsuoka, Caitlin Miller, Henry Oh, Jessica Randolph, Vikki Rueda-Juarez, Zonia Rueda, Joseph Smokonich, Loria Wang, Chloe Wang, Emily Webb, Lisa Wu, Chen Yan, Adam Yang, Derek Zhang Master Singers: Izzy Blasucci, Jonathan Fleming, Susan Huang, Haley Huxley, Victoria Markhoff, Zonia Rueda, Joe Smokonich, Loria Wang and Emily Webb.

Jazz Roots Ensemble is gearing up for their first concert of the year. Please be sure to join us October 30th at 7PM, when Jazz Roots presents "Grammy songs of the year"!

You will enjoy songs from Henry Mancini to Carlos Santana!

Solebury senior Lily Mae balances a professional music career and high school. You can catch her this month at the following venues: October 4th, World Cafe Live, Philly, with Toby Lightman; October 6th, Bucks County Playhouse Concert Series, with Joan Osborne; October 10th, The Ardmore Music Hall, with Amy Helm. And you can hear Lily, October 1st on the WXPN fm 88.5 show, "The Key with John Vetese".

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Performing Arts

October 2013

Meet James Booth, 2011 graduate, currently studying Musical Theatre at the Hartt Conservatory!

Where are you and what is you major?

I am a junior in the Music Theatre Bachelor of Fine Arts Division at the Hartt School, the performing arts conservatory of the University of Hartford in Hartford, CT. If you check out the program when you see a show on Broadway or around the country, you will see Hartt MT graduates—including numerous Tony award winners and nominees. It is an intensive program that requires you to meet the academic standards of the University; take four years of classes in singing, acting and dancing; become knowledgeable about the behind-thescenes aspects of theatre plus learn subjects like piano, music theory, theatre history, literature, playwriting and diction. In the evenings and on weekends, we are either rehearsing for, or performing in, one of the main stage shows or black box performances.

What have you been doing in college (including shows)?

A great feature of my program is that only Music Theatre students are allowed to audition for U. of Hartford musicals, unlike at many other schools where anyone can try out. Hartt sees these productions as important training grounds for their students. Freshman year is considered an apprentice year to learn stagecraft, costuming and make up, although there are workshop and black box acting opportunities. As a sophomore, I was fortunate enough to have some juicy character roles: The Old Man in Hot L Baltimore, Congressman Grover Lockwood in On the 20th Century and a drag role in the form of Mrs. Taylor in the avant-garde musical Bat Boy. I sang in a high falsetto and used a neck scarf to help me transform. Since Mrs. Taylor suffers from a personal tragedy in the play, I had to be more serious and nuanced than just using the broad comedy of a campy drag performance. This semester I am learning unicycling, plate spinning and acrobatic skills as a circus performer in Barnum. I was thrilled to be in a select group of students who sang the Finale from Titanic at a tribute dinner for its composer, Maury Yeston who also wrote the music and lyrics to Nine and Grand Hotel. He told us that we were better than the opening night casts in New York and London. I am still writing my own screenplays and television series—a habit started at Solebury. Fellow Hartt students and my voice teacher are helping me to workshop songs from a rock opera/musical I’ve written based on Faust.

How did Solebury prepare you for college?

No other school can match the training and performing opportunities that we have at Solebury, both inside of class and after school. The curriculum at many schools is not flexible and students have to choose an area of concentration.

However, a musical theatre college program requires that you be proficient in singing, acting and dancing. At Solebury, I was able to experiment with and gain experience in all three areas. I could be in Master Singers, take tap dancing and act in a play all in the same trimester. When it came time to prepare for the actual college auditions, which are a very specialized thing, Solebury had an extremely helpful audition prep class plus the opportunity to perform selections in front of an audience at a Senior Recital. The performing arts teachers and the college counseling office gave a lot of good advice on various colleges. There is a high degree of personal attention given to the college-bound performing arts student.

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What advice would you give students who are planning to major in musical theatre in college?

See all the professional theatre that you can. Experiment, hone your skills and get used to performing in front of an audience by participating in every Solebury play, musical, dance concert, coffee house, talent show, battle of the bands, music concert, chorus, poetry slam and cabaret that you can. Research the musical theatre program requirements on university websites. Take the audition prep class and begin stockpiling songs and monologues that you could use for auditions.

You will have a great time performing at Solebury all the while building your abilities.

Performing Arts

October 2013

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The Mad Woman of Chaillot Our fall drama, under the direction of Shawn Wright, will feature the talents of Izzy Blasucci, Sasha Scudder, Haley Huxley, Abbygail Mott, Christopher Donohue, Lorenz Markoff, Sam Danish, Andrew Fellows, Jonathan Fleming, Jess Randolph, Ashley Weintraub, Cookie Pierce, Josh Poole, Tali Natan, Matt Baron and Ben Gabinet. This talented cast will take the stage on November 7, 8, and 9 at 7:00 pm in the Solebury Barn Theatre. Tickets are $10.00 for adults and $5.00 for students.

Emma and Andy waiting for rehearsal in MS Theatre.

Performing Arts

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Members of the Musical Theatre Dance Class along side Visiting Artist Jason LaVallee. Jason was recently seen in a new show under development for Broadway called Tuning In. He was the assistant dance captain.