Play Week is Here! Stay on top of "things" by checking this website often. Yes, bookmark it! Our rehearsals at the high school were a lot of fun..........and work. Let me change that to "play". The kids did a great "job"........even if it is play. T-shirts will be coming in Wednesday or Thursday. We'll do our best to get them out to the cast as soon as we can. Here's a list of the teachers and former teachers who have been volunteering their time and talent to help make this thing happen: Ms. Blunt; Mrs. Reed; Mrs. Brown; Mr. Goodreau; Mrs. Greene; Mr. Mosall; Ms. Hussey; Mrs. Dudley. We've also had terrific parent volunteers and even some of our former "stars" from previous plays. Thank you all! This does not happen without you. Remember that we are rehearsing at the high school and all pick ups at 6 PM will be done there. We are encouraging kids to do as much homework as they can while they are waiting to go on stage. That is not so easy, of course, for the Pit Band, who probably goes home exhausted after playing music for almost 2 hours. It is a little early to be thinking about "breaking down the stage" and doing a clean up on Sunday morning, the day after the play, but we are. And we are looking for volunteers to help us as we haul our sets and music equipment and props back to CHCS and take down and fold and ship our backdrops. Last year, Mr. G and I talked about how a few extra hands on deck would have really made the job much faster and easier. Let us know if you'd like to be part of our breakdown crew. On our play nights (this Friday and Saturday............yikes) we would like our Pit Band and the 15 kids who will be wearing wireless microphones to arrive at the high school around 6 PM and the rest of our cast and chorus to be there by 6:15. If you let us know in advance that your child may be a few minutes late, we can live with that but there will be an anxious, chaotic, excitement in the air and early is better than late. Yes, tickets will be sold at the door but life is easier for all involved if they can be purchased in advance. Sales are strong and it should be a good crowd on both evenings. We won't be able to let anyone into the auditorium until 6:40 on the play nights. We will ask our play-goers to wait patiently in the cafeteria or lobby while we warm up and try, probably in vain, to calm down our mob of musicians and actors. There really aren't reserved seats; all of the seats are good ones but if you have an elderly or handicapped family member who needs special seating, please tell us in advance and we will do our best to accommodate them. With an intermission, the play will last until around 9 PM. Saturday's final show will be followed by an "Autograph Session" where kids will sign each other's programs. It is a late night but a most fun one. Wish List: If you can help us out with any of these items we would greatly appreciate it. If you put your name on the item or tell us you want it back we will do our best to return it. Thank you! 1. Straw hats suitable for Tom Sawyer white washing the fence scene The rest of the items that were once on this list have all been gathered or offered up. Thanks. May 13 We are getting close. Now more than ever it becomes important for us to enjoy the ride, harness the excitement, learn our lines and songs and keeping playing right until the final show! A few things: Get those permission slips in. We need them in order to walk to the high school during the final week. Extra permission slips can be found out front of the music room. T-shirts will be in soon. We are only going to distribute t-shirts to those kids who are still with us, have turned in a permission slip, were there for the Photo Shoot. Yes, a few kids have dropped out along the way. That happens. With such a big cast and a big commitment and rehearsals that have spanned the entire school year, we expect that. With rehearsals going to 5 PM this week and then 6 PM the final week, it is very important for kids to have rides home at those ending times. We cannot leave a student here unattended as they wait for a late ride. That means that we must wait with them. After a long school day and a rehearsal that is a lot to ask of our volunteers. Please help us out. Thank you. The Photo Shoot was a huge success. Two pictures were taken. One, by the professional photographer will be on display at the high school during the performances. Our kids will be able to take that home after the final show. Extra copies can be purchased from Insight Photography. The other photo was taken by our "team" and will be part of the program. If your child missed out on either photo, have them see us soon. We know that it is not easy fitting these extra rehearsals into your schedule and we greatly appreciate your understanding and help. Ticket sales are going great. Talk us up with your friends and family and all around the town. Our kids have worked hard and it would be great to perform for a big, enthusiastic crowd. May 8 We hope you will check out last week's letter here for important information. We won't repeat it, at least "all of it" in this letter. This is the week of the one day only photo shoot. Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or special requests. The rehearsal schedule is complete. We will do our best to avoid any changes. You have worked with us and around us since the beginning and we thank you. These last weeks become more important than ever. A permission slip is going home. This important slip allows our kids to walk to the high school for rehearsals during the ultimate week. Thank you for filling it out. We need a few items for the play. If you can help us we would appreciate it. First we need old paint brushes and buckets for the White Washing the Fence scene. If you can spare them, send them in with your child. We also need a portable, "small" bed for our narrators. This bed should be on wheels and be fairly easy to move across the stage. Let us know if you can loan us that important part of our play. Again, thank you. May 1 Not Entirely Random Thoughts As We Enter the Home Stretch: * Ticket sales are picking up. We will sell tickets at the door for both the Friday and Saturday shows; however, our life and yours too will be made a little easier if we can get those tickets to you in advance. If you need to exchange them along the way, we are fine with that. Tickets will be on sale during any school day but also at the Photo Shoot on May 10th. That would be a great time to pick up any needed tickets. * The t-shirt order is in and our Bookmarkers will be getting their Bookmarks t-shirt in about two weeks. The shirts will be navy blue and white and will feature the winning design by Kami Wlodyka. These shirts were funded by money raised from last year's production, Playing With Time. *Although we are filling in the rehearsal schedule for May as much as we can, being flexible during these last weeks is necessary so some of it is still "in the making". The schedule for the final week at the end of May is now up on our website. We hope it helps you plan ahead. It is very important that our musicians, actors and singers be there on these rehearsal days at the High School. * Our photo shoot is coming. We have a professional photographer, Insight Photography, coming on Wednesday, May 10 from 3:30 to 5:30 PM. Our Bookmarkers should bring their play costume to school. Let us know if your child will need special arrangements for when their photo gets taken. The Pit Band will rehearse that day until 4:45 but the rest of us will be able to call home for a ride when the picture has been taken. These photos will be on display in the lobby during our play performances. Extra photographs can be ordered through the photographer. Tips for Photo Shoot: *The Pit Band: Our musicians should dress in all black. *Book Characters: Each character should dress in the fashion of their book character. Props can be included. It is up to each book character to come up with their costume and props. Be creative. Think of it as Halloween in the Spring. Let us know if you need our help in any way. You have a challenging "job". Have fun with it. *The D"s: The D's are "normal" kids so dress like, well, a kid. It should be easy. *Ms. Potter and the Board of Directors of the Library: Ms. Potter should look and dress like a stern businesswoman. Dr. Baker should look like an old fashioned doctor. Mrs. Weatherby is an old woman and she should dress that way. The rest of the board should look like serious business people. *Miss Read: Dress like a librarian. *Rebecca: Dress like a "normal" kid. *Terry: Dress like a girl who really cares about how she looks, like she is going to a "prom". *Stan the Janitor: Dress like a custodian. *Tom Sawyer, Ben Rogers and the Whitewashers: Dress like kids from the South in the 1830s. Wear jeans or cut-offs with sandals, sneakers or bare feet, straw hats and flannel shirts or white shirts. *The Chorus: The chorus will be involved in Scene #8 as villagers who convince the Board of Directors of the Library to keep the library open. They should each dress as a character from their favorite book. *The Narrators: The Mother narrator wants to look like, well, a mom while the daughter narrator is dressed for bed. April 21 The weather is nice; spring is here at last. This means that we are just over a month from our play dates! Yes, time to order those tickets for yourself and various family members. It also means that baseball, softball, spring soccer and lacrosse are going strong with coaches who may not be glad that their second baseman or center midfielder is playing in the Pit Band or singing on stage. We get it; kids are pulled in several directions and it is hard to navigate the way through a busy schedule. We have always been flexible and you have always let us know when your child won't attend a rehearsal. That gets harder as we get closer but we will do our best. Please know, however, that the week of the play (May 24 - 27) we will be having vital, long rehearsals (until around 6 PM) each night at the high school. Thank you for your understanding. We will put together a schedule for the remaining weeks soon and get it up on the website. That might help you navigate your way. Remember also that our PHOTO shoot (in costume) is slated for Wednesday, May 10 from 3:30 to 5ish. April 9 Here's a look at how sausage gets made...............how Bookmarks is getting put together. Because we are not professionals, at least not at putting together plays, and our musicians and actors are kids, we have special challenges and benefits. Most of the work gets done in small bites, from 3:30 to 4:45, after a school day. Right now we are