Theatrefest~Illinois- Page 3

[PirelisMiracleElixir]

Posted: 1/2/07 at 4:33pm

Well, here's some info for you!

http://www.conferences.uiuc.edu/ihstf/2007/2007%20IHSTF%20FESTIVAL%20SCHEDULE.pdf

It's the full festival schedule in PDF form.
Only two more days!

[Dancinqueen123]

Posted: 1/2/07 at 7:13pm

Thanks for that! I'm so excited!!!!!!

[dollwithamission]

Posted: 1/2/07 at 10:04pm

Ahem...well...I'll just say that I'm NOT going to encourage anyone to see our show. I'm in the mood for venting, but I'll be kind and spare you the particulars.

I was looking through the schedule for the festival. I must say, they seem to be doing a lot of dance workshops (I'll need the Hip Hop one after performing our show). I was also excited when I saw that they were doing a belting workshop, but they are only doing one and its during the time when our school will be seeing Les Miz.

[Prisoner 24601]

Posted: 1/6/07 at 6:46pm

Just got back. It was incredible!!! I only wish the fest lasted longer than three days. What all did you guys do? I did:

It takes 2: session I
Singing Sondheim
So you want to audition for a broadway show
The Seussification of Romeo and Juliet
Okay I'm singing, but what do I do with my hands?
Les Miz
Musical theatre belting

[Dancinqueen123]

Posted: 1/6/07 at 8:06pm

I just got back too, I did:

The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare
Uncommon Wasserstein
Twelfth Night*
Les Mis

*This was the show that my school did, so I spent most of Friday afternoon putting up the set and stuff, I didn't really have much time to do anything else.

[StephanietheStar]

Posted: 1/6/07 at 8:28pm

Did any of you talk to Rockford College while you were there?!


My great friends Crystal and Amber were there, as well as two of my favorite Prof. Jeff Hendry and Noel Rennerfeldt

I was in Missouri's Theatre Fest this weekend...there were some talented people...I hope they come to RC...:)

[EmieMarie]

Posted: 1/6/07 at 10:05pm

I hate you guys! THe U of I is my dream college and I'm all the way in seattle..... I would Kill to work at Kranert

[PirelisMiracleElixir]

Posted: 1/7/07 at 2:46am

Just got back from theatre fest, and I had an absolutely wonderful time!

I attended:

Into the Woods
Workshop: Theatre Games
Urinetown The Musical
Twelfth Night
Dance!
Picnic
Les Miserables

This was really a fantastic year for festival productions. Because I performed in Pippin last year, I had little time to actually see anything, and what I did see was nothing to rave about. But this year, I managed to see five shows, two of which I loved.
The only really weak production was Into The Woods, which might qualify as one of the worst productions I have ever seen. It was hard to watch such a wonderful musical be butchered as bad ly as it was. Lacking a pit, poor singing, and horrible diction all aided in ruining this (normally) wonderful musical.

Urinetown had a wonderful cast and set, but I thought the show (book, music, etc.) was subpar and the humor cheap. At times I found the ensemble's over the top characterizations to be harmful to the plot, and based very little in character. This gave the production a feeling of insincerity. I feel that you either like this show or you hate it. I really didn't enjoy its humor, and found the music to lack an enjoyable melody. But, for the most part, the cast and crew of Urinetown performed admirably, and I look forward to seeing future productions at Lake Zurich High School.

Aside from the All-State, Les Miserables, Crystal Lake South's Twelfth Night was my favorite play of the festival. The simplistic set and the use of stark colored light made it a visual feast. It also had a wonderful cast, with an absolutely amazing Fool (Dancinqueen123, please tell your fool that Libertyville High School adored his performance! Please tell that to the rest of the cast as well as the crew. All wonderful! ). The supporting players were equally as good, with Sir Andrew and Sir Toby Belch having sharp comedic skills. I really would like to go into more detail...but i need to move on. Long story short, I loved this production.

