Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes

Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland

Shakespeare for Kids!

Shakespeare for Kids!

Peter Pan & Wendy

Peter Pan & Wendy

 

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

REGISTER TODAY!  Auditions will be held on 1/10/2020 from 1-2:30/3pm.

Spring 2020 Performance: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

This dramatization of C.S. Lewis’ classic, set in the land of Narnia, faithfully recreates the magic and mystery of Aslan, the great lion, his struggle with the White Witch, and the adventures of four children who inadvertently wander from an old wardrobe into the exciting, never-to-be-forgotten Narnia.  This story of love, faith, courage and giving, with its triumph of good over evil, is a true celebration of life. 

Important Registration Information:

All interested participants are required to pre-register AND attend auditions on January 10, 2020 starting at 1:00pm hosted at the Harrisburg YMCA.

There is no registration deposit required for your child to audition.  The participation fee is due on January 17, 2020, the date of the first rehearsal and parents meeting, in order to give participants the chance to view and accept their role. We do ask that you still submit the registration form (no fee) prior to auditions so that the director can plan for the number and ages of the children that will be at auditions.

How to Register for Auditions:

Who:

  • Actresses and actors of all ages (minimum 5 yrs old) are welcome to audition. However, all interested students must be fully independent readers. Please understand that there is a limited cast and there will be cuts.
    • All participants are expected to cold-read from the script independently during auditions.  Children who are not able to read their script independently will be encouraged to delay participation for a future season.

Cost:  

  • $200 due in full by January 17th. Payment can be made through paypal, cash, or check.
  • DISCOUNTED OPTION: $100/child due on January 17th. The other $100/child (total $200) can be fundraised through the sale of playbill ad space, shout outs, and sponsorships. If mid-season, you choose not to sell ad space or do not meet your ad sales minimum, you can instead opt to pay the remaining balance at that time.  Payment can be made through paypal, cash, or check. And if you need a more flexible payment option, just reach out to me directly at griffins99@gmail.com.
    • How does fundraising work? You can fundraise the $100/child through a combination of selling $5 shout-out ads in the playbill, $5 raffle tickets, or by selling playbill ad space and sponsorships, as in past seasons. We’ll discuss the specifics at the parent meeting on January 17th, or email me at griffins99@gmail.com if you have questions now.

Costumes are paid for separately by the parent, however costumes are inexpensive (usually under $15).

Rehearsal Location:

  • Cannon Memorial YMCA located @ 4110 Main Street, Suite 200 Harrisburg, NC 28075

Auditions:

Hello, all, and welcome back for another season of Rise & Shine! For auditions, students should prepare a monologue and expect to perform cold readings from the script. Monologues should be memorized, and no more than 90 seconds in length. Below are examples of monologues / suggested monologues for students. Students auditioning are welcome to select their own monologues, keeping in mind that they should be dramatic monologues (as opposed to comedic) that are age appropriate (the character they are reading in the monologue should be a character the student could ostensibly play in real life) and adhere to the time limit as previously stated. Hello, all, and welcome back for another season of Rise & Shine!

Monologue Examples / Suggestions

Female, 13 & Under

Scout Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee):

“Jem was careful to explain that during school hours I was not to bother him, I was not to approach him with requests to enact a chapter of Tarzan and the Ant Men, to embarrass him with references to his private life, or tag along behind him at recess and noon. I was to stick with the first grade and he would stick with the fifth. In short, I was to leave him alone. ‘You mean we can’t play any more?’ I asked. ‘We’ll do like we always do at home,’ he said, ‘but you’ll see—school’s different.’ It certainly was.”

Sara Crewe, A Little Princess (Screenplay: Richard LaGravenese & Elizabeth Chandler)

“My mom is an angel and yours is too. With beautiful satin wings, a silk dress, and a crown of baby rosebuds, and they all live together in a castle. And do you know what it’s made out of? Sunflowers. Hundreds of them, so bright they shine like the sun. And when they want to go anywhere they just whistle, like this…(whistles)… and a cloud swoops down to the front gate and picks them up and as they ride through the air, over the moon and through the stars… until they are hovering right above us, that’s how they can look down and make sure we’re all right. And sometimes they even send messages. Of course you can’t hear them with all the noise you were making… but don’t worry they’ll always try again… just in case you missed them.”

