School is officially out and summer is here. Many kids are off to camps or vacations or spending their days in Concord parks and pools. Others, though, they are still memorizing and reading. Nope, not summer school, but RB Productions’ summer theater camps.
The process begins in January when sign-ups open. It’s first come, first served, and no auditions are required to join. At the start of June, auditions are held to determine who is best suited to play each character. Artistic director Clint Klose said at that point the participants are given a script and a CD with the music and are expected to learn their part before rehearsals even begin.
Klose said the program realizes that summer vacation is valuable family time for many kids, so they didn’t want rehearsals to take up the whole summer.
The first set of rehearsals for Disney’s High School Musical Jr. began on Monday. The kids rehearse daily for five days from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., learning to sing in harmony, where to move and all the dance steps. On Friday, they will premier the show.
These are children about ages 9 to 15 (with the third show of the season skewing older, 11 to 18) pulling together a show in one week.
“We put a lot of responsibility on the cast,” said Jim Speigel, who is directing the first two shows of the summer.
“What we do here is what they do on Broadway, but on a smaller scale,” Speigel said.
Each day is broken up into sections, he explained. The cast might start working on a few songs with music director Brin Cowette. Then, there’s a break about 10:45 a.m. Next, they will move onto something else, like blocking with Speigel or dancing with choreographer Christina White. There’s lunch about noon, then more rehearsing.
What they work on one day, they might not go over again until a day or two later, Speigel said.
“It’s amazing how fast the day goes by,” Speigel said.
With all the hard work that goes into each show, the main goal is to learn something and have an enjoyable summer.
“For any show, I hope the kids have a good time,” Speigel said. ” I want them to have fun. … I want the audience to see them having fun.”
“In a world where kids and families have unlimited access to titles,” Klose said. “We encourage people to enjoy live theater.”
“Not a lot of kids get to do a show like this at the Capitol Center,” Speigel said.
In addition to the four youth theater camps – High School Musical, Alice in Wonderland, Singing in the Rain and Once Upon a Mattress – there will be a kids (ages 5 to 9) performance of Aladdin.
This year, RB Productions is bringing back a mainstage production, which had been paused in 2008, Klose said. The community theater show will feature actors ranging from 10 to older than 60 performing Mary Poppins.
For more information, visit rb-productions.com or buy tickets at ccanh.com.
Youth shows are held at 7 p.m. Fridays and 2 and 7 p.m. on Saturdays. Tickets are $15 at the door, general admission.
High School Musical, Jr. on June 29 and 30
Alice in Wonderland, Jr. on July 13 and July 14
Singing in the Rain, Jr. on July 20 and 21
Once Upon a Mattress, Jr. on July 27 and 28
Mainstage show: Mary Poppins on Aug. 3 at 7:30 p.m. and Aug. 4 at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 to $28 with reserved seating.
Kids’ show: Aladdin on July 13 at noon; $5, for family and friends only