Because I'm tired, I'm going to skip right to Les Miserables. I'm slightly biased in my review as three of my very good friends were in the production respectively playing Javert, Eponine, and a member of the ensemble, and another friend was working the lighting board, so I walked in having to love the show...but I genuinely did. While I do have criticisms, none of them have anything to do with the quality of the performances. Every performance from Jean Valjean to the ensemble member with one line of song had incredibly well developed and fleshed out characters, and really brought an energy and excitement to the show that I had never seen before. The vocals, for the most part, were as good as any professional production I have seen, and the cast's voices blended amazingly well. The solos were just as impressive. My only criticism is the set and lighting. While the set certainly was beautiful, it hindered blocking, and prevented a great deal of powerful imagery that I've come to expect from Les Miserables. Also, I found the lighting to be too bright, and far too abrupt. But I can overlook those problems because the performances shine so brightly. Overall, Les Miserables proved to be (as our director put it) the best musical all-state production in the festival's long history.

(btw...Jam_man...I loved your bishop! And many of my schoolmates saw your school's performance of Children of Eden and gave it absolute raves. Please forward that to the cast. Kudos!)

So I really had a wonderful time! I will probably edit some of these reviews in more detail when it isn't 2:00 am!

[Dancinqueen123]

Posted: 1/7/07 at 3:43pm

PirelisMiracleElixir-I'm so glad that you like Twelfth Night and I will definitely pass on your compliments!

I absolutely LOVED Les Mis!!!!! My brother was fortunate enough to have seen it last year in London and I was always very jealous of this fact, but I think that this production was just as good. The cast was absolutely AMAZING (Pireli, please tell that to your friends) I really don't know what else to say about Les Mis. It was just too incredible for words.

[dollwithamission]

Posted: 1/7/07 at 11:04pm

Ahh Theatrefest...the best days of my year!

My Schedule:
Opening Ceremony
Charley's Aunt- our play
Tech Olympics
All-State 2008!
Okay I'm singing, but what do I do with my hands?
Movin' and Groovin', Dance and Movement for Actos
Urinetown
Les Miserables
Children of Eden

Highlights:
Opening Ceremony: It was a great begininning to a great weekend. However, we were sitting on the far right side, so we could not see the amazing duet that must have happened in the balcony up there. Also, it was a bit depressing hearing all the people talk about being a part of the elite All-State casts. I'm sure it wasn't meant to, but it just made sad that I probably wouldn't be able to make it. I almost cried during the show because my opportunities to do theatre are disappearing as I get closer to college.

Charely's Aunt: I'm sad I said that I said it wouldn't be enjoyable because it turned out to be an amazing performance. Our director was so happy with it she bought us all supper, and I'm told the actors have a fan club now. :)

Tech Olympics: I tied knots. I got 2nd place by 1 second. Our team got 5th. We're not very hardcore, but we got to leave our strike early, so we were pretty excited.

All-State 2008: Gosh, the show looks like it will be amazing (Parade). I would love to try out. I don't know if I can though. Our madrigal dinners are the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend, and All-State rehearses then. I would choose All-State over Madrigals any day, but Madrigals auditions first. Plus, there's that all "having talent" issue.

Urinetown: I was looking forward to this since the moment I heard a school was doing it. I loved every minute of it. The performance was amazing. It was the best high school production of any musical I've ever seen. I enjoyed both the music and humor, but I agree it's one of those love it/ hate it musicals. One of my friends keeps running around doing a Miss Pennywise impression now. It's rather frightening.

Les Miserables: I don't believe anyone could argue that the cast was not talented. I enjoyed all of the performances very much. However, we were sitting two rows from the top, and often the pit overpowered the actors, especially Jean Valjean. If I hadn't known every lyric already, I probably would have been frustrated. I also believe I prefer a turnable baracade, but that's just a preference. Jam_man, I enjoyed your Bishop. Eponine and Javert were both amazing too. Please pass along my compliments, Pirelis. Funny story: we were staying in the same hotel as the All-State cast, and we left for the show before a lot of the cast had Saturday morning.

Children of Eden: I loved the performances and the music, but I just don't care for the story of the musical. I don't think I'd want to see it again, but it doesn't have anything to do with the performance. Eve had some pipes! I wish I went to a school with so many talented people!

Overall, it was a great time. I just wish our school hadn't started until tomorrow. I had to try to make up Friday today, and I failed.