taking two of those bites each week. We've been doing this since the start of the school year as the play is a very full meal, of sorts. A typical rehearsal now features several things going on all at once, not unlike a 3-ring circus. Ms. Blunt, Mrs. Brown and I each generally work with a different group of actors on a particular scene or song in our classrooms. Ms. Reed will drop in with each group and direct the choreography of the scene. We also have a student from Jabish Brook and sometimes kids from the high school come down and help us out. All of them were once in one of our musicals. While this is happening Mr. Guerraz is in the auditorium working with the Pit Band teaching them and directing them as they learn and master 10 different songs. In the final section of our rehearsal we bring the singers together with the band and practice coordinating the songs. This gives kids a chance to experience being on a stage and working with the band. We are also now beginning work on our set design. Mrs. Greene and a team of volunteers will be doing that work while the rest of us rehearse. As we get closer to play time several other teachers and ex-teachers will join us in the crucial final stages. That is pretty much it, how it is going. Yes, it is a blast. Please note that this week's rehearsals are slated for Tuesday and Thursday. Have a great April vacation! April 2 We are sorry to have had to cancel last Thursday's big rehearsal at the last minute but we had no choice. Sometimes things come up; life gets in the way of play. We hope that it did not create too much confusion in your life. We sent home a packet of information on that day. The songs were two of the ones we planned on singing at that rehearsal. Also included were a ticket order form (we are always pushing ticket sales) and a volunteer form. Yes, we are pushing for volunteers as well. A few of you already signed up at our information assembly in January and we have your information but we surely depend on our community. Indeed this is a community endeavor. March 27 We have a big rehearsal coming this Thursday. We will run through every song from the play and give kids a chance to sing with microphones on stage in front of the band. This is essential for us to achieve the connection between the singers and the band and for all of us to enjoy that connection. If your child is unable to attend it if for any reason, please let us know. Yes, we are working diligently so we can "play" during our Memorial Day weekend shows but those performances are merely the "tip of the iceberg" and all this work, this time learning lines and songs and sharing rehearsal time together is just as important as the moments on stage. And, it has been a great experience! At last Thursday's rehearsal, five students from the high school joined us to help work with our performers. Each of them was in a previous CHCS musical and each remains invested in theater. More than likely they would have chosen the same path without the plays we've put on, but to be a part of their history makes us proud. We wrote about it last week but it is worth "saying" again. We are not great at promotion; we spend all of our energy getting the play to come together. So, we depend on our community, you, to help us advertise. You can do this by talking it up, spreading the word person by person. Because we have a cast and crew of more than 150 kids, it might seem easy to fill the high school auditorium for our two evening shows and indeed, we have big crowds. It is our hope though that we will sell out both shows this year. We want this not because it makes us more money; we are a non-profit organization and will donate all money to school programs, but because it heightens the experience for the kids. If you have any contacts with media outlets or know of any ways we can reach out to the community, please let us know. Thank you. March 17 Ticket sales for our May play dates have been steady. We don't spend any money on advertising and so we depend on our community to respond and to bring friends and relatives to our shows. It helps, too, if you can spread the word as we get closer. Ticket forms will soon be made available to students at all the district's schools. Get one and hand them to friends. We appreciate your support. The two a week rehearsal schedule has commenced and has been going well. It is at these rehearsals that all the components of the play begin to come together. It is a daunting and fun challenge for us to put it all together but it is beginning to happen. We hope to have the entire April rehearsal schedule up on this website soon. Also, we are planning on having our t-shirts ready to be handed out to all of our Bookmarks crew around April vacation. Mark your calendar, also, for our photo shoot on Wednesday, May 10. We have a professional photographer coming in that afternoon and it is the only day she will be available. March 10 We are doing two rehearsals every week now with both the Pit Band and our actors. This is necessary as we have a lot of pieces to assemble. Practice at home by our kids and rehearsal work together as a team are imperative. We appreciate how busy your schedules and if there is a day when your child can't attend a rehearsal please let us know in advance if possible. It makes our life easier as we are then able to plan for it. You may have noticed that the website has been improved and now contains "music". This is thanks to the work of Ms. Blunt, our web-genius. It means that kids can practice along with the music. Awesome! Check out the photographs, also taken by Ms. Blunt. March 3:
