“The Sound of Music” by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II
CAMP MARSHALL - Camp Marshall, the staid old Episcopal Church summer-camp venue for kids near Big Arm on Flathead Lake, resounded with music this week as 77 aspiring teenage music-theater performers from across North America burst into song. And dance. And theatrical grins as broad as a Cheshire cat's.
At Missoula Children's Theater Performing Arts Camp, the roof beams in the rehearsal hall are eight feet from the floor. During the two-week camp, the beams are wrapped with sofa cushions in case a performer jumps so high while singing and dancing that he or she bumps his head.
Strike up the electric piano. Cue in the chorus. All together now, arms waving madly and voices in sync: “Another op'nin', another show.”
Meanwhile, eight or nine crusty critics - professional acting and music coaches and MCT staff camp counselors - inspect every clumsy move, every uncued entry, every graceless musical note or mumbled lyric. Some of these theater and music coaches may be taking notes - and names. Although the soloists have all been chosen, after a grueling “talent inventory” last week, there's always room for improvement, and a change in the casting. With 77 talented performers in this year's camp, understudies abound.
Last Monday was a typical day during the week before the big show opens in Missoula (see breakout box for performance information.) The day started with reveille at 7 a.m., breakfast at 8; clean up, then warm-up exercises. Rehearsal from 9 to noon. A light lunch at noon, then half-hour nap or free time. Then comes first rehearsal promptly at 2. Last rehearsal starts after dark. Bedtime by 10 or so.
Having fun yet?
This year, the big show is called “Tony!” an MCT-created reprise of great Broadway hits that over the years have won the coveted Tony award. The opening number of “Tony!” is from Cole Porter's “Kiss Me Kate.” It is called, aptly enough, “Another Op'nin', Another Show.”
Trouble is, the rehearsal of the number starts off cold. Some voices are shaky. The lyrics are not enunciated with precision or clarity. Somebody in the crowd of 77 performers distractedly wipes her nose with a sleeve. And the performers' smiles are about as big as a sick Siamese cat.
Burly and bearded Jim Caron, co-founder and chief executive officer of MCT, and the director for this number, stops everything with a quick wave of hand. He steps forward from the doorway where he's been lurking. The cast is silent and attentive.
“Your smiles are about 30 percent of what they are supposed to be, across the board,” he warns. “Remember, it's a big house we're performing in.”
Once again, the piano accompanist pounds the cue, the performers start singing and waving their arms. And they are smiling broadly now with ear-to-ear grins. Satisfied, Caron steps back into the doorway and nods. He seems content - for now.
First thing these performing arts campers learn quickly at the MCT camp: Song and dance on the professional level is not all fun and games. It is serious business. Only the most talented and motivated performers need apply. No prima donnas, please.
“When you are (performing) in your hometown, you are the hot shot, the big gun,” said 19-year-old, first-time MCT camper Paul Trahan of Las Banos, Calif. “But when you come here, you are a small fish in a big pond. It's survival of the fittest.”
“There needs to be 77 people in this show. There are no (individual) stars,” said Hannah Yeats, 16, of Coeur d'Alene (Idaho) High School. Like most of the teenage campers, she is a veteran, attending her first camp four years ago at age 12. Like most others, she is trained in voice. When the Summer Performance Camp began years ago, most students were from Montana. Now most come from states other than Montana, all across the nation, and Canada. A surprise this year - no campers from Japan or elsewhere overseas. Usually several campers from Japan audition.
Although it seems at times like survival of the fittest, the camp has had few if any dropouts over the years, said John Arvish, 37, the camp's administrator and director. Arvish has been involved with MCT productions for 30 years, first as a child performer, then a summer camp counselor and MCT volunteer, and for the past three years as director of the camp for older teens at Camp Marshall. (MCT offers two other performing arts camps, one for middle-school youngsters, and one for younger high-school age - more than 250 campers altogether this year. The 115 younger high-school-age performers will join the Camp Marshall veterans for the mass performances in Missoula, for a cast of almost 200 on stage).
“These kids are motivated. They are recruited mostly from our tours. Many get nominated by Missoula Children's Theater tour actors,” Arvish said. As many know, the MCT tours go nationwide, and even overseas and to military bases.
