Old Town Playhouse Young Company - Fall 2010 Schedule of Classes

Unless otherwise indicated, all classes will be held at Old Town Playhouse, 148 E. 8th St., Traverse City. Questions? Call (231) 947-2210, ext. 103, or contact us.

BASIC CLASSES

STORY BOOKS TO LIFE
(class code BC1) - Kat Brown

For ages 5 to 6 years. This exciting class takes make-believe to the next level! Lessons will focus on the child’s innate desire to pretend and cultivates them into true acting skills. Communication and sequencing skills are also enhanced with the use of dramatic play, movement and music. Tuesdays from 5:00 to 6:00, October 5 to November 9.

TUITION:

$60

DANCE & PLAY
(class code BC2) - Kat Brown

For ages 6 to 10 years. Children love to move and Kat introduces youngsters to the joy of dancing. Through fun music and silly routines, students move, dance, create and generally have fun! A great introduction to theatrical dance. Tuesdays from 4:00 to 5:00. October 5 to November 9.

TUITION:

$60

INTRODUCTION TO ACTING & THEATRE
(class code BC3) - Denni Don Hunting

For ages 7 to 8 years. This beginning class will focus on stage vocabulary, movement, character study, scene work, vocal work and improvisation. Theatre games will be used to teach and reinforce lessons. There will be a short presentation at the end of the course. Wednesdays 4:30 to 5:30, October 6 to November 10.

TUITION:

$60

ACTING FOR THE CAMERA
(class code BC4) - Minda Nyquist

For ages 12 and up. This class introduces students to the techniques involved in acting for the camera. Students will learn voice-over performance, shooting terminology and methods, how to prepare a resume and get an agent as well as training specific to on-camera acting. Class culminates in a video showcase. Monday evenings 6:00 to 7:00, October 4 to November 8.

TUITION:

$75

LI'L BROADWAY CLASSES

NOTE: The following classes can be used to fulfill the prerequisites for Seussical, Jr. Students who want to enroll but not audition for Seussical, Jr. are welcome.

SINGING FOR MUSICAL THEATRE
Ages 9 to 13 (class code LB1) - Matt Archibald

This course is designed for students who wish to develop a basic knowledge of singing. We will focus on the acting aspect of song preparation, including presentation and general vocal coaching. This class is part of the Li’l Broadway program and can be used to fulfill the singing prerequisite for Seussical, Jr. Mondays 4:30 to 6:00, Six week session. October 4 to November 8.

TUITION:

$95

ACT UP, ACT BIG
Ages 9 to 13 (class code LB2) - Denni Don Hunting

Larger-than-life characters are par for the course in musical theatre! Training for this class will include how to have a strong stage presence and how to be loud without injuring your voice. Comic timing and improvisation are also covered. This class is part of the Li’l Broadway program and can be used to fulfill the acting prerequisite for Seussical, Jr. Thursdays 4:00 to 6:00, October 7 to November 11.

TUITION:

$95

DANCE FOR THE STAGE
Ages 13 and up (class code LB3) - Mychelle Hopkins

Theatrical Dance draws from Jazz, Ballet, Modern, Tap, Gymnastics and even Hip Hop. Learn Broadway styles, steps and routines to some of the greatest “show music” of all time. This class is part of the Li’l Broadway program and can be used to fulfill the dance prerequisite for Seussical, Jr. Thursdays 4:30 to 5:30, October 8 to November 11.

TUITION:

$60

ADVANCED SCENE STUDY
Ages 14 to 18 (class code AC1) - Kate Botello-Weigel

This course is offered for the serious acting student. Modeled after college-level acting classes, the course will focus on monologue work and scene study with partners. Detailed attention is paid to characterization, motivation and sub-text. Mondays from 4:00—6:00, October 4 to November 8.