Our photo shoot has been set (tentatively) for Wednesday, May 10. Those photographs will be free of charge and will feature each child involved in the play in their play costume or, for the Pit Band, dressed in black with their instrument. We use Insight Photography, a terrific local business. Extra photographs may be purchased through the photographer. The pictures will be displayed in the lobby of the high school on play days. The kids will take home their photo when the last show has been concluded. We are in the process of updating our website. Very soon it will be converted so that it will have the music on site. Performers will be able to play that music and practice along with it. Look out for it and get used to the sound of our songs cascading through your home. Our performers and musicians should be practicing on a regular basis. This "homework" is absolutely essential. Each of us needs to work so we can play, so we can carry our weight and support the Bookmarks' "team".
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February 26:
Stay Connected, a Lot is Happening Here's hoping that you have enjoyed a good February vacation with your family. The weather seems like spring. Let's hope that mother nature is not deceiving us as she often does. We've got the March schedule of rehearsals up and on this website. Please check it and let us know if your child is unable to attend one of the rehearsals. Our attendance at rehearsals has been outstanding and as we get closer to our play dates, it becomes even more important for kids to practice at home and to rehearse with us at school. We will be expecting our actors to come to rehearsals with their lines learned and their songs familiar. Yes, this means that kids should be running lines, singing and playing their instrument at home. We will be announcing before each rehearsal exactly which scenes we hope to work on at our next rehearsal. The up to date script will be on this website and we will very soon put a computerized version of the music on it as well. This homework is essential to our being able to make this happen and happen well. We are now practicing twice each week and very soon the Pit Band will be rehearsing on both Monday and Thursday of each week. Check out that schedule so you know what is coming. What else? We are still organizing our Size Info before we have our play t-shirts made. Also, we will be scheduling our photo shoot and announcing that date. We will only have the professional photographer for one day so we hope that all of our play participants will be able to attend that photo shoot. The ticket order form is on the site so we hope you will order your tickets soon if you have not already done so. Ticket sales are going well at this still early date. We hope to sell out our two shows for the community but that will not happen unless you help us by spreading the word to family members and friends. We appreciate it. February 13: Ticket Order Form is on the Website! Tickets are now on sale. Check out the recently added page to the website for an order form. Have your child bring in the form with money to Ms. Brown in room 101. There's a quick turnaround on all ticket orders. Get your seats now. Early sales really help us out. Bad weather and snow days are part of the challenge we face as we move on with our rehearsals. There are 2 rehearsals this week and we are trying to go without scripts. Make sure you check our rehearsal schedule. Another challenge is the long, very long journey we take to get to our play dates. We need that time to get it all together but the good news is that it is those rehearsals and that work so we can play that both makes it all happen and is also special and fun. The journey is as great as the destination. Have a great week and February vacation week. February 5: The Info Assembly and Costumes Last week's Information Assembly was a strong success. The turnout was outstanding and we got off to a good start with ticket sales. Our rehearsal that preceded it was a good one, too. Check our rehearsal schedule on this site as we have laid out the next couple of weeks. There was a question asked at that assembly about "costumes" for our kids during the performances. Here's a quick answer. The Pit Band will be wearing black during the performances. Our chorus should dress as their favorite book character. Role players will need to "make" their own costume. We don't want anyone to spend a lot of money and we will help anyone who is unsure of what direction to go in. We look at it as "Halloween in the spring" and hope that the creation of a play costume will be fun and, once again, not expensive. We will talk about costumes with each group during upcoming rehearsals. We are going "without scripts" from here on during rehearsals. This means that role players should check the upcoming rehearsal schedule to see what we will be rehearsing and practice their lines, learn the words to their songs. Yes, it is a form of homework. January 30: How You Can Be A Part of Our Bookmarks Team 1. You already are a part of our team. Simply by supporting your child, helping them attend rehearsals, reminding them to practice their lines, songs and music; you are surely supporting our efforts. 