Sunday, January 17, 2016

Becca Blogs: Honk with Heart

Our Advanced Performers made us so proud today as they were the first group to represent Bay Area Children's Theatre at the Junior Theatre Festival.

Our day started VERY early with a bit of a backlog on the elevators (ask your student about it when they get home - way too many people for 3 hotel elevators) and then kick off in the giant theatre and right into our warm up room.  From there our students were exemplary performance and again showed tremendous patience as they waited to perform their set.

This was the moment they had been waiting for, and they put their whole hearts into the performance.  Their set was terrific, full of energy, life, and incredible teamwork.  The adjudicators complimented the actors on their use of the ensemble, character, and their strong voices.  They also had helpful feedback on how to take the physicalization of animal characters to the next level, finding motivation and objective (acting terms), and playing with levels of volume and counterpoint.

After a debrief and snack, we were able to watch several other groups perform and hear their feedback from the adjudicators.  After lunch we went on to a workshop about artistry and how to be a supportive audience, then on to an acting workshop, and finished up with a high-energy, funky dance workshop.

From there it was straight to dinner, and now we're heading to the New Works Showcase, where we'll see assorted songs from some of the new shows that are being released, including Madagascar Jr, which BACT piloted for iTheatrics/MTI.

Speaking of pilots, our dear Graylag Goose (airline pilot in "Wild Goose Chase") was ill overnight and barely slept, but he was determined to go on, and even received special recognition for his performance from the adjudicators.  (They didn't know he was performing on 3 hours of sleep!)

Sorry for the lack of photos, I was quite distracted by the logistics of the day and didn't have a chance to get many shots.  Once we're home I'll find a way to pull clips of the set performance off the camera and send it out to families.  We have an excited and happy (and a bit exhausted) group of musical theatre lovers amongst 5,800 other musical theatre lovers, which made for a very special day.

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Our Advanced Performers will be performing HONK! Jr when they return! You can purchase tickets for their performance here!

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