Saturday, December 22, 2012
More caroling! Happy Holidays!
Today we performed at our last two senior homes, Westport Health Care and The Watermark in Bridgeport. Again we had some of our Youth Board participating and our amazing accompanist, David Miaocco. Attached are our pictures and videos from this rewarding activity. I encourage anyone with a talent to sing or perform for Senior Centers whenever you can. They are truly so appreciative and you will feel great after you share your talents.
Monday, December 17, 2012
Caroling Caroling now we go!
We have already hit two of the senior homes with our santa hats, jingle bells and holiday carols. Two more to go this coming weekend. Even though we are doing it to bring holiday cheer to the residents, it always seems to make us feel better. The group varies with some Youth Board members, parents, students of mine and cast members from the Holiday show. But Andy always plays the jingle bells extraordinarily well . :)
See picture from Maplewood in Orange CT. And also the video.
See picture from Maplewood in Orange CT. And also the video.
Saturday, December 8, 2012
I love when I have a bit of time to read and to "fill up the well" again. Mentoring ideas
and justifications for our own programs from a Huffington post article that highlights a
TED video. Highlights for me are below...and a link to the whole article.
There are two main themes in the talk. First, we're all born with deep natural capacities for creativity and systems of mass education tend to suppress them. Second, it is increasingly urgent to cultivate these capacities -- for personal, economic and cultural reasons -- and to rethink the dominant approaches to education to make sure that we do.
AND
The dominant systems of education are based on three principles -- or assumptions at least -- that are exactly opposite to how human lives are actually lived. Apart from that, they're fine. First, they promote standardization and a narrow view of intelligence when human talents are diverse and personal. Second, they promote compliance when cultural progress and achievement depend on the cultivation of imagination and creativity. Third, they are linear and rigid when the course of each human life, including yours, is organic and largely unpredictable. As the rate of change continues to accelerate, building new forms of education on these alternative principles is not a romantic whimsy: it's essential to personal fulfillment and to the sustainability of the world we are now creating.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Promises
It was a success! The biggest project we have taken on at NPT turned out well. I am paying for it now in aches and pains and just an overall "tiredness" but there is no rest to be found in the next month.
I promised things I must fulfill on in the name of marketing and branding NPT...
Four senior citizen groups responded to the calls I made to about 15 different residences after googling them in the Fairfield area. If a group of 10 or more bought tickets then the NPT youth board and I would go out to carol for them at their facilities.
They responded well to that and most sent groups of 15 or more! One of the most delightful things to see was one of the seniors in the front row, an older african american gentleman, looking up at Keemie, one of the cutest young Bridgeport Boy's Choir boys, singing his heart out in the carols at the end. I mean seriously belting it out there. Everyone wanted to take him home, but this older gentleman, who was not related, looked on so proudly.
I promised Talk Backs after the matinees. Since all of the NY/Broadway performers did an amazing job by learning the entire show in two days, when we did the "Talk Backs" or Q and A's, that seemed to impress folks. We also heard many folks saying that they had seen us other places, so the "tribe" idea is working. They are now following us to the "next gig". When we "settle down" we will have an audience waiting for us.
Another promise I made was that anyone who bought tickets before Nov 16th got a "walk on role". It will be an easy thing to do when we control the box office of our own theatre, but the Bijou was the booking agent on this one, so I had to do some extra work in making sure I kept that promise. I put all the names in a decorative Holiday bag and pulled one name from it while on stage to be my "Jingle girl/ or guy" and they played the jingle bells on my solo version of "Sleigh ride". I had them follow me around and into the audience. Fun!