2. Attend our Information Night Assembly. That assembly is slated for this Thursday at 5 PM, after a full cast, chorus and band rehearsal. It won't be a long assembly but we will answer questions and outline our goals and the next months to our performances. 3. Buy tickets early. Ticket sales start at this week's assembly. Early sales are vital for us as we use the money to fund our efforts along the way. Tickets will remain on sale right up to the days of the performances so there will be plenty of time to purchase additional tickets and we do offer refunds or exchanges for a different day. Tickets cost $3 for students and senior citizens and $5 for adults. Right now we have more than 150 kids involved in some aspect of the production, an amazing number. This will surely help us drive ticket sales so it might be a good idea to get those tickets as early as you can. Volunteer. We'll be talking about this at the assembly and signing up volunteers to help us with collecting and selling concessions, monitoring our huge cast backstage and off stage while they wait to perform, and getting the word out to the community. You know lots of people in the community and your spreading the word about what your kids are doing really helps. Also, some of you may know people in the media or have talents with promotion. We are so involved in just getting it all together that this is not an area that we are particularly good with. January 22: Letter to Families We've got a big next two weeks on tap with two rehearsals this week and the one following and our Information Assembly coming on February 2nd. Check out the Rehearsal Schedule of this website for more detailed information. We will also be announcing the winner of the Design Our Logo contest this week. We are beginning a 2 rehearsals per week schedule. These added rehearsals are needed as we memorize our lines, block out our scenes, and put the singing together with choreography. It takes time. Fortunately it is a lot of fun. Tickets go on sale on February 2nd at 5 PM at our Information Assembly. We need the money from this early sale to help us sail on as we approach the play. Again, the attendance at our rehearsals has been outstanding. Thank you for your continued support. January 14: Thank you for taking some time to follow our progress as we get closer to our May play dates. If you have seen one of our past productions you can appreciate that all this time, effort and energy is both necessary and worth it. We can't do this without your help. Our logo design contest is up and running. We hope to close off entries at the end of this next week. We are encouraging kids to use their creative energy to submit an entry into this T-shirt design contest. It is best if those drawings are simple and somehow linked to the message of our play. We have another rehearsal slated for this next Thursday until 4:45. Thursday's rehearsal will be for the Pit Band; Rebecca; Miss Read; Stan the Janitor; and the Book Characters. We are asking our actors to "study" scene 1 as we will try to rehearse without the script. This is a fun and necessary step as we are beginning to add movement to the blocking and choreography to the songs. As always, let us know if you can't make this rehearsal. We hope to start having two rehearsals per week and will do so soon. We have a lot to do. Our Information Assembly is coming! It is scheduled for Thursday, February 2 at 5 PM and will follow a rehearsal for everyone involved in the play on all levels. We will be talking with you about the play, answering your questions, enlisting your help for various endeavors and selling tickets. Those early ticket sales are important for they provide us with needed money so we can then accomplish some of the things we hope to do along the way. One of those things is to buy the t-shirts that all kids in the play will receive. It would be great if we could sell a lot of tickets at that assembly. Ticket prices are: Kids and Senior Citizens 3$; Adults 5$. Thank you! January 8: T-Shirt Design Contest: All participants in our play will be receiving play t-shirts. There is no cost for those t-shirts and we already have taken size requests on our initial form to be involved in the play. Now we need to get a design for those shirts and have them made. So, we are announcing our T-Shirt Design Contest as of Monday, January 9th. All students in CHCS are allowed to submit an entry. The design should be done in black ink on white paper. It should have something to do with the theme and message of our play. Keeping the design simple is important as a complex drawing does not translate well onto a t-shirt. The winner of the contest will receive free t-shirts for their family. The contest will close on Friday, January 20th and a winner will be announced the following week. Bookmarks Information Assembly: On Thursday, February 2nd we will have a big rehearsal for everyone involved in the play. That rehearsal will end at 5 PM and will be followed by our Information Assembly for Families. It won't last more than about 45 minutes. We will deliver a short presentation of our goals and philosophy and answer questions you might have. We will