[Dancinqueen123]

Posted: 1/7/07 at 11:21pm

Oh I forgot to say that there was someone from my school in the All-State cast. She was only an ensemble member, but it was still pretty exciting to see her perform. And as I also forgot to say earlier, I loved your Bishop jam_man

[jam_man]

Posted: 1/8/07 at 5:13pm

Thank you all, very much. It was easily the single most rewarding experience of my life - everyone is so amazingly talented and I miss it enormously already. I thought the set, while extremely orginal, might devide some Les Miz fanatics, but with the direction we had (Kyle Marquette from John Hersey HS - brilliant), it worked to perfection!

We recieved many MANY compliments, such as "That was even better than Ragtime" from the older HS students to "That was the best All-State show ever" from many old time teachers who would have some room to talk. But the best one I heard was one Marquette told us he was told by the director from Glenbrook North (I believe - don't remember the name). He said, "The most important thing is that you inspired 4,000 people to be better."

That says everything that Mr. Marquette has been stressing since even last year's festival when they had the first open meetings about it.

And I will be sure to tell "Eve" about how she has pipes (and boy, does she!)!

Dancingqueen, PM me who your school's girl was, please!

[1peter4:10]

Posted: 1/8/07 at 6:26pm

Hey PirelisMiracleElixir. I was in the cast of Twelfth Night and it is so wonderful to hear you enjoyed our show! To return a compliment, you were by far the BEST AUDIENCE EVER!! Thank You! It was such an experience to perform Shakespeare for an audeince that truly appreciated, understood it, and laughed at the jokes! What an increadible experience you gave us! By the way, did I meet you in the girls bathroom at theatre fest? There was a girl humming "simply dab it, gets to be a habit..." and we talked about whether OBC or revival casts were better. (Isn't theatrefest great?) Anyway, your name just made me wonder if it was you. Jam man, great job in Les Miz. I met your sister in the ticket exchange line, say hi to her for me! (you know, from the girl I'm sure she doesn't remember)

[1peter4:10]

Posted: 1/8/07 at 6:32pm

Hey, back again. I have a request. What I'm asking for may take a little time, but anyone who saw 12th Night, could you give a completely sincere reveiw of the actors? I am DYING for some honest feedback. Also, anything super complimentary I'll be sure to pass on. Ex: if you want to marry Feste, I can tell him :) So someone, please? Honesty now!

[takehomeazak06]

Posted: 1/8/07 at 7:52pm

I love the Illinois All-State Theatre Festival! In fact I love it sooooooo much that I came back this year even though I graduated from Edwardsville High School last year. I am now a freshman musical theatre major at the wonderful wonderful conservatory -- The Chicago College of Performing Arts -- maybe some of you talked to me at the table, or recieved a call back if you auditioned (message me if you have questions).

My former high school brought the damn good production of Children of Eden. I try not to be biased in my critque of their production and i believe in the end i keep it real. Overall Children of Eden was good. The lead performances were vocally great, especially Brianna Schumacher(Eve and Mama Noah) who consistently blows me away as she sucessfully belts Es and Fs and brings down the house.(Youtube video coming soon). I loved the opening of the show with the acrobatics and the cool effect of raising Adam and Eve out of no where which actually recieved applause mid song. I loved Eve's costume as well. The lighting, the sets, the filmed projections, were all professional level and i loved the genius of the technical director. I believe Children fell short with its pacing which killed energy and tended to sometimes leave the audience bored. I also felt the actors were working against the pit at times because some of the tempos seemed slower than the cast album which i believe was a pit problem. For the amount of people in the chorus i thought it should have been ten times louder. Overall i have seen this show alot probably about 4 times and saw a few rehearsals on my breaks. I believe Edwardsville High School did a good job but it is not the best show this school has produced but it did do the school proud. Good job guys, overall the show was great, arguably the best vocals at Allstate this year.