TUITION:

$95

Technical Theatre Classes

For the student interested in the backstage area of theatre, OTP Young Company offers classes in Lighting and Sound, Scenic Design & Construction, and Costumes & Make-up. These classes are offered in conjunction with the Li’l Broadway series production of Seussical, Jr. Each technical class will make up the preparation and running crews for the December musical. Interested students are required to attend the Seussical, Jr. audition September 13th or 14th and register for their crew area. Adult staff members will teach, mentor and head each technical crew with class meetings one day per week beginning the week of September 27th. Space is limited for each technical class/crew. Tuition will be taken only upon entry into the program.

TUITION:

$60

• Call TCCT at (231) 947-2210 ext. 103 to enroll by phone

• E-mail Mychelle Hopkins at info@tcctheatre.org

• Be sure to also check our site for upcoming auditions

COMING UP IN 2011

• Winter 2011 Classes begin January 31st and continue through March 25th. Registration begins December 1, 2010.
• Spring 2011 Classes begin April 11th and continue through May 20th. Registration begins March 1st.
• Auditions for the June production of THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE will be held March 14th And 15th. Performance dates tentatively scheduled for June 10, 11, & 12.

SUMMER PERFORMING ARTS CAMP INFORMATION

Registration for the 2011 Summer Performing Arts Camp and One-Week Intensive Camp will begin in Spring of 2011.  Watch this space for updates!  Below is information about last year's (2009/2010's) One-Week Intensive Camp and the 4-Week Summer Performing Arts Camp.

ONE-WEEK INTENSIVE CAMP: SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK, LIVE! JR.

Directed by Mychelle Hopkins, with choreography by Minda Nyquist and musical direction by Ted Clous. For students aged 8-16 years. This program packs a lot in just one week!  Students work quickly to mount the musical SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK, LIVE, JR.  by Ferguson, Hall and Keating with minimal sets and costumes to be performed on the Old Town Playhouse Main Stage.  Camp meets Monday - Friday from 9:30 to 3:30 the week of August 9-13 with performances on Saturday, August 14 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.  Everyone registered will be in the cast, auditions the first morning of camp will determine roles and solos.                                                                                  

TUITION:

$120

FOUR-WEEK SUMMER PERFORMING ARTS CAMP: HAT TRICK

Acting.  Improv.  Stage Combat.  Puppetry.  Scene Writing.  Singing. Dancing.  Stomp!  Shakespeare. Disco.  Kittens. Superheroes. Killer Bees.  SPAM.

The Old Town Playhouse and Traverse City Children's Theatre are pleased to announce the 2010 Performing Arts Summer Day Camp. Beginning Monday, June 21st, students will spend four weeks learning the fundamentals of theatre and improvisation and mount a full production at the end of the camp. Students will study acting, singing, dance, stage combat, scene writing, Shakespeare, stagecraft and improvisation. The final production will introduce the performers to all styles of acting and musical theatre, from Shakespeare to Sondheim to Saturday Night Live.

The Performing Arts Summer Day Camp will be led for the third year by Emmy-Award Winning performer and television Host, Kate Botello-Weigel. Dance instruction and choreography will be by Broadway veteran Minda Nyquist, and musical direction and instruction will be by the gifted professional musical instructor Ted Clous, who has worked for many years with the camp. Instruction in Shakespeare will given by TCCT Director and Shakespearean Fulbright Scholar, Mychelle Hopkins.

We are proud to announce this year's camp will also feature a unique opportunity for our students. Award-winning, professional musical theatre performers will be joining us for special camp song interpretation and voice workshops. Seven-time Manhattan Association of Cabaret and NYC Nightlife Award Winner Natalie Douglas and acclaimed musical director and Backstage Bistro winner (and Interlochen Alum!) Brian Nash are coming from New York City to Traverse City in order to lead workshops for the camp and share their incredible experience and expertise with our students.

To sign up for Performing Arts Summer Camp, please contact TCCT Director Mychelle Hopkins at the information below.