also begin to sell tickets for our May performances. We keep the price reasonable: $3 for students and senior citizens and $5 for adults. Rehearsal Schedule: It is our goal to put together a rehearsal schedule that lays out several weeks at a time so you can plan accordingly. We did that for November and December and you responded by helping us achieve excellent attendance by the "stars" of our production. We will be doing that again as soon as we are able. Right now we have the big rehearsal for all involved in the play slated for Thursday, Feb 2 until 5 PM. We also have a rehearsal for this Thursday, January 12th until 4:45. That rehearsal will be for the Pit Band; Ms. Potter and the entire Board of Directors of the library; the Mother and Daughter Narrators; and Rebecca and her friends, all of whom have names starting with the letter "D". We will focus on running lines with the actors. Ms. Potter and the Board should look over their lines from scene 2, 3 and 8. Rebecca and the Ds should concentrate on scenes 5 and 7. We are getting close to the time when we'll expect that our cast should have their scenes memorized. Remember that the latest version of our script is on this website. January 1: Happy New Year! Happy New Year! It will take us some time to adjust to 2017 and to regain the momentum we enjoyed way, way back in 2016. We will, however. As we get ever closer to our play dates, we will have to do just that. There is a rehearsal slated for this Thursday. Be sure to check our webpage outlining coming rehearsals. Soon, we will lay out rehearsals a month or so in advance as we were able to do in November and December but for now, please be patient with us. We will also be scheduling an Information Night and begin selling tickets soon as well as introducing our T-shirt design contest. Fun stuff. Keep in touch with us by visiting this website for more details. We continue to tweak our script and score. These changes are part of the process. Those changes will be reflected in our script that is included on the website and will be conveyed to our cast and musicians at rehearsals. Attendance at those rehearsals has been encouraging and amazing. We so appreciate your help. We know how busy your lives are and that after school rehearsals challenge families. Thank you. Let's have a great 2017! December 4 It is December. We are still in that early stage of rehearsals, the time when we are trying to set the base, the foundation we will later build upon as we get closer to our play dates. One of our big priorities during this time is making sure we know who is still with us and who is not. It may seem like that should be an easy and obvious endeavor but it is not. Because all of our work is done after school and because we are dealing with young students who lead busy lives and because those young people are not easy to communicate with within the school environment, we sometimes lose track of each other. Why might some kids "drop out"? Well, first some sign on early in the process only to lose interest as we go along the long road and their group hasn't rehearsed for several weeks. Life gets busy. Perhaps a new sport has begun and there suddenly isn't the time they thought existed. Also, some kids become disappointed that their role isn't bigger, more prominent. Since this is an "ensemble production", one that features many kids sharing the spotlight, it does happen sometimes that one feels that their part is not important enough. This is not our message at all for we believe that every role, every one of us is important. The result may be that a child decides to "drop out". When this happens we generally don't find out until the next rehearsal for a particular group. During this stretch up to the holiday break, all of the groups will have rehearsed since Thanksgiving. We will use this time and the attendance at these rehearsals as a way of monitoring who is still with us. So, it is paramount that any child unable to attend one of these rehearsals let us know so we don't believe they have dropped out. You can contact us by e-mail or your child can just tell us in person. Since we will soon be ordering T-shirts for our entire cast and crew, this information on who is still in and who is not is vital. Thank you. Happy Thanksgiving! I saw my first Broadway musical the day before Thanksgiving. I set the bar high as it was Hamilton, and no I am not going to delude myself by thinking that Broadway and Belchertown are synonymous. The entire production was inspiring though and, yes, one of the levels that it inspires me is for us to do the best we can with Bookmarks. It doesn't matter that they are light years apart, our little play will feature us doing our absolute best to work together, play together and entertain the community. A great challenge that we've mentioned before is keeping this on track during the long year. We need to put it all together slowly and in very small pieces. It can't spill into the school day and so all of that preparation comes after school hours. We have a huge cast, one of the strengths of our production, and so it is not easy to stay tuned in with everyone as we go about the gradual, step by step process of making it all play. There are two ways you can help us. One is make sure your child knows about upcoming rehearsals. In these first months, we