Female, 14+

Anne Frank, The Diary of Anne Frank (Playscript: Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett)

(Looking up through skylight) Look, Peter, the sky. What a lovely day. Aren’t the clouds beautiful? You know what I do when it seems as if I couldn’t stand being cooped up for one more minute? I think myself out. I think myself on a walk in the park where I used to go with Pim. Where the daffodils and the crocus and the violets grow down the slopes. You know the most wonderful think about thinking yourself out? You can have it any way you like. You can have roses and violets and chrysanthemums all blooming at the same time. It’s funny… I used to take it all for granted… [….] I know it’s terrible, trying to have any faith when people are doing such horrible things… but you know what I sometimes think? I think the world may be going through a phase. It’ll pass, maybe not for hundreds of years, but some day… I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are really good at heart.”

Hecate, Macbeth (William Shakespeare)

“Have I not reason, beldams as you are,
Saucy and overbold? How did you dare
To trade and traffic with Macbeth
In riddles and affairs of death;
And I, the mistress of your charms,
The close contriver of all harms,
Was never call’d to bear my part,
Or show the glory of our art?
And, which is worse, all you have done
Hath been but for a wayward son,
Spiteful and wrathful, who, as others do,
Loves for his own ends, not for you.
But make amends now: get you gone,
And at the pit of Acheron
Meet me in the morning: thither he
Will come to know his destiny:
Your vessels and your spells provide,
Your charms and every thing beside.
I am for the air; this night I’ll spend
Unto a dismal and a fatal end:
Great business must be wrought ere noon:
Upon the corner of the moon
There hangs a vaporous drop profound;
I’ll catch it ere it come to ground:
And that distilled by magic sleights
Shall raise such artificial sprites
As by the strength of their illusion
Shall draw him on to his confusion

Male, 13 & Under

Peter Pan, Peter Pan (J.M. Barrie):

                        “(Matter of fact) Wendy, I ran away the day I was born. [….] It was because I heard father and mother […] talking about what I was to be when I became a man. (…extraordinarily agitated now) I don’t want ever to be a man. […] I want always to be a little boy and to have fun. So I ran away to Kensington Gardens and lived a long long time among the fairies. [….] You see, Wendy, when the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies. […] And so […] there ought to be one fairy for every boy and girl. […] You see, children know such a lot now, they soon don’t believe in fairies, and every time a child says, ‘I don’t believe in fairies,’ there is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead.”

Eustace Scrubb, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (C.S. Lewis):

                        “(Very exaggerated, uppity, thinks he is better than everyone else; on a marvelous, lovely adventure but choosing to complain and make it sound terrible) It’s madness to come out into the sea in a rotten little thing like this (the ship is actually large, beautiful, and extremely well-crafted). Not much bigger than a lifeboat. And, of course, absolutely primitive indoors. No […] radio, no bathrooms, no deck-chairs. I was dragged all over it yesterday evening and it would make anyone sick to hear Caspian showing off his funny little toy boat as if it was the Queen Mary. [….] He doesn’t seem to know anything at all. Needless to say, I’ve been put in the worst cabin of boat, a perfect dungeon, and Lucy has been given a whole room on the deck to herself, almost a nice room compared with the rest of this place. Caspian says that’s because she’s a girl. (Sniffs, doesn’t think much of this, stalks off)”

Male, 14+

Lion, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (L. Frank Baum):

                        “(To Dorothy) What is that little animal you are so tender of? Oh! He’s a curious animal and seems remarkably small, now that I look at him. (Sadly) No one would think of biting such a little thing, except a coward like me. I suppose I was born that way. All the other animals in the forest naturally expect me to be brave, for the Lion is everywhere thought to be the King of Beasts. I learned that if I roared very loudly every living thing was frightened and got out of my way. Whenever I’ve met a man I’ve been awfully scared; but I just roared at him, and he has always run off as fast as he could go. If the elephants and the tigers and the bears had ever tried to fight me, I should have run myself—I’m such a coward; but just as soon as they hear me roar they all try to get away from me, and of course I let them go. It is my great sorrow, and makes my life very unhappy. But whenever there is danger, my heart begins to beat fast. My life is simply unbearable without a bit of courage.”

