Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland audition results came in tonight! And let me just say that I'm really excited! Gene Wilder played my character in the 1999 movie of Alice in Wonderalnd, so I'm really hoping I can do the character justice. If you haven't guessed the character yet, it's The Mock Turtle! I know that he is supposed to be a very melancholy character, because it is thought that he used to be a real turtle. So that's some of my motivation! I'm thinking my costume might be sort of like the costume that Yertle the Turtle had when I was Sour Kangaroo in Seussical Jr...but I honestly have no idea what it's going to look like! That's one of my favorite things about theatre, the costumes! Because think about it, when you see a person on-stage and there costume is odd, you don't think the person is odd because it's part of their character! So it's almost like, if your character is completely wacky, your costume can be wacky and no one will think that reflects off who you actually are! I just love the fact that you can be something completely different on the stage. And I'm really looking forward to this challenge of a type of character I've never played before!!!

Oh, and here's a picture I found and I thought it would be fun to add the caption to it!

Willy Wonka Jr.

Okay, let me just say that I really enjoyed my part in this musical! Getting a laugh when you're hoping you will is such a great feeling! Grandma Josephine was my first comedic role so I hope i did her justice! Making people laugh feels wonderful! Especially when it's big audience. I've always enjoyed making at least one or two people laugh, but when it's more, it's awesome! I was right about my costume, and I must say it was the most comfortable costume EVER. The best part about being a grandparent, was the bed. It was actually pretty comfortable! Anyway, I think the musical went quite well and I'm looking forward to the next play i'm auditioning for! In case you don't know, it's for Alice in Wonderland!

Willy Wonka Jr.

Auditions for Willy Wonka Jr. went well! I Got in. :D And I get to be and old person! I get to play Grandma Josephina! I haven't seen my costume yet, but i'm thinking it's just going to be a simple night gown and some kind of nightcap. Maybe a gray wig, too! But who knows, i'll just have to wait and see! Hopefully I'll make at least a few people laugh in the performances, she's a fun character to play!

Musical Theatre Camp

I finished Musical Theatre Camp a while back, and it was awesome!! We got to perform songs from different musicals such as West Side Story, Shrek the Musical, and The Lion King! I was quite happy get the solo in song "Endless Night (Reprise)" from The Lion King, i got to play Rafiki for a song! Everyone had the opportunity to get a solo for this week long camp. Here's a list of all the songs we performed-

Song----Musical----Role

"Freak Flag"----Shrek the Musical----One of three little pigs

"Tonight"----West Side Story----A Jet

"Endless Night (Reprise)"----The Lion King----Rafiki

"I Feel Pretty"----West Side Story----One of Maria's friends

"America"----West Side Story----A Girl

"When You're a Jet"----West Side Story----(only boys participated in this song)

We had two performances July 24, 2010 with one encore performance August 3, 2010 only including the songs "When You're a Jet" and "America". I was sooo happy we got to do "America" again, it was my favorite song in the whole performance!! We performed the encore right before the Summer Scene Works Program performed (I'll get to that in a second!). It was such a great experience with some awesome people, including our director Mrs. Kim Hurt! The Musical Theatre Camp performance was at Auburn Area Community Theatre (AACT), otherwise know as the Jan Dempsey Arts Canter, and I can't wait to audition for Alice in Wonderland there!!!

Okay, now moving on to the Summer Scene Works Program. We basically did the same thing, performing different songs from different scenes in musicals. I was in one of the songs in the performance and it was great! I was in the musical scene "Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now" from Hairspray. I probably looked odd wearing pigtails and white socks that came over half way up to my knee...people said i looked cute, but i thought weird! If you haven't figured it out, I played Penny Pingleton! :) In the musical she's a bit of a nerd..but she's very fun to play!! Having interesting costumes is probably going to be a big part of theatre...the weirder the better!!

Sleeping Beauty and More!

