Seussical – The Musical

We all went to see Seussical yesterday at Waukesha Civic Theatre for their final performance. It was a great show. I had never seen this show before and I laughed so hard throughout the entire show. I especially liked it when one of the Wickersham Brothers plopped in my lap during the chase scene near the end of Act 1. Everyone in the show did a fantastic job. Awesome performances were turned in by Paul Burkard as The Cat in the Hat, Corey Richards as Horton, and Samatha Burkard as Gertrude McFuzz. Congratulations to Jacob Sudbrink for directing an incredible show. Nice work by Sallie Burkard and Anthony Mackie on the tremendous costumes and wigs. It felt like I was watching several Dr. Seuss books come to life.

First Stage Theater Academy

Last Friday, A.J. finished up a four week class at the First Stage Theater Academy. I am very impressed by their program and I am glad that we have such an amazing opportunity for our kids here in the Milwaukee area. A.J. took their two week course last summer and had such a great time that he asked if he could take the four week course this year. The course runs all day and is broken into four parts each day: Acting Theory, Musical Theatre, Improvisation, and Shakespeare. I’m sure that I don’t have those names exactly correct but they describe the subject matter in each class. On the last day of the program, they put on a presentation to demonstrate all of the things that they have learned. It is so cool to see all of these kids get up in front of an audience to sing, dance, and act. Most kids their age would be scared to put themselves out there like that.

The director of the Academy, John Maclay, indicated that this program is one of the largest professional theatre training programs in the country. Its instructors consist of professional theatre actors and directors that aren’t working on any shows during the summer. It is interesting that their true purpose is not to train a bunch of budding actors. Their real goal is to help the students to become better people. Their motto is teaching “life skills through stage skills.” Because of the structure of the program, there are no cliques and there is no teasing or bullying. That message is reinforced at the beginning and end of each day by the director of the Academy as well as by all of the instructors in the classrooms. How cool is that!

One of the other classes that the First Stage Theater Academy puts on during the summer is called the Company Class. In this class, the students spend four weeks (all day) rehearsing a play that they present two performances of during the final weekend. This weekend, we saw one of the Company Classes put on The Foreigner. Our whole family really enjoyed the show. It was wonderful to see what they accomplished in four weeks. In the last year, we have attended both a play and a musical put on by our local high school drama department and I was amazed at how much better the kids of the Company Class production were. Even though they were the same age as the high school students, the training and direction that they received from the class really showed when they were on stage.

Congratulations to John Maclay and the entire First Stage Theater Academy staff for putting together a terrific program and sticking to their principles.

2009 Dance Tracks Dance Recital

The 2009 dance recital for Dance Tracks of Waukesha was held at the Hamilton Fine Arts Center last Friday and Saturday evenings. As always, the students and faculty put together an absolutely wonderful show. This is the seventh year that Erin has been dancing at Dance Tracks and every year I am impressed with the talent of the dancers and the time that goes in to putting on a show like this. The theme of the recital this year was On The Cover! and every dance was associated with a specific magazine for which it could have been the cover shot.

This is the first year that Erin took two dance classes and was in two separate numbers during the show. That required a fairly quick costume change as there were only 3 dances between them. For her Intermediate Jazz class, they danced to Do Your Thing which was supposed to be a representation of the cover of “Self Magazine.” The top picture is Erin in the costume for that piece. For her Jazz Funk class, they danced to Hero which represented the cover shot for “Marvel Adventures/Super Heroes.” This second picture is the costume for that number. On an interesting side note, her dance instructor for Jazz Funk made all of the costumes for her students. I think they look really good. Congratulations Erin, on another fabulous year of dance. We are so proud of your talent.

WCT Gala

Friday night was the annual fundraising gala for Waukesha Civic Theatre at Weissgerber’s Golden Mast Inn in Okauchee. As I can’t afford to attend the dinner as guest, I offered my services as a volunteer instead. I ended up being the event photographer for the evening. I got to walk around and take pictures of everyone having a good time. And I have to admit that I had fairly good time too.

WCT has a pretty loyal group of donors and patrons. Even though we are currently going through some tough economic times, the generosity that was displayed was overwhelming. There was a silent auction prior to dinner and live auction after dinner. Both of which seemed to raise quite a bit of money for the theatre. That was followed by some amazing singing and dancing by several WCT entertainers. The hit number of the evening was Mark Neufang performing “Mack the Knife.” Some of the ladies in the audience put up some fairly decent wolf whistles during his performance. Corey Richards and Patty Neuhoff also performed a number from next month’s upcoming musical, 42nd Street, which was very impressive. Personally, I was amazed at the wonderful singing voice of Julie McHale, the theatre reviewer from the Waukesha Freeman. The evening was concluded with music and dancing to the tunes of the Brew City Big Band.

The Economy and The Arts

I’ve seen several articles, blog posts, and web pages recently that talk about the government support of the arts during these lean economic times. Just this week, there was a controversial vote in downtown Milwaukee on whether or not to proceed with a public art project that had been previously approved and funded. Luckily, the public support was overwhelming and the Janet Zweig project was approved by Public Works Committee of the Milwaukee Common Council by a vote of 12 to 2. While reading about that debate and others, I’ve seen many comments from people indicating that the government should worry about ensuring that people have jobs and not put any money toward the arts. I have also heard about school boards around the country discontinuing their music and drama programs because of budgetary issues as well.