work with small groups and the group your child is in may not practice for many weeks. When a rehearsal for that group does show up on the schedule, it is paramount that all kids do their best to be there. The second way you can help us is to let us know when your child will miss a rehearsal or needs to leave one early. We value these rehearsals and it helps us to know if any of our players are going to be missing one. Some kids will lose interest or get so involved in other endeavors that they have no time to continue with us. Although we hope that this doesn't happen, we need to know if it does. When a child misses a practice without letting us know, we often assume that situation has occurred. We will do our best to announce rehearsals as early as possible and hope that you will communicate with us as needed. Thank you. With that in mind, we are announcing our entire December rehearsal schedule in another day or two. This should help you plot your course through this very busy time of year. There are two final points. First, our Information Night will occur in January and not in December. We will begin to sell tickets at that assembly. Second, our t-shirt design contest will also be held after the New Year. Check our Coming Soon section for future rehearsals. Those dates will be up soon. November 11 Happy Veterans' Day. Here are a few challenges we face as we plan and schedule this early stage of Bookmarks. First, this is a busy time in our school year. We have parent / teacher conferences coming this week. The following week is Thanksgiving holiday and last week was a 3 day week with end of the marking period work piled high so the report cards could be readied. Have we mentioned that putting on the play is something we love but not really our day job? Yes, of course, we have. We ask that everyone, especially our entertainers, be patient as we navigate our way through our other responsibilities. We are still going to be having rehearsals, however. We need to keep some momentum going and there is a lot to do. During these first weeks we tend to bring in one group at a time. Oh, Pit Band rehearsals are steady but the role players and chorus are brought in in small numbers at first. Later, we will bring in multiple groups on the same day and have them work on acting, singing and dancing with several of our directors. We are not ready for that yet. Check out our Coming Soon section of this website to stay on top of those rehearsals and please encourage your children to be patient. We have not forgotten about them. When a rehearsal does occur, for instance the one coming on Monday, November 14th, it is important that children let us know if they cannot make it that day. With such a big cast, we need all the help we can get to make sure that we know how our "stars" are faring and feeling. Growing a play like this one takes a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of work and play. We are glad your children are doing this with us. Finally, we will get to the point where we will lay out the schedule for rehearsals a month in advance. We are not there yet. November 5 It's a short school week with Election Day and Veterans' Day so there won't be time for a rehearsal. We hope to be able to plan several rehearsals in advance to give families a chance to plan accordingly. Here at the beginning that is a challenge for us but we will get there. The opening rehearsals have gone very well. Our kids are eager to learn and are having fun. We'll do our best to keep it fun all the way through. We do plan on having an information assembly after Thanksgiving. Tickets will go on sale at that meeting. We will also conduct a school wide contest to come up with the design for this year's play t-shirts and the cover of our play programs. October 31 Last week's first Pit Band rehearsal and the read through of our script with the role players went well. Keep following our rehearsal schedule here on the website. We will be using Thursdays for rehearsals often as it is a day that works well with us and with our school. We hope that it fits with our "stars". There will, however, be weeks where other afternoons are utilized. As we get a bit further down the road we will schedule a month in advance as we know that it helps our busy families plan ahead. We are not yet at that point. We were very pleased with the phenomenal attendance at that first rehearsal. We know that there will be days when kids can't make a rehearsal and we are okay with that. We only ask that you let us know ahead of time so we can plan accordingly. Two things we are talking about with our big cast are teamwork and patience. Indeed, this is a very big group, more than 150 kids are involved in Bookmarks at this time. It will work, and work well, only if we "check our egos at the door" and not worry about the size of our role, who got a bigger part, who gets to play a solo and so on. We need to support each other and work together, play together. Patience is also vital with such a big group. At the beginning we can only work with a scene at a time and small groups of actors each week. As the play starts to come together and we fit the many small pieces together more and more kids will be added to those rehearsals. If a child hasn't had their group rehearse for several weeks, it does not mean that we have forgotten