Dissappointedly, I was not moved by Les Miserables and i was expecting to be, and wanting to be. I love Les Mis with all my heart but i was underwhelmed with the production. I guess i saw Ragtime years back and was so inspired and moved that i was expecting the same. The leads of Ragtime, Mother Father and Tateh, were phenomenal. Kaitlin Fine as Mother was OUTSTANDING as the mezzo belter and her rendition of Back to Before was one of the best vocals i have heard in an Allstate production. I was expecting to be just as moved.
The performances were fine, I just found that it lacked that special something. I didnt believe what was happening on stage. The set might have alot to do with this. I thought the stairs were great at times but for the majority of the show I felt they were a hinderance to the action taking place on stage. Also found the lighting to be bland which took away some dramatic power.
I do feel the strongest performance in the show was Pippa Soo who played Eponine. I believed her, I cared about her, she brought realism and truthful emotions. Pippa Soo has an amazing stage prescence and as stated before -- is a celebrity in Illinois. I also enjoyed the soloists in the Factory scene. I liked the look of the student revolutionaries and thought that one of the strongest moments in the show was their exit from the barricade. It was simple but brillant.
Overall, I was glad I saw Les Mis and the Allstate show did do it justice but i was mostly dissappointed by the lack of emotional power it personally provided me.I do not want to make it sound like it was crap--because it was not. I also do not want to take anything away from those that were in it because everyone did great. Good job! you should be proud of your work. You will look back and have great memories and hopefully great friendships.

The other performance i saw was Urinetown. I was pleasantly surprised at how wonderful the acting was. I was also surprised that the vocals werent their best but they acted the songs so well that i actually didnt care. I surprise myself by saying that but it is true. Although ALOT ALOT was taken from the Broadway production as far as lighting, costuming, sets, even the speaking voices on the cast recording!, i still found the overall production to be extremely enjoyable. Urinetown is a different type of show that many seemed to not understand its style of humor. I generally find it to be brillant. This specific production sometimes lost control of the humor and made it a bit too self indulgent but it was their last production and it was at all state and that is to be expected. Also the audience laughed and cheered so much at times that it slowed the show down...o well! The show was engaging. One of the many standout performances was the character of Cladwell. His characterization was consistent and his vocals were great. The entire cast gave so much energy and also gave wonderful consistent characterizations that i moved closer after intermission. Good job guys!

My overall Allstate experience was great. It made me miss High school ---- EW! I loved to see everyone perform. Again if you do have any questions about CCPA just message me.

[Dancinqueen123]

Posted: 1/8/07 at 8:09pm

Katie!!!! You were able to post on this site!!!!!!

[star2be]

Posted: 1/8/07 at 8:41pm

saw urinetown twice, while it was still at lake zurich, and i have a bunch of friends in the cast, and it was incredible. i almost forgot i was watching highschool, i really thought it was amazing, and everyone did a great job. Little sally stood out in my mind, as well as Cladwell.

[dollwithamission]

Posted: 1/8/07 at 10:45pm

takehomeazak06: One of my friends stopped at your table over the course of the fest, though I don't know if she spoke with you. The Chicago College of Performing Arts is her first choice for college, I believe. She played Donna Lucia D'alvadorez in our production of Charley's Aunt.

I wanted to chime in and say that Pippa has a bit of a fanclub at my school as well. "On My Own" was highly anticipated by those who hadn't seen Pippen last year. I think they were satisfied.

I also had a question, for those of you who know more about All-State rehearsals than I do. Is it possible to be cast in the ensemble if you have to miss part of one of the rehearsals? I would assume not, but I wanted to know if anyone has heard of this happening.

[jam_man]

Posted: 1/9/07 at 12:05am

At least this year, they said if you missed a single rehearsal, you were out. I'm sure it's like that everyother year, too, what with the very limited time the cast is together. However, one girl this year missed most of one weekend, but that was because (I believe) her mother or grandmother had just died that week.

But for the majority of situations, they likely won't be that nice. If it's just part of one rehearsal, they may be flexible, it depends - next year it'll be an entire different production team (from what I hear, a mostly professional one, too!).

[PirelisMiracleElixir]

Posted: 1/9/07 at 12:53am

1peter4:10 - What are the rest of the shows your school is doing this year? One of my friends and I will likely be attending them. Also, I certainly hope I didn't meet you in the girl's bathroom. That would be really weird since I'm a boy : ). Please tell Malvolio that we were just astounded to find out that he was a sophomore. He looked and sounded like he was 25!
Btw: I'm sure Pippa will find her fanclubs to be hilarious! The same thing basically happened after Pippin. For anyone who's curious (http://209.7.8.165/departments/fpa/theatre/pippin/web/index.htm) here's some pictures of our Pippin last year. There's a bunch of Pippa (leading player), Adam (Javert, but in Pippin an ensemble member), and Jon( an ensemble member in les miz, played Pippin). A few of myself as well ; )

[dollwithamission]

Posted: 1/9/07 at 1:21am

Hehe...I believe I found those pictures before for our little fan club...:). Now I shall have to take a relook.

