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Disney’s Aladdin Jr.

Disney’s Aladdin Jr., with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice, is based on the one of the most popular animated movies of all time.  A resourceful young hero, a plucky princess, and everybody’s favorite wise-cracking genie come to life with songs like “A Whole New World,” “Friend Like Me,” and “Arabian Nights.”  Music, mayhem, and magic carpet rides abound.

The show was produced as part of a tuition-based conservatory program, in which highly qualified teaching artists worked with young performers to develop skills in acting, singing, dancing, literacy, and professionalism.  These performers worked intensively, as much as 7 hours a day 5 days a week for 5 weeks.  In addition, a select number of teens served as stagecraft interns.  No prior theatrical experience was required to participate.  The cast was comprised of 31 5th-9th graders, who auditioned.  Tuition cost: $360.  Operating budget: $19,500.

Performances played on June 28-July 8, 2007 at the Jim Morley Theater, St. Pius X High School, 5301 St. Josephs Drive NW, Albuquerque, NM 87120. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Lord of the Flies

William Golding has said that writing Lord of the Flies was “like lamenting the lost childhood of the world.”  What is so shocking about Golding’s parable is that more than fifty years after it was written, its horror and its poignancy remain relevant.  Golding’s unforgettable story of society versus survival, adapted for the stage by Nigel Williams, is about a group of British schoolboys who survive a plane crash and find themselves deserted on an uninhabited island.  When left to their own devices, instead of banding together to survive, the boys begin to destroy each other.  In the stage adaptation the audience watches horror-struck as the group of ragtag innocent boys, removed from the civility and order of real life, unravel into disparate groups of barbarous, grotesque and terrified primitives who reject the social and cultural boundaries that have defined their lives.  Fear and chaos lead to murder.

The director’s ultimate challenge was to release authentically savage performances onstage while maintaining a disciplined, respectful and supportive ensemble of mostly pre-adolescent boys.  The entire production was conceived by director Jonathan Dunski as a youth conservatory project in which training is coupled with rehearsal.  The production involved over seventy hours of rehearsal/training to prepare actors for their performances.  In addition to the director’s guidance, the company of young actors received training from an acting coach, a stage combat coach, a dialect coach and a specialist in educational theater.  The cast was comprised of 11 boys, 1 girl, (ages 10-14) and 1 adult.  Tuition cost: $300.  Operating Budget: $9,200.

“I find Youth Theater to be the most compelling kind of Theater,” notes Dunski, adding, “because when a child’s performance is excellent, it is a memorable, moving experience unlike any other.”

Lord of the Flies offers a serious, once-in-a-lifetime theatre experience.  It speaks truths about human nature and the world in which we live, all the more compelling when delivered out of the mouths of babes.  “I can hear the beastie,” says one boy.  “It’s not the beast,” says another, “it’s us.”

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The Butterfingers Angel, Mary & Joseph, Herod the Nut, & the Slaughter of 12 Hit Carols in a Pear Tree

This entertainment by William Gibson, directed by Jonathan Dunski, is a touching, funny, and highly imaginative account of the first Christmas.

Created by one of America's major dramatists (Pulitzer winner Gibson also penned The Miracle Worker, among others), the play retells the nativity story from a fresh point of view, using antic characterizations with punctuations of Christmas songs.  Written in the spirit of the mystery plays of medieval Europe, in which Biblical characters were presented as ordinary people with earthly struggles, these characters include:  wisecracking animals; a vain tree; a beguiling Mary who had heretofore decided that men and marriage were not for her; a suspicious Joseph; the insidious Man in Grey, who is evil personified; and a flustered boy-angel who attempts to direct the action from his promptbook.  

The primary cast was comprised of 10 adults.  The children in the cast (ages 6 to 14) participated in acting workshops offered by PLAY Conservatory, a tuition based ($325) educational program custom-made for this production and this space.  The operating budget was $8,500.  Auxiliary Dog, both art gallery and performance space, is a relatively new venue to Albuquerque, open since April 2007.  “It’s a fresh and intimate space with much potential,” Dunski says.

Sixteen performances played December 6-30, 2007 at Auxiliary Dog Theatre, 3011 Monte Vista Blvd. NE, Albuquerque, NM 87106.

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Disney’s Mulan Jr.

Disney’s Mulan Jr. was produced as the culmination of a tuition-based ($425) conservatory program in which highly qualified teaching artists work with young performers to develop skills in acting, singing, dancing, literacy, and professionalism.  Thirty-seven Young performers age 9 to 15 worked intensively, as much as 7 hours a day, 5 days a week for 5 weeks.  In addition, a select number of teens served as stagecraft interns, who assisted in building and crewing the show.  No prior theatrical experience was required to participate.  The operating budget was $23,000.

Performances played on July 11-July 20, 2008 at the Jim Morley Theater, St. Pius X High School, 5301 St. Josephs Drive NW, Albuquerque, NM 87120. 

 

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