Session 4 Day 9 – Dress Rehearsal Day!

With show day looming just a day away, levels of excitement were at an all-time high today. We spent all day refining and polishing our shows, adding in props and costume elements, and sharing the entire shows with the other group for the first time. This session has created two wildly different but equally fantastic shows inspired by their field trip to the Norman Rockwell museum, and we cannot wait to share them with their friends and families tomorrow! KidsAct! will be singing and dancing to “We Go Together” from Grease as well as “True Colors” and performing their suspenseful, hilarious, and fun-filled Legend of the VonTacos. Their play was inspired by multiple paintings at the Norman Rockwell and involves a horrible Swiss family band, a crazy meemaw, and a comical mix-up that leads to them being asked to perform for the queen of Russia. Will they get there, and what will happen if they do? TeensAct! will be presenting a poignant tale inspired by the painting “Moving Day” that explores the topical issues of embracing differences, confronting addiction to technology, and re-establishing human connection. New Girl in Town follows the journey of Rose, who has just recently moved to a new school, as she struggles to fit in and navigates a world of peers who are very different from her. This story incorporates the songs “New Girl in Town” from Hairspray, “Gorgeous” from The Apple Tree, “Popular” from Wicked, “Alone in the Universe” from Seussical, “This is Me” from The Greatest Showman, and “You Will Be Found” from Dear Evan Hansen, and it is at once comical, real, thought-provoking, and moving. We could not be prouder of all the creativity and hard work that went into the creation of these two shows, and tomorrow will be a bittersweet and exciting day as we finish off both this session and the entire summer and show off all we have accomplished over just two short weeks!

Issy will be wrapping up the summer with one final blog post tomorrow, but this will be my last one – It has been a pleasure keeping a record of the exciting happenings each day, and I have loved every minute of devising theatre with these sweet, talented, inspiring young people! -Katy