Well, Sleeping Beauty is over! It was much different than the cartoon that I watched when I was little, but I still enjoyed it. We didn't have a lot of time before the show was starting so we had to cut most of my lines I had as the Spider Queen, but I still got to play her as a giggly, quirky, character! Portraying the evil witch, Modron, included a lot of yelling and screaming. I tried to play her absolutely filled with hate and jealousy for her sister, her sister Branwen, who is also the good witch in this version of the story. Twice Modron had to make her signature "sound". I really didn't have much of a clue for a sound..so I basically just screamed. At the beginning of the play I had a crow puppet on my arm that was built by one of my best friends. I gave the crow, whom I named Nikron, the sound the first time. For the rest of play whenever I had him on the stage he was either whispering in my ear, looking up to the sky, acting mad at Branwen with me, or I would scratch his neck for him and he would make a little twitchy neck motion. I didn't get to use him in every scene but the ones I did get to use him I enjoyed because there was always someone...something to talk to and react to when no one was in a scene with me.


Now, moving on. I was probably rambling a lot there. Sorry! :) But anyway, in a few months I'm auditioning for a musical! I would like to get a good role in this but if I don't that would be fine as well. And the cool thing to me about this is, it's Willy Wonka Jr! So this should be interesting considering it was one of the first shows I was in. Playing Charlie over a year ago was very enjoyable, but I love musicals, too!! I haven't heard basically any of the songs except for a few from the 1971 movie with Gene Wilder as the magical Willy Wonka! I'm fine with being an Oompa Loompa or one of the principle roles. I really don't enjoy not being involved with a play or musical. AND I just found out what the next Jr. show is going to be at the Jan Dempsey Community Arts Center where I was in the musical, Seussical, as Sour Kangaroo! It's going to be Alice in Wonderland!!! Even though the 1951 cartoon COMPLETELY freaked me out, I think I'd be comfortable with it on the stage, and enjoy it! It's not the musical version so even if I don't get a role I wouldn't mind seeing the script. If I'm not a cast member for this, there's no doubt I won't be an audience member! There are a good amount of character in the cartoon. The Cheshire Cat, Mad Hatter, March Hare, White Rabbit, the Red Queen and her Army of Cards, the Door Mouse, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, the Walrus and the Carpenter, the Caterpillar, the Flowers, and last but certainly not least, Alice!! There are so many cool character in this show and I'm not 100% sure that all of the ones I just mentioned are going to be in the play. But it will be a long time before I probably find out..hopefully time will go by fast so I can audition for Willy Wonka Jr and Alice in Wonderland as soon as possible!

Sleeping Beauty

I just found out what role I got in Sleeping Beauty! It sort of reminds me of Sour Kangaroo in Seussical, just a lot more evil. I also got another role but a bit smaller, the Spider Queen. So i'm planning on making her very twitchy and quirky, but only if I get to keep the part because someone else might be joining the cast. In the Disney version I believe the name of the witch is Maleficent, but in the version we're doing she's called Modron. I'm not quite sure which version of the story we're doing, but it's a good amount different than the Disney movie. This should be a good show and i'm going to try and put all I've got into it!

Here we go again!

Time to get into a brand new show! This isn't going to be as big of a performance as Seussical was, but it should be a good show! This is considered more of a class, like how Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was. Everyone in the class gets a part so we had a "fake" audition. It was still like an audition but it was basically to see what we could do with the characters in a cold reading. Everyone in the class, including me, will find out what roles we got sometime next week. Hopefully early during the week cause I'm curious! I think I read for most of the female parts in the fake audition. Briar Rose-The Princess, Gryff-Part Dragon/Part Human, The Queen-Briar Rose's Mom, and Maleficent-The Wicked Witch. There's also a Spider Queen somewhere in the story but I don't think anyone read for her. Just like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, there aren't many boys. Two boys are in this production I'm pretty sure. But it should work out since the only characters which absolutely have to be boys include the King and the Prince. Anyway, the next class is going to be Monday and this week went by pretty slow. Can't wait for Monday though! Have a good a day everyone, and Happy Easter! And keep the true meaning of Easter in mind!

YouTube!

Hey! Quick thing, this is my official YouTube profile!!! http://www.youtube.com/user/AlexPlowman

Seuss! (49 photos), by Amy Zabawa

I'd like to share my Walgreens Photo Center photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.

Check out some of my favorite Seussical pictures!!!!

Goodbye to Suessical.

