Showstoppers Theatre Productions 2008 Summer Sessions
Description: Each session is a show with costumes, sets, lights and sound reinforcement. All participants read the script, learn the songs and dance the steps together before auditioning for lead parts. No parts are pre-cast. The program focuses on teaching all aspects of musical theater. Young performers of all skill levels are welcome, and no previous experience is required. Rehearsals and performances are on the campus of La Colina Junior High.
Session No. 1 Once On This Island, Junior*
Ages: 7 to 14
Cost: $395
Dates: Monday through Friday, June 16-27
Times: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Performances: 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. June 28
Session No. 2 Once On This Island, Junior.*
Ages: 7 to 14
Cost: $395
Dates: Monday through Friday, June 30-July 11
Times: 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Performances: 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. July 12
*Broadway Junior Version: MTI’s Broadway Junior Collection, which has been specially adapted for young performers, abridged to 60 to 80 minutes, with music transposed into keys appropriate for young voices.
Description of Once on This Island: Come to the French Antilles to dance and tell stories as the storm rages.The peasants act out a myth to calm a frightened child. Based on the novel My Love, My Love by Rosa Guy, the show is a twist on the traditional “Little Mermaid” tale and tells the story of Ti Moune, a poor peasant girl who falls in love with Daniel, an upper-class boy whose life she saves after a car crash. Central to the story are four gods who the peasants believe rule their lives. The gods of Love (Erzulie), Earth (Asaka), Water (Agwe) and Death (Papa Ge) cause the lives of the young lovers to intersect, and send Ti Moune on the fateful journey that tests the strength of her love. (Quoted from the Once On This Island Web site at http://www.ahrensandflaherty.com/ooti.html).
Session No. 3 L’il Abner
Ages: 13 to 18
Cost: $525
Dates: Monday through Friday, June 23 to July 25
Time: 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Performances: July 30-31 and Aug. 1-2
Description of L’il Abner: A fun-filled, foot-stompin’ musical taken directly from the comics. The show is laced with gentle satire, rib-tickling humor and a host of catchy tunes. The citizens of Dogpatch are informed that their town is “the most unnecessary, no-account” place in the country and has been selected as a testing site for the atom bomb. They will be evacuated, and the annual Sadie Hawkins Day Dance will be canceled. That means that Daisy Mae won’t have a chance to catch her sweetheart, Li’l Abner, in the only way a boy can join a girl in Dogpatch. Mammy Yokum saves the day by explaining that her son, L’il Abner, is strong and handsome because of her secret Yokenberry Tonic. The concoction is rushed to Washington to be tested, only to be waylaid by General Bulmoose, who wants the formula for himself. He sets out to trap L’il Abner, but Daisy Mae foils his plan. Based on the book by Norman Panama and Melvin Frank, and characters created by Al Capp. Original direction and choreography by Michael Kid, with lyrics by Johnny Mercer and music by Gene de Paul.