<p>BTW Are you sure the song is "How do we come to this?"...have not heard of that song...</p>
<p>Gkoukla, thanks. I am sure she is psyched. And yep, it is made sweeter that she is going to do a musical this soon after having been so injured and after all the missed things the past few months. Yes, all the shows are FULL scale productions, no junior versions, even for the youngest kids. They will put on 39 full scale productions this summer, plus three sessions of what is called Our Time Cabaret (my D is in that cast and rehearsing that during the same three weeks), plus other things like dance shows (she is taking Master Dance Class so will be in this...never dreamt she'd be dancing yet), and so forth. On performance weekends, each of the 13 productions are put on twice. It is like a theater weekend and I enjoy catching as many shows as I can. A big part for the kids actually is getting to see so many shows other than their own and also supporting their friends. </p>
<p>Angst, the show schedule follows an A and B format. A shows perform Friday matinee and Saturday night and B shows perform Friday night and Saturday matinee. Each theater space is shared by two different productions. At any given time, six shows are being shown at one time. You can't catch 'em all, unfortunately. Then there is one C show which this session is The Crucible and that show is shown to the entire camp on Thursday night and then when parents are there on Saturday morning at 10. The Our Time Cabaret is performed as the final production of each session for the entire camp and parents of cast members and this is at about midnight on Saturday night. So, for instance, my child will perform in Jekyll and Hyde and as soon as she is done around 11 PM, change and perform in the cabaret show. It is good to be young. Then us old folks just gotta stay awake for it all. Luckily my niece is in the C show so I don't miss her show because sometimes friends are in shows at the same time your child is and you can't see them (but then there is the video, lol). My other daughter is in Boston at a program but is going to travel to the Catskills to see her sister's show and others as she hates to miss it and always is there to support her. </p>
<p>Yep a fan and lamp would be good to have. Since you are only gleaning my perspective, as well as the fact that I am not getting anything done today (just kidding), you might also pose questions on Stagedoor's own forum, just a suggestion! Your D is gonna have a good time, I bet. </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>Angst, did not see your last question. If you don't know the show, The Wild Party, then you likely have not heard of it. She has performed several songs from that show before. She has not auditioned with this song before but a year ago sang it in a musical theater workshop performance, which was on the afternoon of her sister's graduation while we were having an open house here so I missed it but I know the song and have heard her sing it in the car. It is in that musical.</p>
<p>Truly, however, one needs to pick songs that suit their style and strength. Do not go by what my daughter chose. She has sang many many different songs at auditions both at Stagedoor and elsewhere. If you want to run your D's song choices by me and what her strengths are, I could possibly advise you. That is the best place to start, not what song my D sang. Her song was a bit on a whim, plus could be very wrong for some girls. Just like other songs would be bad for my D like If I Were a Bell or some such. Have your D go with her gut and with what songs have worked well for her in the past. My D did not even use any of her college audition songs for this audition. My D often opts to sing an upbeat song and this one wasn't. Not sure why she changed her mind at last minute but she had three songs in mind but I thought she was gonna go with another one. She did not even practice. Her graduation and much else was this past weekend. But she knew this song already.</p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>PS, I just reread your question. I had posted the song as being "How Did We Come to This" in my original post, but your question asked if I was sure if it was "How Do We Come to This" and well, no that is not the right title.</p>
<p>Susan,</p>
<p>I may have the source of the confusion re: your D's audition song. First of all, there are two separate shows entitled The Wild Party and unfortunately, Frank Wildhorn is not the composer of either of them. Michael John LaChiussa wrote one and Andrew Lippa (UM grad - go Blue!) wrote the other, both produced in 2000. I checked the cast albums on Amazon and "How Did We Come to This" is the last song in the Lippa Wild Party. Hope this helps!</p>
<p>Susan, I know your D. is very talented..but we would never choose a song based on her selection. We were just curious what she picked!</p>
<p>D. always have a tough time with song selection ..so its interesting to see what others do.</p>
<p>Yikes, Theatermom, my D is gonna think I am a nutcase! I am, I know. You see, I KNEW Wild Party has two versions and I KNEW she has performed many songs from Lippa's version and why my mind said WILDHORN, I don't know but it is likely cause here we are talking of Jekyll and Hyde and so I have Wildhorn on the brain today! My bad, oy. My daughter would be quite embarrassed. I have seen her perform enough Lippa songs to have known this!!! </p>
<p>Still, while I must have confused Angstridden, she did post the title to the song wrong and I did have the name of the musical correct but I have a feeling she is not familiar with this musical. I have heard this soundtrack countless times in the car with my D and I should have known better!</p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>Angst, I realize you were just curious and I did not mind sharing it with you. As you were locating the song, I thought perhaps you wanted to know what it sounded like and I was just hoping you did not put much thought into it because such a wide variety of songs are sung at these auditions so there is no pattern. But I agree that it is interesting to see what others selected. She has not used this for an audition song ever before. </p>
<p>My D also is like yours in that she can never decide what to pick for her audition song and frankly, she drove me nuts all fall with how long she spent deciding on her handful of college audition songs, that I got on her case and said, just pick something and practice it because the way she was going was she was spending all her energy with the picking process for SO long all fall that the idea is to work on the songs! Eventually she did :D.