I believe it would be a fantastic world if all artistic endeavors could sustain themselves without generous donors and government assistance but I know it would be simply tragic if they didn’t exist at all. Yes, I agree that times are tough. But now, more than ever, is the time that we need to have access to those things that help us to escape the pressures of everyday life. The arts are an important part of our culture. Our kids need to have the opportunities to learn about artistic skills as well as math, science, and reading. Too many galleries have closed and too many theatre groups have gone under recently. I don’t the have answers as to what we need to do to solve this issue. I just know that awareness is the first step.

A.C.T. Summer Showcase 2008

For the last two weeks Erin has been participating in classes at the Academy at Civic Theatre (A.C.T.) at Waukesha Civic Theatre. She took two classes this year; one was the dance class like she took last year and the other was the acting class. On Saturday, the kids demonstrated what they had learned by giving two performances of the A.C.T. Summer Showcase. Each of the classes did one or more songs, dances, or short plays. Erin’s dance class performed two separate dance pieces. During the first act, they danced to “What Time Is It?” from High School Musical II. They danced to the “The Lioness Hunt” from The Lion King during the second act. She and some of those in her acting class performed “The Unlunchables” as well.

I am really proud of the work that Erin did on stage. This was the first time that I have seen her act on stage in a role that had quite a few lines. She spoke loudly (many others did not) and clearly and with the perfect amount of emotion in her voice. She has always been a good dancer and singer and now she proven herself as in acting as well. Way to go, Erin.

The Dramagoons are on a Hiatus

Yesterday we finished up Little Women at Waukesha Civic Theatre. We went out with a bang. We had our only sold-out show of the run on Sunday. It was a really good show too. When you have that many people in the audience, they seem to respond so much better to the show. After the show, we struck the set, costumes, and props.

Either A.J., Erin, or I have been a show or rehearsal since the beginning of March. A.J. rehearsed and performed in Over The Tavern during March, April, and May and fit a band concert in the middle of that. Erin had her spring concert for Milwaukee Children’s Choir in May and the Dance Tracks dance recital in June. Both A.J. and Erin also rehearsed and sang a song at the WCT Preview Event. Personally, I rehearsed and performed in Shadowlands during March, April, and May. I rehearsed and performed in Little Women during April, May, and June. And I rehearsed and performed a scene for the WCT Preview Event.

As of today, the Dramagoons are on a hiatus. We have no band, choir, dance, or theatre-related activities planned for the near future. We are going back to being regular family for the summer.

Dress Rehearsal for the Erin’s Dance Recital

The Dance Tracks Spring Recital will take place at the Hamilton Fine Arts Center tomorrow night and Saturday night. Unfortunately, I can’t make either of the shows because of my on-stage commitment. Luckily, I got to attend the dress rehearsal this evening. Boy, I was really impressed with everything I saw. Erin is in the Jazz class this year and they did a fantastic job. She gets better every year. All of the groups that I saw did a great job. Dance Tracks in Waukesha is a wonderful studio with a great bunch of instructors. Erin has been dancing there for six years.

If you have an opportunity and have some free time tomorrow night or Saturday night come out and see a wonderful show. I happen to know that there are tickets available for both shows. Show times and locations are on the Dance Tracks website.

My Date with a Princess

Girl Scout Father Daughter Dance

A week ago on Friday, Erin and I went to our last Girl Scout Father Daughter Dance. Erin won’t be continuing in Girl Scouts next year so this was the last one for us. As you can see, I wore my tux again and Erin was amazingly pretty, as always. We really enjoyed ourselves. Erin loves to dance and we danced quite a bit. Erin said hello to a couple of her friends and I acknowledged a couple of the Dads that I know, but we really spent the entire evening together.

I really enjoy getting to spend some special time with her. Many times when the four of are together on vacation or camping and we decide to do separate things, I go with A.J. and Kristi goes with Erin. I’m glad for opportunities like the dance to remind me to spend a little more time with Erin. We have agreed that even though there are no more Girl Scout dances for us to go to, we will plan to do something fancy, just the two of us, once or twice a year from now on.

A.C.T. Summer Showcase

A.J. and Erin participated in classes with the Academy at Civic Theatre (A.C.T.) at Waukesha Civic Theatre during the last two weeks. A.J. took the “Marvelous Musicals!” class. They learned some songs from Mary Poppins and also worked on the choreography for those songs. Erin took the “Dance Fever” class. They worked on dancing and also sang a song from The Sound of Music.

In order to show what they learned in the last two weeks, all the classes participated in putting on two shows on Saturday. The kids spent all day on Friday in final dress rehearsals and then performed a 10am show and a 1pm show on Saturday. All the kids in the show did a fantastic job. I was very proud of A.J. and Erin especially. They both sang out with enthusiam and they moved with grace as they danced. If they choose to continue with participating in theatre activities they will both do very well.