UPDATES — FEBRUARY 23, 2014
What an awesome day we had today! We ran through the show twice, and
after the 2nd run-through I was able to pay the kids one of the best
compliments a director can - that I was starting to enjoy watching the
production as an audience member would, getting drawn in by their
performances so that I forgot at times to take notes but just had fun
watching a very talented group do a great job.
This upcoming week is critical for fine-tuning. A few key items:
1. I MUST know in advance if your child is going to be missing any upcoming rehearsals. We will need to cover their lines or select a stand-in so we don’t start to lose momentum. It is extremely disruptive to realize as we are running through the show that a key line belongs to an absent cast member, and we are running out of time to catch people up on what gets tweaked.
2. If your child has missed many or most rehearsals so far, we really need them to be present going forward. There is a lot to know and remember from hand-motions and timing to light choreography and, of course, their lines. Because this is likely one of the more complex group activities for most kids, we need the time together to gel. I know this week is a commitment, but the whole cast is relying on one another, and we can’t put any children in the embarrassing spot of being unprepared come Saturday.
3. Tomorrow’s rehearsal is from 5:15-7:15pm, and Tues.-Thurs. rehearsals are 4:00-6:30pm. Please give your kids a snack before rehearsal. We will have water breaks, but there will be no time for food this week.
4. We are at St. Francis from now on, and I’ll send along expectations for the weekend, details about when actors must arrive before each show, etc. in a day or so. The dress rehearsal on Saturday will be treated as a live show, and well be looking for some close family, etc. to make up our first audience.
5. Would anybody be willing to film the dress rehearsal?
Thanks!Mark
This upcoming week is critical for fine-tuning. A few key items:
1. I MUST know in advance if your child is going to be missing any upcoming rehearsals. We will need to cover their lines or select a stand-in so we don’t start to lose momentum. It is extremely disruptive to realize as we are running through the show that a key line belongs to an absent cast member, and we are running out of time to catch people up on what gets tweaked.
2. If your child has missed many or most rehearsals so far, we really need them to be present going forward. There is a lot to know and remember from hand-motions and timing to light choreography and, of course, their lines. Because this is likely one of the more complex group activities for most kids, we need the time together to gel. I know this week is a commitment, but the whole cast is relying on one another, and we can’t put any children in the embarrassing spot of being unprepared come Saturday.
3. Tomorrow’s rehearsal is from 5:15-7:15pm, and Tues.-Thurs. rehearsals are 4:00-6:30pm. Please give your kids a snack before rehearsal. We will have water breaks, but there will be no time for food this week.
4. We are at St. Francis from now on, and I’ll send along expectations for the weekend, details about when actors must arrive before each show, etc. in a day or so. The dress rehearsal on Saturday will be treated as a live show, and well be looking for some close family, etc. to make up our first audience.
5. Would anybody be willing to film the dress rehearsal?
Thanks!Mark
UPDATES — FEBRUARY 13
We’ve had a great set of rehearsals to get us on the right track to great performances! The kids are getting more and more into it, and we have some real talent in our midst. A few notes and must-do’s:
1) Everybody must be off-book (have speaking lines and songs memorized) by February 16. The choristers cannot prepare and get into their characters until this is done. With the select rehearsals I’ll be arranging this week and the big Saturday rehearsal that kicks off run-thru week on February 22, I’ll be collecting the scores as we start and we will only prompt lines where absolutely necessary. Please help your child have a great run up to the performances by assisting them in memorization over the next few days.
2) In a separate email, I’ll send the directions to the Mount St. Francis Theater and some additional tips concerning our final week of rehearsals and the performance. We begin rehearsing there on Saturday, February 22.
