Are you getting ready for school?

There's something about August that makes one begin to think about school days once again. I've been digging into my piles that needed to be turned into files for the new school season ahead.

Here you see that Ophelia and Hamlet have decided to help me out with the filing. Hamlet has just filed Ophelia under C for C A T. She prefers O for Ophelia!

Looking forward to hearing about your summer fun when we meet for the annual Drama Picnic, Tuesday August 18th at Hardesty Park on West Market near Hawkins.

Wendy

Akron Arts Expo pix!

We arrived at Hardesty Park for the Akron Arts Expo on a windy, rain-threatening Saturday. Fortunately, Parks and Recreation had us scheduled to perform on their portable stage, with very convenient cover from rain drops. By the time we were ready to start, the rain stopped and workers began hauling out chairs for our audience.

The troupe shows great improvement in this, only their second performance of the summer. We've had great attendance and dedicated focus at our weekly training sessions. The photos reveal that the actors are paying more attention to each other and to their own characterizations. Each character has his or her own "shape" -- like a cartoon drawing in that the characters are exaggerated and should never appear to be standing around in a relaxed body.

Keep up the excellent work, troupe!

Auditions -- Magical Theatre 2009-10 season

Casting Call 2009-2010 Season

Auditions for young performers, ages 7-18, will be held on August 11th at 6:30pm. If you have questions and/or would like to schedule an audition, call (330) 848-3708. Please do not email.

For more info go here.

Audition notice for A Christmas Story at Cleveland Playhouse

The Cleveland Play House will hold an open call for children who wish to appear in A Christmas Story. The production will begin rehearsals Tuesday, November 3, and perform November 27-December 20. Rehearsals will be after school, except for some technical rehearsals in the last few days prior to opening. There will also be a few student matinees. A full schedule will be
set prior to rehearsals.

There will be no rehearsals on Thanksgiving, but there will be work the day before and the day after. There is also the possibility of an extension week December 21-27, with no performances December 24 or 25. The theatre will decide on whether to perform the extension week as far in advance as possible.

The theatre is looking for boys and girls of any background who can pass for 9 years old, and one boy who can pass for 5 years old. Any child fitting this description who wishes to audition is welcome to do so. The Cleveland Play House is a professional theatre. The child actor will sign a contract and be paid a weekly salary for rehearsals and performances. No children will sign Actors' Equity Association contracts. To be eligible to audition the child actor cannot reach the age of 14 on or before December 27, 2009.

For the audition, the child actor should prepare three minutes of anything they wish. Most children do two monologues. There is no singing in the production, and there will be no pianist at the audition, but children who wish to do so are welcome to sing. Please bring an up to date headshot and resume to your scheduled audition. The picture does not have to be professionally done or in a high resolution. However, please make sure that your face can be clearly seen.

Auditions for A Christmas Story will be on Monday, August 17 and Tuesday, August 18 from 4:00 until 8:00 at the Cleveland Play House, 8500 Euclid Avenue. They will be by appointment only. To schedule an appointment, please reply to this email with the names of the child and at least one parent or guardian, contact information (email, phone, address) with an indication of which phone number is best and who the phone belongs to, and an appointment date and approximate time preference. You can also reply to this email with any questions. You will receive an email back with a specific time.

Please contact below to schedule an appointment or with any questions.
Sam Skove
The Cleveland Play House
8500 Euclid Avenue Cleveland OH 44106
sskove@clevelandplayhouse.com

Auditions for adult roles in A Christmas Story are not being held at this time.

Nick.com to Host Shrek the Musical Competition

NEW YORK—Part talent search, part publicity stunt, the producers of Shrek the Musical have partnered with Nick.com, the online arm of children’s cable network Nickelodeon, to launch a competition aimed at giving two girls a chance to perform alongside Sutton Foster in the Broadway production of Shrek. The girls will perform as “Young Fiona” and “Teen Fiona” in the musical.

To enter, girls must upload a video of their performance of the song “I Know It’s Today” from Shrek the Musical at the www.nick.com/princess Web site. Entries must be received between Tuesday, July 28 and Sunday, August 16. Entrants must be aged 6 to 14. All entries will be viewed by the casting department for the show, with finalists’ entries viewed by Jason Moore (Director), David Lindsay-Abaire (Lyricist), Jeanine Tesori (Composer) and Sutton Foster.

The winners will be flown to New York to rehearse with Sutton Foster and members of the show’s creative team, have a costume fitting, and appear in a performance of Shrek the Musical on Broadway. The winners will be announced on September 10 and the finalists’ videos will be featured on www.shrekthemusical.com for three weeks. At the September 19 evening performance the winners will perform their roles on Broadway.

More information and a complete set of rules can be found at www.nick.com/princess

Commedia Troupe at the Italian Fest

The summer troupe got off to a roaring start at Lock 3 this summer. We will be at the Akron Arts Expo on Saturday, July 25th from 10 to 11 AM.

Here are some pictures from their first performance of "Funny Folk Tales From Around the World."

Botanical Gardens

While students are already enjoying summer vacation, the hard-working staff at Miller South spends a week planning for next year and immersing ourselves in professional development experiences. Today we went to Cleveland to take a workshop on folk art at the House of Blues. We toured the extensive collection of southern rural art, mostly by African Americans, and then were given materials and instructed to create our own piece of art inspired by what we had seen.

In the afternoon, staff had the choice of visiting the museum of art, the natural science museum or the botanical gardens. Here are some pictures of my visit to the gardens.

In the children's garden, we find some great ideas for creating unique garden plots. Why not use an old umbrella?






















Two exotic indoor environments house collections of plants, insects, lizards and birds. Madagascar provides the flora and fauna for the Spiny Garden.
















And in the Cloud Garden from Costa Rica, butterflies are released every day at 2 PM.


















Here you see the butterfly keeper with his butterfly crate made of netting! The vibrant butterflies are quite friendly!





































This marvelous music-themed garden inspired by Harlem's Cotton Club was an unexpected extension of our morning at the House of Blues:















Everywhere we wandered throughout the Botanical Garden's ten acres, we found amazing growing things, giddy colors and tantalizing textures.