her. That's not always easy for our kids to understand. Finally, kids do have to practice. Our Pit Band has terrific potential but they have a huge job in our production; they need to learn and master 10 songs. They will do this a song at a time, week after week. The Pit Band in May will be so much more advanced than it is right now but the only way they will advance is if they practice. We realize that the values we are writing about here, the values we are trying to teach, are very important ones. We believe that these and the journey along the way are worth bookmarking. October 22 We have begun the long journey to our performances in May of 2017. We hope you will enjoy every step of it as much as we do. 130 kids auditioned for spots in the Pit Band and roles in the play. All of these rehearsals took place outside of class time and most of them took place after school hours. We want every one of those 130 performers to be part of our Bookmarks team. Although we want every kid to join us and to enjoy the experience, we know that right now some are disappointed because they did not earn a spot in the Pit Band or get a specific role in the play. This is unavoidable. The size of the band is limited by the space in the "pit" and by how many of each instrument type we can utilize. This year's band will, in fact, be the biggest we have ever put together. We are very impressed by the talents of these musicians and know that fine musicians were left out. Our choices were based on how well the prospective members learned and performed the audition music. These were not easy decisions. Again, any musician not earning a position in the Pit Band has been invited to be part of our play's chorus. The roles were chosen after listening to more than 80 young people recite lines and sing their chosen song. Of that group nearly 50 earned roles that have lines of dialogue in the play. All of those 80 will be on stage for at least two scenes and will sing and dance in three or more songs. We tell kids that roles can grow, lines can be added, solos can be granted as the play evolves. We also tell them that we are all equally important to the play's success. We tell them this because it is true. Our first rehearsal is slated for this Thursday. That rehearsal will be for the Pit Band and for all role players except for "Tom Sawyer's White-washers". If your child is unsure of their role please have them ask us about it. Thursday's rehearsal will end at 4:45. We know how busy schedules can be and we understand that some of our performers will miss a rehearsal from time to time. We only ask that you tell us in writing (e-mail is best) or have the child tell one of us directly. If we know these things before the rehearsal we can make allowances for it. Thank you for her help with this matter. We will say this next line a lot: This is not our day job. We do this work, play, after a day of teaching. We do the best we can and we need your support. With this in mind, we will be having an INFORMATION meeting for parents and families in December. Tickets for our May shows will go on sale at that time. Between the Pit Band, our role players, and the chorus we will have many more than 150 children involved in this production. This is a huge number, a number that may prove to be hugely challenging. We are excited by this challenge and hope that all of those kids who make the journey with us will cherish it. October 16 We will be writing these letters every week or so to keep you in touch with what is going on with Bookmarks. We hope it will be a good way for you to feel like you are a part of this adventure. The Website: Please use the website to follow us. We know that you will have questions along the way and the website will answer many of them. If you need to contact us, check out the Contact Us page of this site to find out how to do that. We hope that you will not contact the school's office unless it is an emergency. Auditions: The first day of auditions for roles (50 or so roles in the play) was a blast. There really is a lot of talent in our midst and the kids were very brave as they showed their talent. The last audition day is this Wednesday after school from 3:30 to 5:30. We will announce roles this Friday. No child will be "cut" from the play. If a child does not earn one of the parts available, we hope they will be a part of our play's chorus. Chorus members will be on stage singing and dancing in at least two of the play's scenes. The chorus is, indeed, a valuable element in our production and we hope no child is so disappointed that they won't consider joining it. Auditions for spots in the Pit Band are also continuing. Those spots are highly competitive. Again, not all kids trying out will earn one of them as there is a limited number of players in our Pit Band. Those kids can also become part of our chorus. Being Part of a Team: To become a team, a team of many, we all need to work together, play together. We know that some kids will be disappointed if they do not earn a role or a spot in the Pit Band and that some of the roles feature more lines and singing opportunities than other roles. This play is an ensemble, however. It accepts and needs the talents of many, of all who want to be a part of the team. We hope your child will join us. |
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