Susan</p>
<p>The one I think she may sing is kinda racy...thats why she is hesitant.
I am sure they have to get tired of hearing some of the songs. Do some of the kids do a little dancing with their songs?</p>
<p>BTW do you they search the kids luggage for food and cell phones when they arrive? I read that somewhere and wondered if it was true.</p>
<p>Aww! Tell her congrats! I've never seen the play but Iv'e been to the resturant in NYC does that count haha. What have been some of the other big musicals in the past?The two dream musicals I wanna do one is Wicked( as Elphaba, which wont be for many years) and the others are Grease,Phatom,Bye Bye Birdie,Annie(it was always my dream to play Annie and last summer my little tinny all girls camp did ti and I was cast as Daddy Warbucks . darn. ( it was an abriged 30 min version though and they cut my song haha). I would also love to do oklahoma,and I would die to be in Chicago as Roxy or Hairspray</p>
<p>Susan what are the msot over auditioned songs at stage door? From what musicals? I was thinking For Good or Wizard and I from Wicked, but they might think O gee another Wicked song. I can imagine RENT is rpetty overdone as is "all I ask of you" and "music of the night, and Defying Gravity.</p>
<p>Angst what songs is your daughter thinking about?</p>
<p>I know of the wild party. Idina Menzel played Kate in it.</p>
<p>Defying..did you see that stagedoor has message boards at stagedoormanor.com..You might get ideas there. I know they have said just to not worry about it and sing something you enjoy..but I would imagine that both Rent and Wicked are pretty common if that is a concern.</p>
<p>Susan...I see where they are having a showing of the documentary on SDM...Didnt you mention your daughter was in it? Did they give the kids their real names? I see they mention a girl who had been going there a long time but her name was different than your D's.</p>
<p>Susan - Congrat's to your daughter on her Lucy role! We saw Elon's MT do Jekyll and Hyde last November - one of the several reasons we liked Elon so much! From our student friend on the Elon thread, it seems that the same girl that played Lucy in their show has now graduated and is joining the Thoroughly Modern Millie tour as Millie! She went straight into a main part - really talented girl. We are so excited - that tour is coming to our city this coming year so we'll get to see her again.</p>
<p>Angst, I don't know if they are having a showing of the documentary called Stagedoor AT camp this summer but I sure hope so. My daughter has never seen it. So far, it has only been shown at film festivals, most recently this past weekend in LA. When the filmmakers came in 2003 to film it during second session, they particularly followed six kids around (from my understanding). My D was one of them. When I saw the press release for the film's premiere at a film festival this past spring in Texas, I saw five names of campers mentioned and she was not one of them. I think when they edited it, they kept the focus on those five. I was in contact subsequently with the filmmaker who wrote me that indeed my D is in it but she is not one of these five so her name was not in the press release. (it was a tad confusing cause on the press release for the world premiere in Texas, the photo they chose to release was a still shot of her as Anita in West Side Story but the filmmaker said she just liked that photo so used it but it is not from the film) She told me she appears in it and particularly is focused on in one scene. The kids use their real names as it is a documentary, not a script. I saw them filming her when I was there and she was in Pippin as The Leading Player...filming her backstage and she also said they followed her all summer. I think they instead chose to focus on these other five kids who all have an interesting slant....like one kid is from Newark and was in Lion King, another has ADD, etc. The filmmaker mentioned that there was a scene in it of my D singing solo in the cabaret but really I have not seen it. She also had braces back then, and was 14. I'd love to see it some time. The girl who was mentioned as being there a long time is my D's roommate and friend from Florida. Her mother works at the camp and her older sister also went there a very long time and in fact, her older sister was in CAMP, the movie. </p>
<p>As far as your other questions, I have never seen luggage searched. Your other question....no, I doubt anyone dances with their audition song. In a musical theater audition, that would not be too common. You have to act the song but not do a total blocking or dancing of it. In fact, there is a dance audition for dance placement and if you want to dance in a musical, this would be a good time to demonstrate that you are a dancer too, but not in the vocal part of the audition. Also, you asked about common songs....I'm sure like anywhere, they hear overdone songs done a lot. So, yeah, I would not do Wicked or RENT or many along those lines but they are not gonna count ya out if you do but it is nice to be a little more individualistic about it. But the main thing is for them to see what you can do. There is nothing wrong with "racy" there. This is not like auditioning at an adult theater where they would want youth to perform age appropriate material. In fact, one great thing at SDM is that kids get to do shows/roles/songs that they might never get to do if in an adult production or some place else. I mean kids are playing Sweeney Todd, Roxy Hart, Sally Bowles, Jean Valjean, characters in Hair, and so on and so forth. It is not all kiddie fare. And so this is one time when it is ok to sing a song that is not age appropriate. </p>
