Summer at MET!

Although our main stage season is over....the work isn't! We're still keeping the theatre busy with great entertainment, educational programming...and of course, rehearsal!

The Comedy Pigs opened "There's a Run in My Ozone Layer" last weekend to a great opening night house. I must say it was great for me to sit in the audience and have nothing to do but laugh! You won't want to miss this show filled with silliness, some insanely funny characters and yes...a bit of "social conscientiousness". More Info

Karen Paone and myself are busy with Funcamp 2008, our summer theatre camp for kids (with assistance from Ashley Hall & TES intern Celia Lee). We finished up a great first session here at the theatre last weekend with our campers performing shows that they put together in 1-week! We're always amazed with what they are able to accomplish in such a short time. Karen's group of teens created an original ensemble piece (ala MET) called "The Beach". It was filled with inventiveness (including an awesome "jellyfish" movement piece w/ umbrellas dripping with streamers!) and just plain wacky and original scenes that these young artists created from their slightly warped teen minds!

My younger campers tackled a melodrama, "Penelope Pride of the Pickle Factory". They created some fantastic characters just perfect for "cheers and hisses". I had a slight crisis 1/2 before showtime, when my villain (being played marvelously by a delightful young actress) got just a tad bit nervous about portraying a male in front of a live audience and was considerably shaken....we solved the crisis by quickly turning her into a mean female, rather than male boss, changed her name, found a new costume/wig, sped through a few scenes with the young actors to adjust them to the shift and they all went on like pros! And other than the office sign on set that read "Jasper Grimwold" and not the newly acquired "Jasmine Grimwold"....I don't think the audience was the wiser.

Karen and I are now down at the lovely Carroll Arts Center in Westminster doing a 2-week session there. And then we head back up to MET for our final session at the theatre. Exhausting as it is, it's so great being with all these enthusiastic young performers. They get a chance not only to explore acting, but theatrical design elements as well. Today at camp we did costume sketches that the kids designed. They were just great. I have a terrific Sweeney Todd costume designed by a 11 year old boy, a really original forest princess, and a fanciful and clever teapot/Mrs Potts design to name a few...and these kids are under 12! Like I said, they never cease to amaze me.

Last week, I also started rehearsals for "Runaways". I'm so thrilled to be working on this project. We have assembled a multi-talented cast of 20-some young performers to tackle this challenging piece by Elizabeth Swados. We began choreography rehearsals with choreography. The music in the show is wonderful, touching, fun and at times unexpected. I can't wait to get into the meat of staging the show. It's raw and honest. I told the cast that it was going to be really challenging to create this world of runaway children....they're all so sweet..... and bathed. Tapping into the world of loneliness, isolation, fear and danger is going to be a great exploration for all of us! Click here for more info. I'll keep you posted on our progress. Until then........see you at the MET!
Julie