And so WSYT preseason begins - expect your early enrollment packets soon!

The WSYT Production for 2012 will be (drum roll please....)


Annie Get Your Gun

Tomorrow night is the night - but as a reward for doing such a great sing through I thought I'd throw out a little bonus clue...

Next year's show:

Includes one of the most famous songs in musical theatre.....

Stumped yet??!

Yes WSYT'eers - the time is coming shortly for the announcement of next summer's show - so here's your first clue:


Like this summer's show - the show next year includes a Queen as part of the cast of characters....

Well WSYT'eers - wasn't Mary Poppins incredible?  Personally I found myself just riveted to the two young actors playing Jane and Michael Banks.  These kids had such commitment to their roles - and their energy and focus on stage and character definition made them so interesting to watch.  Did you learn anything by observing them?  This is the kind of energy we ask you to provide at WSYT each and every night, whether it's in performance or in rehearsal - the commitment should be the same.  We want to see performance level energy all summer - not just the weekend of the performance.  See if that doesn't make a difference to the quality of your performance!

Looking forward to tonight's rehearsal - hopefully by then the storm clouds and accompanying rain will have passed us by with little to no effect.

Deb

I have to just say it out loud - I was so impressed with our company this evening.  You all did your homework - learned "Opening for a Princess" and were attentive and worked so hard.  We're "almost" there for next Thursday.  I say almost because we want to fine tune just a bit, and add the "acting" layer to the top of that.  We touched on the intent of the song just a little bit at the end tonight and I know you want to bring more to the stage for Sharing - but still - I was just so impressed!

Next week is our last week of company workshops - our last week of focusing on the learning aspect of our summer, and the kick off of the application of this learning process to the production that will reflect all your hard work.  That doesn't mean we stop learning - it just means that we take a different approach to what we're doing.  Application instead of theory, so to speak.

This application of the thought processes, theories, skills is a lot of hard work.  You'll be asked to bring your own stuff to the table - do your background on your characters, learn music and dances, lines and blocking.  Get ready... cause the second half of WSYT is coming!!!

Deb

Tonight we returned to Wilbraham Middle School for the rest of the summer.  In past WSYT summers driving down the driveway to the school that first night was an important moment every year - it signaled the excitement we all feel at meeting the kids, getting the summer going, possibilities, newness and "home".  Just like the kids I look forward to WSYT all year and once springtime hits I start to get that feeling of anticipation that summer is almost starting.  Driving up to the school I always felt like we were coming home after being away all year.

This year because of our 2 week stay at the Wilbraham United Church, I felt kind of "weird" and a little like a fish out of water for that time.  It's not that it's a bad thing working in the church.  In some respects there were nights that were easier and I loved having the big space of Fellowship Hall to begin and end our evenings all together.

But tonight driving down the driveway to WMS it felt right.  It felt like "home".  And now the summer is all about settling into routine...making it happen.

It feels good to be home.

Our summer is now two weeks in and we've passed our first milestone - Casting Night.  It's always an anxiety filled evening.  One WSYT'eer described it like the feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you're riding a rollercoaster and it's plummeting down the steepest part of the track.

This year was pretty quiet as Casting Nights go.  I hope that everybody is excited to begin working on their roles in the show.  It's a really funny show and it promises to be a pretty amusing summer!

 

And speaking of parts.... as I explained to the kids, those who were listening to me anyway... some of them had either "Sir..." or "Lady..." as their role next to their name.  This means that during the Character Workshop Kait will be leading later in the summer, the kids will need to define their own roles!  This includes naming their character (appropriately) and defining the personality traits for the character.

Our exploration into the world of the play begins on Wednesday with a viewing of the movie version of the play - to give us an idea of what the show could look like (ours of course will be just a little different).  We continue with our first Monday rehearsal on July 11th when we expect those principals who are able to attend (we're aware that some will be away on vacation).  Be sure to check your Callboards for scheduled Monday rehearsals! We've also been working on a little portion of the show that will be presented at our next milestone - Sharing Night - scheduled for July 21st.  You don't want to miss that one!

Looking forward to getting started!

Tonight was the first night of WSYT, and after fourteen first nights that have been relatively the same - icebreakers for the first half and then breaking into companies for the second half - things were changed up this year. WSYTeers are now divided in two separate ways: first, into their Companies (Junior, Senior, and Advanced Acting), and second, into their brand-new COLOR CREWS (Red, Yellow, Blue, Green).

For the first night, the color crews were encouraged to deck themselves in their colors for a night of team-building and fun, and THIS is how they arrived:( Photos behind the cut! )

Once inside, the color crews were given assignments: elaborate on their costumes, give themselves a team name, design a banner, and create a team cheer. Crews got hard to work and were GREAT working together!
Every crew got their own staff ambassador to help encourage them...
( The staff goes nuts, too! )

Once our teams were established, named, and royally decked out, it was time for a lemonade break. Then our teams were put to the test in a series of challenges, for points and for GLORY! 
( FOR GLORY! )
WSYTeers participated in four challenges, each led by a staff member, with points recorded by Greg - and occasionally being pelted with water balloons by Greg. When the games were over, the color crews were brought back to the hall to hear the results. (Drumroll please...)
There may have been some groans around our highly competitive teams, but the lesson was important: working together and getting to know one another was the important part, and in that respect everyone definitely won. Each WSYTeer was given a small star charm as a prize.

Deb then had us all stand in a circle, and she ran a long string between us to each hold. It was made up of four threads: red, yellow, green, and blue. That string connected and represented us as a team, and to remind us of our unity as a group, the thread was cut for each WSYTeer to thread our star charms. After keeping them and wearing them all summer, we'll put them back together in a new form at the end of the season.

Somehow a whole year has passed and here we are again for another summer together.  We begin tomorrow night with Orientation, and I'm feeling a little unprepared only because I'm not quite sure how many actual WSYT'eers we're going to have with us this summer!  There've been a few last minute enrollments that have made the lists keep shifting, and while it's exciting to have some new kids joining us it just makes the preparation a little bit harder for me.  So we start out our summer together with that kind of scary excitement - you know... the kind you get right before the roller coaster climbs up over the hill to the last big drop ... which is I'm sure how some of you are feeling too.  So we'll take that journey together.  Hold on tight!

I have to tell you that the staff and I have been working very hard this spring to take a good hard look at WSYT over the years - figure out what just didn't work the way we wanted it to - make some changes - some tiny ones here and there - and some big ones in a few areas. 

What about tradition, you ask (well maybe you didn't ask - but I know at least one person is thinking it - so I'll say it for you).  Don't worry - the first thing we decided we all liked the most about WSYT was the traditons we all have.  So we were very careful to preserve the most important ones. Hopefully we'll also be creating some new ones this year!

Most of these changes you'll hear about tomorrow.  I'm fairly certain that you'll find them to be good changes.  You'll like them.  I promise.  They're not scary.  They're not bad.  You'll get to do a lot more this summer. You'll learn more.  You'll be busy I can promise!  And challenged.  And most of all we have made it our primary mission to make sure that you have FUN!

Can't wait to see you all tomorrow!  Here we go!!