3) Please spend a few moments with your child(ren) and remind them that focus during the remaining rehearsals is key. It’s great to see the kids get into character and it’s natural that some will want to go a little overboard, but things get a lot more intimidating when we have an actual audience. If we don’t work on staying in character and not fooling around, we are likely to have some “deer in headlights” moments when performances roll around. The best antidote to stage fright is rehearsal time well-spent. A fun thing might be to have your kids stay in character during dinner for a few nights and ask them to think about their character’s feelings about what goes on in the musical, their attitude (angry, compassionate, brave, etc), favorite things, etc. These were real people after all. Maybe reading the story of David and Goliath from scripture a few times would be good too.
4) We have a range of vocal power in this group. That’s no problem if we work on projecting our voices and we enunciate. It’s not easy to be loud, but also clear when speaking. When running lines with your kids have them speak more slowly than they think they need to, work on saying each word clearly and loudly. See if you can hear them from another room on the same floor of your home. A big theater full of bodies will soak up a lot of sound! The same principle applies when singing.
5) We may send a few requests for props in the near future, and we’d be grateful for any items you may be able to lend us.
6) I will need a few parent volunteers to help with a few items during the productions (leading Mary’s Angels on-stage, etc.) Please let me know if you are willing to do this.
I am truly excited about this production, and know God is watching over our efforts to make it memorable for the kids and the audiences. Thanks for all of your help to get us to the finish line.
God bless,
Mark
Young Choristers
As we begin preparing for the musical, it is evident that the choristers really know the music well. The younger ones, however, have a hard enough time reading, let alone reading all the right words in each song and keeping up . . . and then memorizing!
All families are asked to help the younger choristers learn the words to the songs by going over them at home. You can sing along with a CD, but you can also just speak through the words with them over and over and help them to memorize them. This means always bringing a score home and always remembering to bring it to rehearsals. These young choristers are excited and ready to sing, but every time we get to a verse (instead of a refrain) they all stop singing and get these blank looks on their faces. So, please try to help your young choristers read and memorize the words to the songs.
Each week a couple of songs will be assigned to work on for memorization.
Week of January 6 — Please try to memorize the song “Dressing for Battle”, especially the fast pitter-patter on the two pages that begin with “Don’t forget to ...” Also work on memorizing “Goliath of Gath”.
Line Assignments
A document with all of the solo line assignments
was included in the Choir Notes from 01/07/14. Mrs. Niemerg tried to give every
chorister at least one spoken line in the show. Please print the document from the
email, find your child’s line (or lines), and help her learn it.
Here is the final rehearsal schedule for the musical. Note that “stage crew” means no cast members are called.
Also note that not everyone is called to every rehearsal. Check the 5th column to see which characters are called. If you cannot make a particular rehearsal, you must communicate with Mark Rohlena (see the 01/17/14 email for his email address), and he will discuss options of moving the times. (Please do NOT contact Mrs. Niemerg regarding this schedule. She is not in charge of staging rehearsals and cannot help with this matter.)
This will be a great theatrical experience for the choristers, and it is exciting that they have the opportunity to be a part of something like this. Please do your best to adhere to the attached schedule and try to work out any major conflicts with Mr. Rohlena. Thank you!
With any staged production, there is a requirement of rehearsal time. For a musical, even a short and simple one such as ours (there will be no dancing!), more rehearsal time is needed. (We will also need parent volunteers to help with these rehearsals for which we will send out sign-ups later.)
Also note that not everyone is called to every rehearsal. Check the 5th column to see which characters are called. If you cannot make a particular rehearsal, you must communicate with Mark Rohlena (see the 01/17/14 email for his email address), and he will discuss options of moving the times. (Please do NOT contact Mrs. Niemerg regarding this schedule. She is not in charge of staging rehearsals and cannot help with this matter.)
This will be a great theatrical experience for the choristers, and it is exciting that they have the opportunity to be a part of something like this. Please do your best to adhere to the attached schedule and try to work out any major conflicts with Mr. Rohlena. Thank you!
With any staged production, there is a requirement of rehearsal time. For a musical, even a short and simple one such as ours (there will be no dancing!), more rehearsal time is needed. (We will also need parent volunteers to help with these rehearsals for which we will send out sign-ups later.)
