LITTLE ROCK — To celebrate five years of youthful summer singing and dancing workshops, the Arkansas Repertory Theatre is taking a winter pause for a look back at some of the greatest hits - so to speak - of the Summer Musical Theater Intensive.
The annual two-week SMTI, pronounced “Smitty” by the students taking part, is an audition-based training program for artists ages 10 to 23. It has expanded to represent more than 25 schools across central Arkansas. Participants share an interest in the dramatic arts - specifically in musical theater.
Nicole Capri, The Rep’s resident director and director of education, conceived the idea for Review the Revue, which she also wrote and is directing. She also created the previous years’ shows: Hollywood and Broadway on Main; Sing, Dance, Repeat!; If You Sing It, They Will Come; and Follie Holidays.
“For people who have been following the growth of this program over the past years, it’s really a trip down memory lane,” Capri says. “We did a voting poll of the audience last year and took the top vote-getters of songs. The winners include ‘Oh, Happy Day,’ ‘As Time Goes By’ and big fun pop numbers like ‘Thriller.’ Anything that got in the top 20 voting byour patrons pretty much is in the show.
“And the show features some great costumes. Each cast member averages at least seven or eight numbers, so the staging is pretty jampacked with costumes. These young people are so motivatedand so driven that they have their costumes organized backstage. If they have a quick costume change, they work with a buddy who helps them change. Theydon’t need baby sitters back there; they don’t need people telling them what’s next. We try to treat them like young adults.”
Before a recent rehearsal, Capri rounded up five of Review the Revue’s 65 cast members to provide a variety of viewpoints.
Taylor Quick, a junior at Little Rock Christian Academy, is a five-year veteran of the summer productions. Will Frueauff, a student at Baker Elementary School, is a newcomer to the summer shows, but has appeared in main-stage productions A Christmas Carol, Evita and Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Kirby Fullerton, a freshman at Little Rock Central High School, was in Follie Holidays, as was Zach Graham, a sophomore at Little Rock Christian Academy. Adrianne Owings, a seventhgrader at Episcopal Collegiate School, has Rep summer credits in Follie Holidays and If You Sing It, They Will Come, plus main-stage productions Hello, Dolly! and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
“We’ll have the auditions for this summer’s workshops on April 1-2,” Capri says. “Last year we had 400 who tried out, and we only take 35 to 40 in the junior group, so they all have to re-audition each year.”
Cast members have high aspirations for their college years. Adrianne is aiming to go to Yale; Will sees himself at Juilliard; Fullerton, unsure of her destination, wants to pursue a double major, with theater as one of them; Quick is interested in musical theater, with a minor in dance, at Elon University, Texas Christian University or a school in New York; Graham is also interested in Elon and TCU, along with Oklahoma City University and Northwestern.
“But next year I’ll be a foreign-exchange student in France,” Graham adds. “My dream role would be playing that star of Jersey Boys, Frankie Valli.”
Fullerton also hopes to study in France in a few years. She traces her involvement in the program to having attended Rep shows when she was younger.
“I’ve come to all of them,” she says. “I was so inspiredthat it made me want to do what I was seeing onstage. It scared me a bit, hearing myself say, ‘I want to be that talented someday.’”
All agree that their time in The Rep’s summer workshops has memorably shaped their lives.
“This has been a perfect combination of intense professional experience and life in a family that will always be there for you,” Quick says.
Will reckons he has been changed in more ways than educationally. For instance, he happily notes that he gets to sing Neil Sedaka’s “Calendar Girl” while surrounded by 12 girls.
“With ‘Smitty,’ every single room is filled with so much love and laughter, and so much joy and happiness,” he says. “And 99 percent of the time, when I’m not rehearsing, I’m hugging someone.”
Graham - who sings The Drifters’ hit “On Broadway” in the show - figures his happiest moments have been at The Rep.
“Every moment I’m here, I’m the happiest I could be,” he says. “And outside The Rep, I’m usually hanging with people who are also in this program. I’ve made friendships here that I’ve never experienced in my school or anywhere else. These bonds will last forever.”
Adrianne, who first got interested in performing while taking classes at the Arkansas Arts Center as a third-grader, notes the difference between the students she meets at The Rep and the ones she knows at her school. She is proud of her monologue about etiquette in movie theaters.
“Every kid in this program is just somehow different from every kid that goes to my school,” she says. “They always love you. Some days, I may get a hug from some of my friends. When I’m at ‘Smitty,’ I get so many hugs I lose track. It’s crazy. It’s not weird to just go up and hug someone and say you love them. That’s totally normal.”
Capri smiles at what may sound “Pollyanna-ish” to some outsiders.
“You can almost feel the things that they mention, but I emphasize that this is a competitive program in a competitive field,” the director says. “Part of the show that I’m really impressed with is the monologues interspersed throughout the production.For instance, Zach reworked some stuff into his monologues from things he had emailed and texted along with his phone calls, some very personal stuff.”
With 65 cast members, there’s not much room for a stage set for the Ziegfeld Follies-style revue, Capri explains, noting that the backdrop employs a digital framework, projecting clips from past shows.
“We’re not just seeing singing and dancing, but also the growing-up process of some of our young people,” she says, “and that means warts and all.”
Review the Revue
7 p.m. Wednesday through
March 12 and 2 p.m. March
6, Arkansas Repertory
Theatre, 601 Main St., Little
Rock
Tickets: $20
(501) 378-0405 or (866) 684-
3737
tickets.therep.org
Audition
schedule
Auditions for the Arkansas Repertory Theatre’s 2011 Summer Musical Theater Intensive are set for April 1-3.
Appointments will be scheduled from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. April 1 and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 2. Callbacks for those who make the initial cut will begin at 1:30 p.m. April 3.
Candidates will be asked to prepare a oneminute monologue and 16 bars of a song, for which an accompanist will be provided.
There will be two sessions of this summer’s SMTI, one for aspiring actors and actresses ages 16 to 23 and another for ages 10 to 15. Some 40 to 60 students will be chosen for each session. A limited number of scholarships will be available.
To schedule an audition time, e-mail Nicole Capri: ncapri@therep. org. For more information, call (501) 378-0445, Extension 206.
Style, Pages 45 on 02/27/2011