By Staff
August 14th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
For Leslie Gray it was a little like herding cats – some twenty of them.
The kids rehearsing Annie Jr at the Drury Lane Theatre were learning the positions they were expected to be in on the stage. Like any director Gray would make a change – which proved to be a little challenging for some of the chorus line.
Leslie Gray directing 20+ summer students who will be part of the Annie Jr production at the Drury Lane Theatre this weekend.
“Down stage – now upstage and then move sideways and keep your legs up. Remember your positions” – they were getting.
This was a summer boot camp for kids who would perform in a real theatre at the end of it all.
It was put on by KooGle Theatre, the husband and wife team of Leslie and Christopher Gray who have in the past mounted some very entertaining performances at the Performing Arts Centre. It is not easy to make light summer fare work in Burlington. It is a market that has to be developed.
Poised!
This summer Koogle decided to do Annie Jr, an abridged version of Annie the popular Broadway production geared down to a summer production that was open to anyone. There will be some 40 young people on the stage at one time or another.
Waiting to be discovered.
The production was coming together for its three performance run – Matinee and evening on Saturday the 19th and a Matinee on the Sunday. There are about 50 tickets left – both Saturday performances are sold out.
That isn’t something that happens very often with community theatre.
The KooGle team of Leslie and Christopher Gray were familiar with the format they chose to use this year – a boot camp that had the participants taking part in intensive workouts for a number of weeks.
During the workouts Leslie and her script assistant Melanie Arsenault and co-director Carla Pantalone had a pretty good idea of what they had in the way of talent and built their show around what they had.
The talent levels did vary – and some of the kids were close to shameless as they mugged for the camera.
There were far more boys than girls – all were wonderfully polite and there was basically no attitude from any of the performers.
Are they all in the right place on the stage?
There will be those in the “chorus line” that will lose their place on the stage – memorable moments. The full production will be fun for the kids and for the parents and the grandparents that buy tickets.
At $10 a pop it is real value.