OLD TOWN PLAYHOUSE presents

TRAVERSE CITY CHILDREN'S THEATRE SUMMER PERFORMING ARTS CAMP

Where:

• Old Town Playhouse at 148 E. 8th St., Traverse City, Michigan

When:

• Monday, June 21 - Friday, July 16th, 2010
• 9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Cost:

• $450 ($150 deposit)
• Limited scholarships available through a grant from the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation

Register:

• Email TCCT Director Mychelle Hopkins at: info@tcctheatre.org
• Call TCCT at 231-947-2201 x103

ABOUT THIS YEAR'S PRODUCTION

We try to keep things interesting with the Performing Arts Summer Camp show.  We'll continue with our variety format - lots of different styles and sketches - similar to last year's production, The Really Big Show. This year, however, we'll be mixing things up - literally.  The show will be called Hat Trick  - musical numbers and sketches will be performed in random order, selected by being pulled out of a hat by a member of the audience. 

But wait… there's another new twist.  In previous years, actors competed with their teams throughout the four weeks in various improvisation competitions, ending in an Improv Olympiad on the last day of camp.  This year, we've decided to let the audience in on the fun, and drag out the Improv Olympiad a little further - by adding it to the show!  In between musical numbers and sketches, teams will go head to head in improv bouts on stage - and the audience will help to decide who wins!

The musical numbers and sketches in the hat will include: "Cool" (West Side Story) "Masquerade" (Phantom of the Opera), "Money (Makes the World Go 'Round)" (Cabaret), "Wonderboy" (by Tenacious D), "Spam" and "Crunchy Frog" (Monty Python's Flying Circus) and "Killer Bees" (Saturday Night Live).  The show will also include last year's favorite, "Triplets" (The Band Wagon) and "Sock Puppet Shakespeare" - to be written by students in their writing workshop following the Shakespeare workshop. Other numbers include, "You Can't Stop the Beat" (Hairspray) and a series of short percussive dance pieces using brooms and other everyday objects (inspired by Broadway's Stomp!).  And fist fights.  Musn't forget the fists fights!  We assure you there will be plenty of opportunity for our actors to show off their newly-learned Stage Combat  skills by beating the tar out of each other on stage.

There's something for everyone in Hat Trick!  Join us at camp and give it a try!

ABOUT OUR CAMP STAFF

KATE BOTELLO-WEIGEL (Director, Acting & Improv Teacher):

Kate is thrilled to be directing her third year of Performing Arts Summer Camp. Kate came to Traverse City after years as a successful performer in New York, where  she appeared Off-Broadway in Christmas with the Crawfords.  Kate then formed her own production company, and her show Judy Garland and Uninvited Company won an Backstage Bistro Award and was an NYC Nightlife Award Finalist. 

Before NYC, Kate lived in San Francisco and won an Emmy for her puppetry and voiceover work at TechTV, where she also hosted the national television shows The Screen Savers and Extended Play.

Kate has had a long and varied career on the stage as a singer, actor, choreographer and dancer and loves to share her expertise with younger performers.  It's your turn now, guys!  Sing out!

MINDA NYQUIST  (Dance & Choreography):

Minda teaches high school English and Drama here in Traverse City and loves every minute of it!  She has been involved in theater productions since childhood, making her way to Interlochen as a teenager, and getting her BFA in Acting from Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York.  She moved to New York City, where she worked for eight years in many off-Broadway productions, on Broadway in Saturday Night Fever, countless off-off-Broadway productions, and several small parts on soap operas such as “Guiding Light” and “All My Children”, as well as commercial work.  Minda also worked in Washington, D.C at the Signature Theater and at Lincoln Center in a world premiere production of “In the Absence of Spring” and one of her favorites, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Since deciding to leave Manhattan, she stayed in East Lansing, Michigan, where she worked on nine musical theater high school productions where she was the assistant director and choreographer in such works as Guys and Dolls, Anything Goes, West Side Story, Crazy for You and On the Town.  In her year and a half of living in Traverse City, Minda has worked on several productions for TCCT, including directing last year's Babe the Sheep Pig and doing choreography for Performing Arts Summer Camp for the 2009 season and the Advanced Musical Theatre Workshop ,“You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown”.

Thank you to everyone at TCCT-including staff, students and parents!

