I haven't been posting much here recently, but have kept a careful eye on theatrical postings.
Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I was a student at the ROSS Performance Summer School
. This is a performance-based, one week summer school for adults. There are three classes (A, B and C) who each learn a 45-minute extract from a show over the course of a week. Where possible, parts are double-cast, so if you are a principal in the afternoon performance you are in the chorus for the evening. This of course means that the principals have to learn twice as much!
I was in Class C, performing an extract from Copacabana. In the afternoon performance I was "Steven/Tony" (the lead goodie) and in the evening I was "Rico" (the lead baddie). In each case, I wore five costumes. Given that it's a forty-five minute extract, and I had to be on stage some of the time, you can see that one key aspects of the school is learning to be very organised!
Enough of waffle, here are some pictures:
1. Kiss Me Kate, evening dress rehearsal
2. The same
3. Copacabana, evening. The actor is expressing his distaste that he has the musical equivalent of writer's block
4. Copacabana, afternoon. I gaze fondly into the eyes of my "wife" (twenty years my junior)
5. Kiss Me Kate, afternoon. Lili Vanessi tries to kick her leading man
6. Man Of La Mancha, afternoon. The big song from this show, 7. Man of La Mancha, as Don Quixote emerges from the actor's makeup box
8. Finally, here's a posed one of the cast of Copacabana. Pity we were positioned to face straight into the light, but such is life. I'm immediately to the right (as you look at the picturr) of the girl in the middle (who played my wife)
A fantastic experience, to be sure. I have already signed up for next year, where there are three classes - Die Fledermaus, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum and La Cage Aux Folles. Assuming I get a role in La Cage, I may not be so willing to share photographs!
regards,
/alan
