Open Enrollment for the Greenbelt Winter Youth Musical, Nov 24 – Dec 13

Open Enrollment for the Greenbelt Winter Youth Musical, Nov 24 – Dec 13

Location: Greenbelt Recreation Department

Enrollment opens November 24, 2014 for non-residents.

PROGRAM

The annual Greenbelt Youth Musical, now in its fifteenth year, is an open-enrollment musical theater program for teen actors in grades seven through twelve. The program gives teen actors the opportunity to work with professional theater artists and experience the fun of bringing original musical works to life, while building confidence and community. The environment is affirming, the process is fun, and the productions are excellent:

THIS YEAR’S STORY

Secret Circus is the story of a traveling circus in 1930’s-era Europe, racing against time to smuggle to safety people deemed physically unacceptable by the rising fascist regime. One refugee, Anya, must confront her own discomfort with the sideshow prodigies of the circus even as she accepts their help in fleeing persecution. It is a touching, exciting, and beautiful show. Secret Circus was last performed in Greenbelt ten years ago, by Camp Encore. The 2015 edition of the show features an expanded story, with additional songs, new dialogue, and enhanced circus production values.

CASTING

The Greenbelt Youth Musical is open to all interested performers in grades seven through twelve. Everyone who enrolls is cast in the show. Attendance is required for all participants at our two casting rehearsals, which are coming up soon on Saturday, December 13, from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm, and Monday, December 15 from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm (perfect timing for those of you who will be going through musical withdrawal following the close of Eleanor Roosevelt High School’s Hairspray). We have also reserved Wednesday, December 17, from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm for principal callbacks, if needed. After the casting rehearsals, we will take a break until Friday, January 9, when regular rehearsals will begin. In the interim, author-director Chris Cherry will be fine-tuning the script and score based on our cast.

PERFORMANCES

Performances will be Saturday, February 28, 2015, Sunday, March 1, 2015 and Saturday, March 7, 2015.

REGISTRATION AND TUITION

Registration is open now for Greenbelt residents. For non-residents, on-line registration will open on November 24, but you can fax (301-220-0561) or drop off a hard-copy registration at the Community Center now, and it will be held until the resident preference period expires. Because non-resident registrations are held and then processed in the order in which they are received, dropping off a hard-copy registration early is a way for savvy non-Greenbelters to be near the front of the queue on the day that non-resident registration officially opens. This is to your advantage, as we do reserve the right to cap enrollment to keep the cast at a manageable size. See below for links to registration materials.

The activity number for the Greenbelt Youth Musical is 144230-1. Tuition remains at $154 for residents and $177 for non-residents, and the performance ticket price remains $5. Generous scholarship assistance is available for Greenbelt residents from the Mary Purcell Geiger Scholarship Fund. (Applications are available from the Community Center business office; please contact Ruth Campbell at 240-542-2059.) Enrolling in the Greenbelt Youth Musical signals a commitment to participate in a collaborative artistic project with a company of other committed young performers. Please note that we do not issue tuition refunds in the event that an actor withdraws from the production after casting. We expect that all actors enrolling in the production are committed to participating in a fun and collaborative experience, regardless of casting, and we set the production budget based on the total tuition received.

For more information: http://www.greenbeltmd.gov/youthmusical