Trahan was such a nominee. At 5-feet-10, weighing 250 pounds, it's hard to imagine him as a small fish in any pond. In high school, Trahan played defensive tackle for the Los Banos Tigers. But when he discovered his talent for theatrical performance, he changed gears. His greatest role so far has been the Sheriff of Nottingham in an MCT-sponsored production of “Robin Hood” in Los Banos, where he caught a staffer's eye with his enthusiasm, and a pretty good singing voice. Now he's a freshman majoring in theater at University of Texas-El Paso, and his eye is on Broadway.
“After college, I'm going to go to Broadway. I'm going to win a Tony,” he said in a pre-rehearsal interview. His hero: Tony winner Nathan Lane.
Most campers don't expect to make a living in the theater. Yeats, for example, said she plans a career as a music or choir teacher in a public school system.
But some MCT alums have done well in the singing and acting business.
This year's artistic director is Curt Olds, 32, a Butte native who trained in opera at the New England Conservatory of Music, and now works professionally as a music theater performer on the East Coast. He said he's now well-known as a “Pirates of Penzance” specialist, referring to the famous Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera that retains its popularity all over the world.
Olds is off-tour now for two weeks to visit his old MCT friends in Montana, and to bring his dramatic skills and mentoring to MCT's performance camp teens.
“It's like coming back to your roots,” he said. “I see myself in some of these kids.”
But he acknowledged that most will never be professional performers, and most probably don't aspire to carve out a career in musical theater.
“The camp is not just a training ground for performers. Most will never be professional performers. But the camp experience gives them confidence to do all sorts of other things,” he said. “It's a betterment for any professional aspirations.”
It's also helping him get a hand in the directing aspect of the business.
'“I'm still a performer, but I've always had a desire to be a director,” he said. “If you can do it with a bunch of talented kids in this age group, you can direct any group.”
So how do you motivate these youngsters?
“These kids are so motivated on their own, you don' t need the carrots and sticks” of obvious rewards and punishment common in other educational settings. “The main thing is keeping that (high) energy level going all day.”
Meanwhile, back at rehearsal, Caron, Olds, music director Troy Bashor of Frenchtown (he's the school's choir director), and others from the theater's staff, watch a grueling 15-minute performance of a medley of tunes from “Les Miserables.” Except for the piano score, there is no music, no written words. Everything in the entire performance, music, dialogue, harmony, cues, choreography and other stage movements, are learned by rote, with the directors reading the lines and singing the lyrics.
“These kids learn like sponges, they just soak it up,” one coach/counselor said.
Although many students are recommended to the camp by MCT staff, everyone must audition to apply. The audition may be in person, or on a video tape or DVD disc. It includes a 2-3 minute accompanied song, and a 2-3 minute memorized monologue. Two letters of recommendation are also required. When they get to camp, auditions start over again, this time for coveted roles in the production. The audition is called a “performance inventory.” But it doesn't make it any easier.
One thing the campers never get over is stage fright.
“In the rehearsal hall, standing in line, waiting your turn to audition, your knees are shaking. But you get more comfortable every day performing with all these people,” Trahan said.
A bell rang. It was 2 p.m., and time to break into song. And dance. Trahan adjusted his posture and nervously headed for the rehearsal hall. On the way, he practiced a smile. A big, Cheshire cat, ear-to-ear grinning kind of smile. The kind of smile that probably someday could be seen even by near-sighted, elderly folks from “the sticks” sitting all the way in the back of a balcony somewhere in the back of a big theatrical hall on Broadway.
Reporter John Stromnes can be reached at 1-800-366-7186 or jstromnes@missoulian.com.
Preview
“Tony!,” featuring 200 performers from all over North America who have attended Missoula Children's Theater Performing Arts Camp this summer will play at the Montana Theater on the University of Montana campus Friday and Satruday. Evening performance are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets are $11. Two matinees are scheduled Saturday at 1 and 4 p.m. Tickets are $9. All seats are general admission, and advance purchase is recommended. Call 728-7529 for tickets, or buy online at http://www.mctinc.org.
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