Our regular Broadway Kids Camps for ages 7-10 and Professional Musical Theatre Workshops for ages 11-15 were better than ever and with the addition of our Acting Camp and Advanced Teen 3- week Musical Theatre Conservatory for ages 13-18, the summer was a huge success! All of our performers did an outstanding job in their main stage performances and worked like professionals in their technique classes. Some highlights of the program included a visit by Broadway performers Paolo Montalban (who played the Prince in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella opposite Brandy) and Olivia Oguma (from “Mamma Mia”) as well as a master class with Broadway Vocal Coach Robert Marks.
After the busy summer season was over, our PAS students were invited to participate in the Mayo Performing Arts Center community-wide 9/11 10 year anniversary Remembrance event. This event was our way of bringing the community together to honor those lost in the attacks and honor the men and women who serve our country everyday to protect our inalienable rights. The students closed the program with a very special song called “America Rising,” which was written right after 9/11/http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif01 by my very good friends Sharilyn Pitifer-Minetti and Rino Minetti. And to make the moment even more meaningful for me, some of my students from 10 years ago who originally recorded and performed the song for many of the first year 9/11 memorials and are now successful young adults came and performed alongside them. Included in that group was Gaius Charles who played Brian “Smash” Williams on NBC’s “Friday Night Lights.” They all did a fantastic job and made us really proud! To see photos please click here.
Auditions were held on September 13th for our 2011-2012 Performing Arts Company. This group of talented young performers represent the theatre by performing all over Morris County for non-profit organizations, community events and fundraisers and really set the tone for our whole program by spreading the message that what comes with talent is the responsibility to use it wisely and to help others. We picked a wonderful group of 23 very talented performers and we’re happy to have many returning members amongst that group. We’re now working hard to prepare our performance for the MPAC Starlight Ball on October 15th with John Pizzarelli and many upcoming community events!
We’re looking forward to a really great season at MPAC and love seeing all the smiling faces coming into our Education studios every week! This semester we’ve added “Singing Technique for Adults” on Monday evenings with Opera singer Alison Bolshoi who will be working on using specific techniques to free the natural voice. She is incredible and dynamic and I feel very lucky to have her at MPAC. We also have a brand new acting class for teens called “The Play’s the Thing,” which will take teens through the whole process involved in rehearsing and performing a play. The majority of our classes have once again filled up completely but we are still taking registrations for some of the teen and adult classes. Just give Roxie a call at 973-539-0345 ext. 6582 or pas@mayoarts.org and she’ll get you all set up!
Stay tuned for future posts on our many other School and Community programs. It looks like the Education department is going to have our busiest and most meaningful season ever!