TED CLOUS (Music):

A.K.A. Super Ted or Ted E. Bear, is a veteran of the TCCT summer camp, having served as musical director for six summers (seven, if you count this year's upcoming 'Hat Trick'!).  Ted has served as musical director for many TCCT productions, including last year's You're A Good Man Charlie Brown and the upcoming Trixie True: Teen Detective. 

During the school year, he has been teaching K-12 music at Arenac Eastern Schools in Au Gres, Michigan.  A native of Kingsley, Ted earned his teaching degree from Central Michigan University, where he is now enrolled as a graduate student.  He thanks his fabulous wife Emily for all her support!

MYCHELLE HOPKINS (TCCT Director, Shakespeare Studies):

Mychelle holds her Master’s Degree from the prestigious Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon, England where she studied as a Fulbright Scholar. She has received critical acclaim as a Director and Actress both regionally and internationally.

 

NATALIE DOUGLAS (Song Interpretation & Voice Workshop):

Natalie Douglas is a seven-time MAC Award Winner (having just won her first MAC Award in the Major Jazz Artist category), a Nightlife Award Winner and a Backstage Bistro Award Winner whose concert and theater appearances include regular sold-out performances at Birdland as part of Jim Caruso’s Broadway at Birdland series, The Kennedy Center, The London Cabaret Convention, Black2: Broadway - Divas, Children of Eden at Riverside Church for the York Theatre, Brooklyn to Hollywood at Town Hall, several editions of The Atrainplays at Neighborhood Playhouse, Playwrights Horizons and the New World Stages, Scott Nevins' Curtain Call at Splash, The Thalia Follies at Symphony Space and most recently, in the Off Broadway hit, The People vs. Mona, by Jim and Patricia Wann of Pumpboys & Dinettes fame for Ground Up Productions. In addition, there is Natalie’s annual New Year’s Eve collaboration with Mark Hartman – a Greenwich Village tradition - which materializes each December 31st at the Duplex Cabaret Theatre.  Natalie has her own production company, "Wrong Black Girl Productions."

Natalie has extensive experience teaching workshops in NYC for aspiring and currently working professional cabaret singers.

For more about NATALIE DOUGLAS, click here.

See Natalie onstage! Visit her YouTube channel here, or watch a clip of her singing "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" during one of her Lena Horne tribute concerts at NYC's legendary Birdland.

 

 

BRIAN J. NASH (Song Interpretation/Voice Workshop): 

Brian has been music directing and orchestrating for the theater since the age of 16. Recent projects include Crossing Brooklyn (Transport Group), Writing Arthur and Something’s Wrong With Amandine at TheatreWorks New Works Festival in Palo Alto, CA, Writing Arthur at NAMT, The $trip, Phenomenon at HERE, The Unauthorized Musicology of Ben Folds I and II, Undercover Showtunes, and But I’m A Cheerleader for the New York Musical Theatre Festival, and A Broadway Diva Christmas, starring Ellen Greene and Kathy Brier. Other NYC and regional credits include Songs for a New World, Kate Pazakis’ The Sexless Years, Red, Room to Grow, Lend Me a Tenor, Jesus Christ Superstar, and The Rocky Horror Show.

Brian has produced albums for singer/songwriters Justin Tranter, Shanna Sharp, and Stacy Allyn Baker, recently performed at Town Hall, the Kennedy Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and Birdland with Natalie Douglas, and is in extensive demand as a pianist and singer throughout NYC; he has also been a featured performer on Rosie and Kelli O’Donnell’s  family vacations cruises.  His first songs were written for two recent editions of TheATrainPlays, and were featured on NPR’s All Things Considered.

Brian holds a Bachelor’s of Music degree from Boston Conservatory and studied record production at Berklee College of Music.

• For more info about Brian, please visit BrianJNash.com.
• See Brian's crazy brilliant "One-Man Les Mis!" Click here or watch the clip below:

 

• Call TCCT at (231) 947-2210 ext. 103 to enroll by phone

• E-mail Mychelle Hopkins at info@tcctheatre.org

• Be sure to also check our site for upcoming auditions