If the show had just been the six Broadway performers it might have been easier to coordinate everything, but I wanted to be sure that we had some mentoring elements visible on stage since this is becoming a huge component (and hopefully grant worthy) of what we do. So the Boy's Choir not only sang behind Courtney on "Go Tell it on the Mountain" but also two of the older guys were our "elves" in the Santa/Mrs. Santa scene. "Daniel Elf "wrote the Rap and each performance the two guys got more and more confident and more fun each show. Four of the little boys were "letter readers" in the Santa Letters portion. So I had to rehearse them separately and the day of the show because of their school schedules. I had previously attended three of their Saturday rehearsals and worked with them, and David, our musical director, went to one to help teach them the song. The boy's choir is also a non profit so we are planning to help them with their Gala/fundraising in the coming months.
We had three "models" in the Santa Baby song who girls were from my voice studio and who wore minks, gloves, mufflers, jewels, and old Hollywood looking gowns while the slides behind them were old Hollywood pin up girls and also the logo of the shop, Village Vogue, that let us borrow the clothes. Our first example of what our "On stage advertising" can be. That involved coordinating fittings and getting the clothing from the boutique to the stage in tact.
We had carolers in the lobby half and hour before the show to welcome and entertain the audiences and they also sang one Xmas carol to start off the show. Mostly high school and some of the college kids. A few of their parents helped to usher and hand out programs and generally keep things on track since I was in the dressing room at that point. I had a responsible and talented young woman, Emily Hughes, take charge as the "Caroler Wrangler" and she did a great job!
To fulfill on the promise of having our winners of So Ya Wanna Be a Broadway Star competition get a featured role in our show, the Junior Winner, Matthew Fliegauf sang Santa Claus is coming to town (arranged by our music director for him) at the two matinee shows and Amanda Forker, our senior winner, sang My Simple Christmas Wish, for the two evening shows. They had to be rehearsed on the day of the show and put into the Weird Christmas medley.
The Rowayton Elementary school girls (9 little girls that I have mentored with our two Youth Board members, Shelby and Shay, in the "Broadway Bound" sessions...four sessions/hour long at 8am on Wednesdays this past month) and their parents came to the Sunday shows and so I had to work them in with the four existing letter readers. They will also read their letters for the upcoming Dec 16th show at the Lockwood Matthews Mansion and Museum show.
Because we have a nice relationship with the Miss CT program, she danced in Santa Baby, but only for three shows, so we had to rehearse her and the cast with the cuts and additions the day of the first show.
But I promised it would be a show that drew a diverse crowd and was entertaining with a variety of songs and scenes. The reactions and emails we got were outstanding. From:
The Bijou SHOW was Fantastic ... response from the audience and my family was wonderful ... We ALL loved the production - there were so many parts and pieces to choose from BRAVO ... ENCORE ... ENCORE!
Thank again! The Residents really enjoyed the show- they said it helped put them in the holiday spirit J
Thank-you for thinking of us. I brought 2 other families. The professionalism of the show really exceeded our expectations! I hope someday to have my children involved in what you are doing.
Thank you so much! I have to tell you I enjoyed the show Sooooooooooo very much and you all did such a great job. It was funny, entertaining, heart warming -- just fabulous. The group was excellent.
And my favorite, because it means we fulfilled on what we promised.
You did exactly what you said you would - you brought many facets of the community together, and you brought Broadway to Bridgeport.
I promised things I must fulfill on in the name of marketing and branding NPT...
Four senior citizen groups responded to the calls I made to about 15 different residences after googling them in the Fairfield area. If a group of 10 or more bought tickets then the NPT youth board and I would go out to carol for them at their facilities.
They responded well to that and most sent groups of 15 or more! One of the most delightful things to see was one of the seniors in the front row, an older african american gentleman, looking up at Keemie, one of the cutest young Bridgeport Boy's Choir boys, singing his heart out in the carols at the end. I mean seriously belting it out there. Everyone wanted to take him home, but this older gentleman, who was not related, looked on so proudly.
I promised Talk Backs after the matinees. Since all of the NY/Broadway performers did an amazing job by learning the entire show in two days, when we did the "Talk Backs" or Q and A's, that seemed to impress folks. We also heard many folks saying that they had seen us other places, so the "tribe" idea is working. They are now following us to the "next gig". When we "settle down" we will have an audience waiting for us.
