Theatrical Outfit Presents SummerStage Program 2015

The SummerStage program of the professional company, Theatrical Outfit, is a month-long performance-based program designed for kids ages 10 to 14 (or 5th to 9th grade) who are serious about theatre but also looking for a healthy dose of summer fun! The program concludes with a fully-realized, professional musical theatre production.

PROGRAM DATES: July 6-31, 2015

Ø Monday-Friday, 9am to 4pm

PERFORMANCE DATES: July 31-August 1, 2015

Ø Friday, July 31, 2015 at 7:30pm

Ø Saturday, August 1, 2015 at 2:30pm and 7:30pm

FEATURES:

• No experience necessary. All participants will be cast!

• Workshops in acting, singing, dancing, fight choreography, make-up and much more.

• Rehearsals with top-notch directors and choreographers.

• A fully-realized musical, staged with professional production values at Theatrical Outfit's stunning Balzer Theater.

• Field trips that take advantage of our exciting downtown location: SkyView Ferris wheel, anyone?

• Auditioning tips and exposure to outside casting agencies.

• Excellent preparation for those interested in auditioning for our future productions.

Program:

Rehearsal and Performance of a full-scale production at the Balzer Theater!

Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Jr.

Music by Alan Menken

Lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice

Book by Linda Woolverton

Directed by Mira Hirsch

Step into the enchanted world of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Jr. Featuring songs from the Academy Award-winning animated feature, the stage version of this classic story tells of Belle, a young woman in a provincial town, and the Beast, who is really a young prince trapped under the spell of an enchantress. Cogsworth the clock, Lumiere the candelabra, and a host of other fantastical characters populate the story as well.

"SummerStage at The Outfit combines the best of theatre instruction with a nurturing, "kids first" environment, enabling young artists to grow and learn while engaged in a professionally produced musical theatre production. It's going to be the summer experience of a lifetime for young actors!" - Mira Hirsch, Director of Education, Theatrical Outfi­t

ELECTIVE CLASSES:

• Movement

• Vocal Work

• Auditioning

• Make-up

• Theatre Games

• Fight Choreography

• Hip-Hop

• Line Memorization

• Monologues and Scene Work

As one of Atlanta's premiere professional theatre companies, Theatrical Out­fit has access to the top, working artists in the city who will passionately share their skills, knowledge, and love of the stage with our SummerStage participants.

A SAMPLE DAY AT THE OUTFIT:

8:45 am: Drop off at the Balzer Theater at Herren's, 84 Luckie Street, NW, Atlanta, GA 30303

9:00 am: Warm ups, theatre games and group singing

9:30 am: Two 45-minutes electives

11:45 am: Lunch

12:15 pm: Post-lunch activity

1:00 pm - 3:45 pm: Rehearsal for Beauty and the Beast, Jr.

4:00 pm: Pick up

Pre (before 8:45 am) and post (4:00 - 6:00 pm) day care available; ask for details.

REGISTRATION FEE: $1,100. (Discounts for early booking by April 1 and multiple children from the same family.)

Phone: 678.528.1500. Online booking: www.theatricaloutfit.org/summerstage-at-the-outfit.

INQUIRIES: Email: education@theatricaloutfit.org.

MIRA HIRSCH (Director of Education) is an Atlanta theatre professional, actively working as a teacher, director and actor. She was the founder and sole artistic director of Atlanta's Jewish Theatre of the South (13 years), where she initiated and supervised a summer drama camp program for seven seasons. She is currently the Education Director at Theatrical Outfit and a performing arts specialist at the Epstein School. She has directed more than a dozen musicals and plays with middle and lower school students, including productions at Woodward Academy, the Epstein School and the Atlanta Jewish Academy. For the past twenty years, Mira has developed and directed original plays with teens about discrimination, bigotry and the Holocaust which tour to schools, churches and synagogues throughout the metro area. She is a recipient (March, 2007) of WABE's Lexus Leader in the Arts Award, recognizing artistic leadership in Atlanta's arts community. She earned both a BA in theater and drama teaching certification from the University of Denver.

TOM KEY (Artistic Director) has served as Artistic Director of Theatrical Outfit since 1995 where his drive to tell "Stories That Stir The Soul" in the heart of downtown with the best artists of the city has developed the company into one of Atlanta's major performing arts institutions. As an actor, he has appeared in over a 100 productions from off Broadway to Los Angeles and is one of Atlanta's most celebrated performing artists. He has performed his solo dramatization, C.S. Lewis On Stage, across North America including residencies at Harvard and Yale Universities as well as Oxford University of England. His off-Broadway musical hit, Cotton Patch Gospel, which he created, co-authored with the late Harry Chapin, and starred in nationally continues to be one of the most celebrated and produced musicals in the Dramatic Publishing catalogue. He has received The Governor's Award in the Humanities; the Georgia Arts and Entertainment Legacy Award, Two Dramalogue Awards for Outstanding Contribution to the Theater and two Mayoral proclamations for his service to the city of Atlanta. His work has earned critical praise from The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Seattle Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Boston Herald, and The Atlanta Journal Constitution. The Atlanta Creative Loafing describes Tom Key as: "An actor with such energy that even standing still, he seems to quiver like a divining rod."

LEE FOSTER (Managing Director) comes to The Theatrical Outfit from California where she was the Executive Director of Hillbarn Theatre for over sixteen years. Lee is credited with being the founder of the Youth Conservatory at Hillbarn which grew into a year-long Conservatory program serving over 600 students from ages 4-18. She claims one of the most rewarding things in her career was watching kids grow up in a safe theatre environment and then return to theatre after college-ready to contribute back to the community. Lee has an MBA in Business from the University of San Francisco and an MFA in Performing Arts from Notre Dame de Namur University. She also graduated from the Arts Leadership of the Future program sponsored by the Packard Foundation. Among her honors, Foster received the BRAVO! Award, presented by California Congresswoman Jackie Speier in June 2008, and the Encore Award in 2014 and has received special recognitions and resolutions from city, county, state and national government sources.

ABOUT THEATRICAL OUTFIT: Atlanta's second-oldest continually operating professional theater company was founded in 1976 and has been led by Executive Artistic Director Tom Key since fall 1995. Key led the company through the creation of its award-winning downtown home, the Balzer Theater at Herren's, the first U.S. theater to achieve LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The theater is on the historical site of Herren's, the first Atlanta restaurant to voluntarily desegregate (in 1963). Theatrical Outfit tells consistently high-quality, soul-stirring stories, often from great classics and contemporary literature that feature many of the best writers of the American South: Carlyle Brown, Truman Capote, Evan Davis, Horton Foote, Harper Lee, Cormac McCarthy, Flannery O'Connor, Walker Percy, Sherry Shepard-Massat, Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder, Hank Williams and Tennessee Williams.

VENUE: All SummerStage activities take place at the Balzer Theater at Herren's, 84 Luckie Street NW, Atlanta, GA 30303. 678.528.1500.