<p>Defying Gravity,
My D and I also have been to the Jekyll and Hyde restaurant in NYC :D. Grease, Oklahoma, and Bye Bye Birdie won't be done at camp this summer because they were done last summer and they do not repeat any shows for at least three years. (my daughter has done these three musicals by the way, all classics) I have never seen Phantom done there, though. Annie has been done there...who knows, maybe it will be this year.....was a couple years ago, if I recall, as the younger kids' show. My daughter has played Molly and Annie in adult productions in our state so I know the show well. I feel every little girl who loves theater ought to do this show sometime, lol. Hairspray rights are not out yet. MAYBE they'd do Chicago as it has been three years since the last time they did it there. Ya never know. I know that every session is chockful of wonderful and varied shows, even ones you likely have not yet heard of. </p>
<p>I really cannot say which songs are the most overdone ones. Each year that varies. I know one year, it was likely Millie songs. I'm sure Wicked songs last year were the thing. My D tends to not want to do commonly sung audition songs, even if she likes the songs. But at SDM, I do not think this is nearly as big a deal as let's say, college auditions. They just wanna see what you can do and are not gonna judge it by what song you picked so much. You are right about Idina playing Kate. My daughter's voice style is somewhat like hers (though in no way would I compare to such a talented actress!), but my daughter has performed some songs she has sung like Defying Gravity and Life of the Party in cabaret shows...but would not do these for auditions. Great otherwise though! What might you sing this summer? </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>Ericsmom, I did not see your post, sorry. That is very very impressive about the girl at Elon who played Lucy going on tour as Millie. Wow. My D would be very into playing Millie as she is a tapper and the songs that character sings are suited to her voice type and she certainly admires Sutton Foster. For a girl to get that role right out of her BFA is quite something. I really don't know Jekyll and Hyde so it will be interesting to see my D do the production. I sent her the CD today but unfortunately directly from Amazon so I can't hear it myself. So, was Lucy a neat role? My D is often cast in roles that involve singing, dancing and acting but I think this one has no dancing, does it? Hopefully it will be a role that she will learn from and grow in her acting and even singing. She is very good friends with the boy playing Jekyll too. He is quite talented and very tall! She is not tall.</p>
<p>Soozie-</p>
<p>Just caught up to this thread. Congrats to your D on a GREAT role in a GREAT show. I wish I could come up to see 1st session shows, but I think I'm only going to make it up for 3rd because of NHSI. You'll have to report back when you go see the shows !! :) What's the first name of the boy playing Jekyll? Are there any other Stagedoor people whose names I might recognize that got fun parts this session?? Again, a big congratulations to her. Wa hoo!</p>
<p>Dani</p>
<p>"It is not all kiddie fare. And so this is one time when it is ok to sing a song that is not age appropriate"..this is good to hear Susan.</p>
<p>Also curious..the kids get there..are they then assigned a time to tryout? Is that usually the first day or could it be second? And when they tryout they have no idea what show it will be?
So they tryout..and lets say they didnt tryout for dance then likely they would not be put in a dance show? Or could they be put in one?
And then they do a cold reading?
WOW! That has got to be tough for the auditioners with so many kids?
Are all the tryouts on day 1?</p>
<p>soozie, in terms of the character of lucy, she reminds me a great deal of Nancy in Oliver (coincidentally another part I want to play). The part does have some acting. She's a prostitude of some sort and falls in love with Mr. Jekyll. (If you don't know, Mr. Jekyll is a scientist and believes that everyone has two different sides: a good side and a bad side. He creates this experiment and take a medicine so sometimes his good side will come out and sometimes his bad side will come out). His bad side is Mr. Hyde (get it? Jekyll and Hyde). So Lucy loves him as Mr. Jekyll, but as Mr. Hyde he comes after her and "hurts" her. Eventually he kills her and he dies himself. </p>
<p>it's a great part. best of luck to your daughter in it!!</p>