Thanks for the info, jam_man. If I made the All-State show, I would gladly miss IMEA and our Madrigal dinners. It's just that Madrigals auditions first and I don't want to end up in neither because I tried to stay out of conflicts for All-State.

Oh, I forgot to mention in my rundown of the festival that I went to the High School Musical sing-along movie after Urinetown where there were about 10 people. We're doing that musical this year... which probably explains why I would love to do something a bit more serious, like All-State.

[1peter4:10]

Posted: 1/9/07 at 6:23pm

PirelisMiracleElixir~ Thanks for your interest. South will be doing Little Shop of Horrors for our musical, and three student-directed one-acts in the spring. (One of the directors is yours truly) By your posts i assume you go to Libertyville, (sp?) what are your shows this year? I would love to come see some, your theatre department looks increadible. Please let me know so i can look up the dates. You have no idea how jealous i am you did Pippin last year! I've been trying to convince my director to do it, but i doubt we will.

Malvolio (Nate) says thanks for the compliment! What did you think of the girls who played Viola and Olivia? They're good friends of mine.

[jam_man]

Posted: 1/9/07 at 9:14pm

Well, as far as IMEA goes, because the October is usually Columbus Day weekend (they're all on holiday weekends to maximize time), and at least our district has auditions on C-Day, All-State usually excludes us from IMEA. However, this year (since the vocal director is a big IMEA supporter), they made Columbus Day an optional rehearsal so those of us with IMEA auditions could go. However, I stayed due half to travel constraints, half to just not wanting to leave.

However, if I had to guess, based on the supposed proffesional leaders lined up for Parade, I wouldn't think they'd do that next year. I obviously don't know for sure, though.

[BarberOfTheBarricade]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 5:58pm

ah Theater Fest, something that alltogether depresses and lifts my self-esteem like nothing else.

This year was fantastic, I'm from Libertyville, like Pirrelli, and I have to say I agree with him on his viewsof the shows he saw.

Urinetown, filled with great performances, but sadly the play itself isn't really something to be proud of in my opinion. I would love to see everyone that was in that show, doing a different show.

12th night was really the highlight of fest for me this year. I'm basically a Shakespeare geek, and i recently saw a production of 12th Night that was, shall we say... sub-par. With the exception of their fool, who single handedly help up the show, but in this production at Fest, my god. I loved everything about it, the set was beautiful, I loved the idea of it, and the storm was done in a remarkable way, with Feste controlling it, something I never would've thought of, but worked beautifully. The music you had written for it was wonderful as well, absolutley wonderful. Though everyone will point out Feste as being wonderful, which he was, I have to say, that Malvolio was my favorite. When i saw him i thought he must be a senior or something, then when i HEARD him speaking, i was convinced he was, and of course, at intermission I find out he's a sophmore. I wish I knew, or had been, a sophmore with that kind of ability, he was fantastic. And Toby and Andrew, what a duo, a fantastic combination that was wonderful. There's so much more i could say about it, I can't wait to see your Little Shop, and I would love to see your One Acts, so, if some one from Crystal Lake would like to hook me up with some tickets or something, you know, much obliged.

Also, something i haven't noticed being talked about is The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare Abridged. Now, I went in thinking I was going to find it utterley stupid and innane. I was pleasantly surprised, it was witty at times, and ridiculous at times, and just great. They had a few things that could've been tightened up, and they could've vomitted on the audience a little less, but it was all very awkwardly hilarious, and I have much respect for those involved.

[Dancinqueen123]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 6:21pm

Barber-Thanks for your reviews of Twelfth Night! I wasn't involved in the show, but pretty much every single one of my friends was and I will definitely pass on your compliments. (And I can probably hook you up with some tickets, just PM me).

I also saw The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare Abridged and I really liked it. I went into it not really knowing what to think and I was pleasantly surprised by the result.