Instructor Dan Miccich works on movement and dance with a contingent of 2008 apprentices
The Summer Theatre of New Canaan is recruiting high school students as apprentices for its theatre intensive where they immerse themselves in the theatrical process on both sides of the curtain for forthcoming outdoor season in Waveny Park.
Melody Libonati, the theater’s artistic director, looks ahead and says: “When they come out the other end, they will you will have a new understanding of the tools to be both strong actors and informed theater artists.”
The apprentice season runs June 24-July 24 and covers four productions under the open-air canopy tented theater in Waveny Park—Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew,” “Camelot,” “Pinocchio (An original Folk Musical)” and “Shakespeare for Kids: Taming of the Shrew.”
Libonati plans to expand the apprentice contingent to 10 or perhaps even 12 this season from eight members in last year. She said the young people “will help out with all the shows,” working with the professionals engaged in the theater’s sixth season--actors, designers and production staff, plus other Broadway professionals.
This season, she said, the apprentices will also create and perform an original musical July 19 under the professional tutelage of director-composer Tyler Beattie from Northwestern University.
The core training covers acting, Shakespearean verse, musical theater technique and theatrical clowning and self-discovery. In master classes, the curriculum offers improv, mime, juggling, dance styles, singing, directing, audition techniques, stage management, producing, theatre design, and many other topics.
Information is available by calling the theater office at (203) 966-4634 or contacting Christian Libonati at christian@stonc.org. Deadline for applications is May 25. There is a $1,250 fee and financial aid is available on a need-basis.
In addition to performing, the apprenticeships extend to the offstage functions of assistant director, box office assistant, assistant stage manager and lighting, costumes and sound assistants.
The classroom and stage work is overseen by a professional staff that incorporates musical and artistic director Melody Libonati, NYU Tisch School instructor for stage management Carrie Meconis, Omen Sade, a professional performer (musician, clown, Commedia del arte), Broadway composer and music director David Friedman, Allegra Libonati, assistant director of the revival of “Hair” on Broadway and director of “Taming of the Shrew” and Broadway musical actor Dan Miccich.
For the first time, Summer Theatre of New Canaan is producing its entire professional season in Waveny Park under a new state-of-the-art tent theater.. The season opens with “Taming of the Shrew” June 19-July 11 and extends through “Camelot” July 18-Aug. 2, supplemented by presentations by Theatre for a Young Audience, “Pinocchio (A Folk Musical)” June 26-July 11 and “Shakespeare for Kids: Taming of the Shrew,” a 50-minute introduction to Shakespeare, June 27, July 4 and July 11.
Additional information about the theatre and the season is available at www.stonc.org.
The Summer Theatre of New Canaan was established in 2004 as a 501(c) 3 professional nonprofit theater company to provide exciting performances for multigenerational audiences and learning opportunities for many of the region’s talented performers and technicians, working with professional performers and production staff.