Man! I'm going to miss Seussical soo much! It's hard to process sometimes that I will no longer be going to the theatre for rehearsal. Seussical had the most amazing cast, I'm really going to miss seeing them at rehearsals! We have footage from two of the shows, and a lot of pictures! Seussical was is the most amazing show I have ever been involved in (so far!). I can't wait to be in more shows at the AACT (Auburn Area Community Theatre). Mrs. Kim is such an awesome director! She really gives you motivation and a reason to be doing what you're doing. There's a video of the number "Biggest Blame Fool" on YouTube. Including the characters:

Sour Kangaroo played my myself

The Cat in the Hat (or Dr. Feline in this scene) played by Avery Jones.

Horton the Elephant played by Jacob Zabawa.

Gertrude McFuzz played by Heather Connelly.

And the Wickersham Brothers played by Michael Sanders, Aleczander Horn, and Dillon Williams.

This video is put together from two different performances, the dress rehearsal (with an audience), and the 4:30 show Monday, March 8th. It was such a great show! I really wish it wasn't over! But we're all planning to get together on the 15th of May for another show! The 15th of May is mentioned in one of the songs from Seussical. Can't wait!!!! I met so many awesome people in this show, and got to spend time with people I already knew! I had been in another show with Heather, she played my grandfather in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. As I said before, there was only one boy in the cast. He played Mike Tv and Mr. Bucket. Being Charlie was just the start of my involvement in theatre. It's what I love and I can't wait to see what next play or musical comes around!

So soon.

Tomorrow we're having a library performance for Seussical! It's not going to be the whole musical, just the first four songs I think. And it's not in costume. The only person who gets to wear their full costume is the Cat in the Hat. But, that's okay! I'll get to wear the Sour Kangaroo costume many times! Which I am very excited about!! The performances are going to be starting soooo soon...time has gone by so fast! I wish it wasn't going to end so quickly...but one door closing means another one is going to be opened! This was just a short update, I'll hopefully update again soon!

Choreography and everything else!

Well, Seussical is in process and going great!! I just went so the theatre today for rehearsals from 10-12. We learned choreography for, "Biggest Blame Fool", which is basically my big song. I have a good amount of solo parts in there. And It's my definitely one of my favorite songs from the musical! Not only do I get to begin the song and be all over the stage and have the spotlight, but I also get to end it! Well...in a way. At the end of the song all of the jungle creatures are behind me singing and I get to riff the last part (sort of like ad-libbing but in music but it has to sound good with what else is being sung). There's supposed to be a lot of "soul" in my character's voice so hopefully I'm doing a good job with that. But the choreography is really great and well done! In "Oh the Things You Can Think" the choreography is awesome! And in "Biggest Blame Fool" I get to do a lot of of what I want to do. So that is AWESOME! And I love my costume!! My dress is down to my ankles and It looks like it's silk! It's black, red, white, and now I have a pillbox hat to go with it that is also red! I haven't seen my pouch yet....so I don't know the details on that. But I'm also going to have red pumps and I'm not good walking OR DANCING in heels...so that will either be interesting or just plain funny for my fellow cast members to watch. But I don't know how high the heels are yet to maybe it won't be bad. So when putting it all together, my costume is amazing, the songs are great, a lot of the people that I've met so far in this musical are awesome, and this musical is going to be what's the word....AMAZING!!!

One More Week and 2010!!!

It's just one more week before the beginning of "Seussical" rehearsals! I get more and more excited about this every time I think about it! I haven't seen our costumes yet, but I'm not sure if I should be excited or not...I've seen some pretty bad ones on YouTube. But even if my costume is terrible, I'm still going to enjoy doing this show! Getting into my character is awesome! I'm a pretty mean character. Sour the whole way through with a bit of sweet in the end, but not too sweet...I hold a grudge! Being the Sour Kangaroo is the biggest role I've gotten, besides getting Charlie in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". But that was sort of like a class and not as big a deal. This is much better! Being mean, sassy, or creepy, I enjoy a lot. But I love other roles, too! I hope that I could do very well with any character that I get. Whether it's mean, clumsy, annoying, sweet, weird, etc. I want to experience all kinds of different personalities!!! This is a big part of my life and I'm going to keep at it!!! And Happy New Year!!!!!