Reepicheep, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (C.S. Lewis):

                        “My own plans are made. While I can, I sail east in the Dawn Treader. When she fails me, I paddle east in my coracle. When she sinks, I shall swim east with my four paws. And when I can swim no longer, if I have not reached Aslan’s country, or shot over the edge of the world in some vast cataract, I shall sink with my nose to the sunrise. [….] That’s how I’ve always imagined it—the World like a great round table and the waters of all the oceans endlessly pouring over the edge. The ship will tip up—stand on her head—for one moment we shall see over the edge—and then, down, down, the rush, the speed——” [….] Perhaps Aslan’s country will be waiting for us at the bottom. Or perhaps there isn’t any bottom. Perhaps it goes down for ever and ever. But whatever it is, won’t it be worth anything just to have looked for one moment beyond the edge of the world.”

Absences & Date Conflicts:

  • All students (or their parents) who will need to miss more than 3 rehearsals this season should contact the director, Samantha Holt, directly to discuss what impact this will have on casting decisions. All students should bring a list of the rehearsals they expect to miss with them on audition day.

Behavior & Expectations:

This spring, we are looking for students who are willing to push themselves to grow as actors. This willingness to grow and learn can be presented in a number of ways:

1) Students should recognize that it is not the size of the role that matters on stage, but what you bring to it and how you make it come alive for the audience.

2) Students should understand that every role is important; characters that do not speak are just as important as those who do, and must be developed with the same maturity and preparation as leads.

3) Students should understand that a production cast is a team. Each team member contributes to the overall performance. While their contributions may look different, the overall whole is defined by each member doing their part—which makes every member and part extremely important.

4) Smaller roles are essential in creating the atmosphere of the world of the show, creating interesting moments and opportunities to draw the audience in to the production. Students should not see these as lesser roles, but as creative opportunities to develop the world of the play. It is what you do with a role that makes it important, not the size of the part.

Group Read-Through:

  • We will be hosting a group read-through of the script prior to the first rehearsal on January 15, 2020, from at 1:00-3:00pm at the Harrisburg YMCA.   Parents are welcome, but not required, to attend.  All participants will receive their own, individually highlighted script at the time of the read-through.  Scripts will not be available earlier than the read-through on January 15.

Rehearsal Schedule:

Participants must be available to rehearse from 1-3 pm, although they may not be asked to rehearse both hours.  Dates are as follows:

  • 1/17, 1/22, 1/24, 1/29, 1/31
  • 2/5, 2/7, 2/12, 2/14, 2/19, 2/21, 2/26, 2/28
  • (no rehearsals first week of march) 3/11, 3/13, 3/18, 3/20, 3/25, 3/27, 4/1, 4/3,

Mandatory tech week rehearsals from 1:00 – 3:00 on the following dates:

  • 4/8, 4/1

Dress Rehearsal Schedule:

  • Students will be asked to come to Northwest Cabarrus High at 3:00 on 4/15 to do a run-through of the performance on stage with costumes and props.

Performance Schedule:

  • When:  Friday, April 17 @ 7pm and Saturday, April 18 @ 1pm
  • Where: Northwest Cabarrus High School – 5130 NW Cabarrus Dr. Concord, NC 28027

Parents are asked to stay after the second performance to help with taking down the stage and general clean-up.

Parent Participation:

  • Parent participation is key to achieving a successful experience, therefore participation in Rise & Shine Players should be considered a family commitment.  Parents are encouraged to include any theatre-specific talents in the appropriate spot on the enrollment form, however a list of volunteer opportunities will be discussed at a parent meeting on the day of the first rehearsal.
  • One parent from each family is required to:
    1. Attend a parent meeting held during the first rehearsal on January 17th at the YMCA from 2:00-3:00.  Attendance at this meeting is required.  Please plan to send at least one adult member from your family.  Volunteer roles and marketing assignments (for parents who chose payment option A) will be made during this meeting.
    2. Volunteer approximately 6 hours of time in their assigned role (costume design, set design, playbill creation, etc.)