This past weekend was the Performance Weekend for Session 1 at StageDoor, a premiere performing arts training camp in the Catskills. I'm directing and choreographing a show for their second session and my dear students Gino and Liesl were in one of the shows. Well, let me tell ya! These shows were PHENOMENAL!
Gino and Liesl were both in Spring Awakening, which was perfromed with so much heart and honesty that it was incredibly moving. Spring Awakening has a beautiful score and these kids sang it amazingly.
I've seen Gino and Liesl grow from being kids with a flair for music and dance, into the beautiful, passionate performers they are today. I was watching with their parents and felt like a parent to them myself.
The other shows I saw were equally as amazing- a 13 year old ripping apart (that's a good thing) "Home" from The Wiz in a beautiful crystal belt; an 18 year old sing with the chops of a Broadway legend in the role of Queenie in The Wild Party; and a recently turned theater buff 16 year old boy play Lt. Cioffi in Curtains with the smarm and the charm that David Hyde Pierce originally brought to the role on Broadway. Another kid was so brilliant as a clown on the edge in The Wild Party that I bet he would be offered role in a touring company in no time.
I am now set to direct a show for the next session. Because of camp policy I am not allowed to disclose what show it is until Wednesday morning when we have a big "reveal". But I am excited to work with the talent and the passion that these kids already brought to the first day of camp. And who knows, maybe in my cast I have the next Natalie Portman, Bryce Howard, Robert Downey Jr., Jon Cryer, or someone like that, since they are all StageDoor alumni.
Till next time,
This is Tony...and StageDoor's what's going on.
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