Please note that the rehearsal schedule for the musical
will not be complete until rehearsals begin, probably very sparsely in
mid-January. In addition to the schedule below, there will be calls for
principals and dialogue rehearsals that will be much shorter. It is possible
that all of the rehearsals listed below might not be needed, so one or two
might get cancelled.
(Mary’s Angels will only be called to one or two staging
rehearsals and for a very specific slot of time.)
The musical rehearsal schedule is being made available now
so that you can start figuring it into your calendars.
January 2014
Friday 1/31 Rehearsal with Mrs. Niemerg (CC parish hall)
After 5:40pm
Soloists
February 2014 Soloists
Saturday 2/1 Rehearsal with Mrs. Niemerg (CC parish hall)
8:30am Mary’s Angels and St. Cecilia Choirs
8:50am Mary’s Angels dismissed
9:00am-10:30am
St. Cecilia Choir and all principals and soloists
8:50am Mary’s Angels dismissed
9:00am-10:30am
St. Cecilia Choir and all principals and soloists
See the final rehearsal schedule for all of the rehearsals scheduled from February 4 - February 28, 2014.
March 2014
Saturday 3/1 Musical Dress Rehearsal
10:00am-1:00pm
Musical Performance
6:30pm
Sunday 3/2 Musical Performance
12:00pm
10:00am-1:00pm
Musical Performance
6:30pm
Sunday 3/2 Musical Performance
12:00pm
COSTUMES
As we mentioned at the opening meeting, we have no budget for costumes, so we will ask all choristers to wear the same thing. Everyone will be asked to wear all black. The musical will be performed on a multi-level stage, and there will be moving around on stairs and such. For safety reasons, skirts and dress shoes (including high heels) and flip flops will not be allowed. Shoes do not have to be black, but they should be comfortable and easy to move in.
As we mentioned at the opening meeting, we have no budget for costumes, so we will ask all choristers to wear the same thing. Everyone will be asked to wear all black. The musical will be performed on a multi-level stage, and there will be moving around on stairs and such. For safety reasons, skirts and dress shoes (including high heels) and flip flops will not be allowed. Shoes do not have to be black, but they should be comfortable and easy to move in.
To identify the main characters such as the Philistines, the
king and princess, the commander, and the shepherds, we would like to use
simple, draped fabric. We have fabric for this, but we need volunteers to do
some simple sewing with the fabric to create the drapes for the characters. The
sewing would not be complicated. Please let us know if you can help out by
sewing a few of these drapes for the costumes.
(See the full Bible Musical Rehearsal Calendar here.)
MARY’s ANGELS
Rehearsals
Saturday, February 1 Rehearsal with Mrs. Niemerg
Corpus Christi parish hall
Corpus Christi parish hall
8:30am – 8:50am Mary’s Angels
Tuesday, February 25 Rehearsal at St. Francis
4:00 – 4:20pm Mary’s Angels
Thursday, February 27 Rehearsal at St. Francis
4:00 – 4:20pm Mary’s Angels
Saturday, March 1 Musical Dress Rehearsal at St. Francis
10:00am-1:00pm
Musical Performance at St. Francis
6:30pm
Sunday, March 2 Musical Performance at St. Francis
12:00pm
10:00am-1:00pm
Musical Performance at St. Francis
6:30pm
Sunday, March 2 Musical Performance at St. Francis
12:00pm
(See the full Bible Musical Rehearsal Calendar here.)
Costumes
Mary’s Angels choristers will be coming on stage to sing their solo in the number “Every Shepherd Knows”. Therefore, we would like them to be costumed as either shepherds or lambs. You may also have your little shepherd carrying a stuffed lamb. You may pick either type of costume, but costuming is all up to you. We have no costumes and no budget for costumes, so parents will need to find some shepherd or lamb garments for their Mary’s Angels choristers.
(Angels will also join the St. Cecilia Choir on the stage for the last number in the show, but costumes will be the same.)