Another promise I made was that anyone who bought tickets before Nov 16th got a "walk on role". It will be an easy thing to do when we control the box office of our own theatre, but the Bijou was the booking agent on this one, so I had to do some extra work in making sure I kept that promise. I put all the names in a decorative Holiday bag and pulled one name from it while on stage to be my "Jingle girl/ or guy" and they played the jingle bells on my solo version of "Sleigh ride". I had them follow me around and into the audience. Fun!
If the show had just been the six Broadway performers it might have been easier to coordinate everything, but I wanted to be sure that we had some mentoring elements visible on stage since this is becoming a huge component (and hopefully grant worthy) of what we do. So the Boy's Choir not only sang behind Courtney on "Go Tell it on the Mountain" but also two of the older guys were our "elves" in the Santa/Mrs. Santa scene. "Daniel Elf "wrote the Rap and each performance the two guys got more and more confident and more fun each show. Four of the little boys were "letter readers" in the Santa Letters portion. So I had to rehearse them separately and the day of the show because of their school schedules. I had previously attended three of their Saturday rehearsals and worked with them, and David, our musical director, went to one to help teach them the song. The boy's choir is also a non profit so we are planning to help them with their Gala/fundraising in the coming months.
We had three "models" in the Santa Baby song who girls were from my voice studio and who wore minks, gloves, mufflers, jewels, and old Hollywood looking gowns while the slides behind them were old Hollywood pin up girls and also the logo of the shop, Village Vogue, that let us borrow the clothes. Our first example of what our "On stage advertising" can be. That involved coordinating fittings and getting the clothing from the boutique to the stage in tact.
We had carolers in the lobby half and hour before the show to welcome and entertain the audiences and they also sang one Xmas carol to start off the show. Mostly high school and some of the college kids. A few of their parents helped to usher and hand out programs and generally keep things on track since I was in the dressing room at that point. I had a responsible and talented young woman, Emily Hughes, take charge as the "Caroler Wrangler" and she did a great job!
To fulfill on the promise of having our winners of So Ya Wanna Be a Broadway Star competition get a featured role in our show, the Junior Winner, Matthew Fliegauf sang Santa Claus is coming to town (arranged by our music director for him) at the two matinee shows and Amanda Forker, our senior winner, sang My Simple Christmas Wish, for the two evening shows. They had to be rehearsed on the day of the show and put into the Weird Christmas medley.
The Rowayton Elementary school girls (9 little girls that I have mentored with our two Youth Board members, Shelby and Shay, in the "Broadway Bound" sessions...four sessions/hour long at 8am on Wednesdays this past month) and their parents came to the Sunday shows and so I had to work them in with the four existing letter readers. They will also read their letters for the upcoming Dec 16th show at the Lockwood Matthews Mansion and Museum show.
Because we have a nice relationship with the Miss CT program, she danced in Santa Baby, but only for three shows, so we had to rehearse her and the cast with the cuts and additions the day of the first show.
But I promised it would be a show that drew a diverse crowd and was entertaining with a variety of songs and scenes. The reactions and emails we got were outstanding. From:
The Bijou SHOW was Fantastic ... response from the audience and my family was wonderful ... We ALL loved the production - there were so many parts and pieces to choose from BRAVO ... ENCORE ... ENCORE!
Thank again! The Residents really enjoyed the show- they said it helped put them in the holiday spirit J
Thank-you for thinking of us. I brought 2 other families. The professionalism of the show really exceeded our expectations! I hope someday to have my children involved in what you are doing.
The residents loved the show!! They were very excited, for some it was there first broadway show...Thank you so much for inviting us.
Thank you so much! I have to tell you I enjoyed the show Sooooooooooo very much and you all did such a great job. It was funny, entertaining, heart warming -- just fabulous. The group was excellent.
And my favorite, because it means we fulfilled on what we promised.
