<p>Theatermom - Oh to be in Pittsburgh this summer. However, no doubt I will be seeing your D in New York one day in the not so distant future. My sincere congrats!</p>
<p>Surflight Theater for the summer. (Anyone else ready to report?)</p>
<p>Jasmom, that is fantastic news about your son! Surflight is a great professional summer stock theater and has a great season line up. It is located at the shore I used to go to back when I was in high school, so it is a great location. </p>
<p>I want to share with you (and truthfully I think ths is a story that many would find inspriring)...my daughter's good friend and fellow CAP21 freshman is also going to be at Surflight. You can contact me if you want her name. This girl is confined to a wheelchair. My daughter says she has one of the best voices in her freshman class and is very talented. My D (as well as I) finds it so gratifying that CAP21 accepted a physically disabled student into a BFA in MT program. While she is incredibly talented as a performer, my D said she figured she would learn as much about MT but likely have a career in the field not as a performer given she is in a wheelchair. Well, lo and behold, she auditioned for Surflight and they cast her for the season. My D was so excited and called me up (this was about a month ago) because for one thing she said she thinks there is hope that maybe her friend really can have a career as a professinal performer in musical theater after all. (she's been a performer in many shows prior to college) She also commented that she was really thrilled to learn that a theater chose to hire a handicapped actress and what it says to her (my D) about this theater. This friend is quite inspiring...she is on her own living at NYU in a big city and doing great and going places! I don't know if your son realized another Tischie will be there but she will be and my D says she is great (as a person and as a MT performer). </p>
<p>I am not ready to "report" yet! My D has had some offers and things are in flux and will be for one more week. Hopefully, then I'll know for sure what she is doing.</p>
<p>How delightful (as well as inspiring). So far, that makes 3 Tichies (including one I've heard about via PM) who'll be "surfing" for the summer. Stay in touch.</p>
<p>How exciting, jasmom! What role(s) will your son be playing? Do you know yet? I'm so happy for both of you! Congrats!</p>
<p>Ensemble, except for Grease, in which he'll be Kenickie. Thanks. I think he'll have a blast.</p>
<p>Jasmom...I really think your son IS gonna have a blast. The job at Surflight seems to be an ideal one for a college theater student. He'll be working very hard but he'll be with a great group of others who love what he loves. I also think they have a great season. I recall my D saying her friend was going to be in Grease there. Kenickie is a fantastic part and a major role. That is such a fun musical. My D was in an adult production of Grease last year in our state, as Frenchy :). The guy who played Kenickie was engaged to the woman who played Rizzo!</p>
<p>COOL! Kenickie is a GREAT part - good for him!!</p>
<p>My d, who is NOT a MT major, but who attends a well-known liberal arts college in NYC and was able to audition in the city to try to find a summer job (she does plan to minor in dance) will be doing a six-week gig at the Fulton Opera House in Lancaster, PA, of "Crazy for You". She is pretty excited!</p>
<p>S will be spending the summer with Light Opera Oklahoma in Tulsa.</p>
<p>Churchmusicmom and MTPop...congratulations to your kids and their casting for summer. Those sound like terrific opportunities for a college student (or anyone for that matter). Good for them! Best wishes for their summer!</p>
<p>CMM & MTP, Congrats! Hope you get to see your daughters perform.</p>
<p>My brother's musical, Stand By Your Man, will be playing at The Surflight from September 20 - October 1!</p>
<p>Lynn, that is so cool about your brother! From all you have shared, he seems to be accomplished in this field. It must be neat for him to have a niece who is going into performing in theater. </p>
<p>(Jasmom...MTPop has a handsome SON....met him, :D)</p>
<p>OOPs, MTP, guess I'm not tracking well this Mon. morn. Congrats to your SON!
lynnm, thank you for letting us know that. Wow.</p>
<p>Susan, Yes, he's accomplished in the field. Unfortunately "theatre" doesn't really make the big bucks, so he makes his real money working on other projects such as movie scripts, t.v., etc. (He used to be a writer for the Cosby show years ago during it's heyday.) Those reruns helped pay the bills for quite a while! His first love will always be theatre though. He also has a show going up in The Berkshires early this summer and a reading in NY for another project he's finished. Busy guy!</p>
<p>Lynn, I love hearing the updates. We all know this field can be low paying and that is IF you can even get work and it can be sporadic and unsteady. But it is very cool to see that your brother is able to continue in his field of talent and is successful at it even if he is also doing OTHER things to bring in the bacon.</p>
<p>Perhaps one day, your D will appear in one of your brother's theater productions...wouldn't that be something!</p>
<p>I was very happy to read Susan's post about her D's Tisch classmate who uses a wheelchair to get around and is not only at Tisch/CAP21, but also has been cast at Surflight in a production this summer. That's terrific, for so many reasons. This discussion reminded me of a talk/event that my MT D and I attended last winter at one of our local Equity theaters. The topic of the panel discussion was "Nontraditional Casting," and the panelists (actors, directors, teachers of acting, playwrights, lawyers, etc.) talked not only about colorblind casting, but also casting people with physical disabilities. The discussion was augmented/enhanced by small scenes prepared by actors from local community theater companies who used non traditional casting in traditional plays. For example, a young woman in a wheelchair was in a scene from "Steel Magnolias." The panel then discussed whether having one of the actors in a wheelchair made any significant difference (negative or positive, or just neutral) to the scene, as written. Ditto an African-American troupe doing a scene from "The Glass Menagerie" and an all female troupe did a scene from "The Tempest." It was fascinating! A local high school director was on hand to talk about what happened when she cast "Big River" with a black student playing Huck and a white student playing Tom. (Those two cast members won Cappies, but were not allowed to perform their scene on TV, because of the non traditional casting.) That brought up issues of whether nontraditional casting goes against, sometimes, the playwright's intent. (Example: casting white people in an August Wilson play.)
Just a very interesting evening, altogether.
Lisa</p>
<p>Those are all great stories! I love reading them all. As a novice on all of this, it is so interesting to me. What are all of your MT CCr's doing this summer? Does anyone ever just come home and rest after a long school year?
I am really curious about Soozievt's remarkable D! Care to share?</p>
<p>I love reading all the anecdotes posted here, as well, and hope people do continue to post, even though it makes sense that things slow down in the summer. MTMinded, my bet is that most MT kids might come home during the summer, but few slow down! My D is still only a high school student, but she is not happy unless she is doing a show at all times. Before one production closes, she is already thinking about what she will do next, and I am betting that is typical. I am always reminded of a story I once did on firefighters: the longer it went between calls (emergencies and fires, etc.) the more antsy and uptight they got. It must be the same for performers. :)
I would love to hear what all of the kids of the parents here are doing this summer, if parents are willing to share.</p>