You did exactly what you said you would - you brought many facets of the community together, and you brought Broadway to Bridgeport.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
HOLIDAY SHOW PRESS
NPT was on Fox TV today (Mrs. Claus and Miss CT)
and also in the CT Post (thanks Joe Meyers!)
and also in the CT Post (thanks Joe Meyers!)
|
Monday, November 26, 2012
Jaki's Buzz
Thanks Jaki's Buzz for highlighting the theatre's mentoring program! Link:
http://jakisbuzz.com/blog/
The Bridgeport Boy's Choir rehearsal went well this weekend. I had a chance to sing with them at a shelter in Bridgeport at Thanksgiving and it really affected me. These boys gave up part of their Thanksgiving to sing for folks who were standing in line for their dinners at the shelter. At an early age they are learning to use their talent to help others. Mr. Camp, their director is a great influence on them!
At their rehearsal on Saturday I rehearsed and coached two of the little one's "letters to santa" as part of the last scene and I also went over the "Mr. and Mrs Santa scene" where two of the Boy Choir teens play "Elves". Daniel wrote a Santa (W)Rap that is great! He took the bull by the horns and got it done ahead of time, memorized it and is raring to go. It will steal the show!
Singing at the Shelter on Thanksgiving!
Rehearsal with Mr. Camp
http://jakisbuzz.com/blog/
The Bridgeport Boy's Choir rehearsal went well this weekend. I had a chance to sing with them at a shelter in Bridgeport at Thanksgiving and it really affected me. These boys gave up part of their Thanksgiving to sing for folks who were standing in line for their dinners at the shelter. At an early age they are learning to use their talent to help others. Mr. Camp, their director is a great influence on them!
At their rehearsal on Saturday I rehearsed and coached two of the little one's "letters to santa" as part of the last scene and I also went over the "Mr. and Mrs Santa scene" where two of the Boy Choir teens play "Elves". Daniel wrote a Santa (W)Rap that is great! He took the bull by the horns and got it done ahead of time, memorized it and is raring to go. It will steal the show!
Singing at the Shelter on Thanksgiving!
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Rowayton Broadway bounds!
Some of the NPT mentoring that is connected to the Lockwood Mathews Mansion and Museum gig on Dec 16th is with Rowayton elementary school. We are on our 2nd session of "Broadway Bound" classes with 10 adorable kids who are learning through movement, voice and acting.
They are also working on "auditions" to be included in the Lockwood Holiday show as part of the "Letters to Santa" segment.
Today we talked about the "technical" side of theatre as well and I decided that I would include their "set designs" as part of the Bijou Holiday show in the "Twas the Night Before Christmas" reading, by Scott Bryce, our host. The children drew pictures that corresponded to ten different parts of that story.
Since the Bijou is also a lovely movie house with a screen for the entire back wall I had at first just wanted to have slides of a book shown as he was reading the story. Then I thought, why not have the kids draw the pages? And so....see below for some of the cutest pictures that also taught the kids about set design, color schemes, and ....deadlines.
I had to have them today when we left the class.
ps big thanks to 2nd grade teacher, Lisa Benedetto LaRusso, who really lined everything up for us and is at every session!
They are also working on "auditions" to be included in the Lockwood Holiday show as part of the "Letters to Santa" segment.
Today we talked about the "technical" side of theatre as well and I decided that I would include their "set designs" as part of the Bijou Holiday show in the "Twas the Night Before Christmas" reading, by Scott Bryce, our host. The children drew pictures that corresponded to ten different parts of that story.
Since the Bijou is also a lovely movie house with a screen for the entire back wall I had at first just wanted to have slides of a book shown as he was reading the story. Then I thought, why not have the kids draw the pages? And so....see below for some of the cutest pictures that also taught the kids about set design, color schemes, and ....deadlines.
I had to have them today when we left the class.
ps big thanks to 2nd grade teacher, Lisa Benedetto LaRusso, who really lined everything up for us and is at every session!
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