The 2006-2007 C.A.S.T. Season

Hello, all. I hope that you're enjoying a safe and pleasant summer. I just thought it would be good to update you all on where we stand for our upcoming season...

SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER

"Corcoran 40th Birthday" - Our first project of the year is a unique one this time around. While we've been holding a musical revue at the end of September the past couple of years, the special nature of this fall is necessitating a temporary change. This fall, on Columbus Day weekend, Corcoran will be celebrating its 40th birthday; there are a number of events that are in the works, quite likely including a couple of performance opportunities. What that means is that I'll need to be able to focus on helping out with those special events (as will Ms. Scheuerman). So, we're going to look at the 40th birthday events as our first project as some other groups in the school are doing (as well as plenty of alumni and former staff), and we invite you to join us! We don't know exactly what form the events will take yet, but we're pretty sure there will be opportunities to participate in some form or another - come check in early in the school year for more information.

"Fools" auditions and rehearsals begin - Our fall play this year will be the Neil Simon comedy "Fools", about a remote village cursed with chronic stupidity and one young teacher's efforts to break the curse. Look for auditions for the play to take place sometime around the last two weeks in September, with rehearsals throughout October. Don't fret if you're in a fall sport - we've been able to work things out before (even for "big" sports).

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER

Annual Shakespeare monologue competition preparations - Each year in January, we conduct our annual Shakespeare monologue competition, in which participants perform a memorized Shakespearean monologue of their choice for a panel of judges, who critique and score the performances. The competition is open to any student, and there are prizes for the top finishers; additionally, the student in grades 10-12 to finish highest in the competition advances to the regional competition in the spring at Syracuse Stage with the winners from all other area schools, vying for the chance to represent central New York at the national competition. While our actual competition at Corcoran isn't until January, it takes time to memorize a monologue and then to prepare it for performance, so you'll want to stop down to get more information sometime in the fall, and plan to have it memorized and work with a coach (Mr. H, or any other English teacher you choose to ask) on it then.

"Fools" fall play - Our fall production of "Fools" will take place on December 2nd and 3rd, with rehearsals naturally continuing during November up to that point.

Spring Musical auditions - We are still working on just what it will be (ideas, suggestions, or thoughts? I am interested to hear them - email me!), but no matter what it is, auditions will be the first full week of December, so that a cast list can be posted before the New Year's break (and potentially a few rehearsals snuck in before the break to get everyone working on music on their own)

JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH

Annual Shakespearean Monologue Competition - see above. Our actual competition will be sometime during the middle of January, so it's important to have already been working on your monologue during the fall. The regional competition will be in March, and it's open to the public and always a good way to both cheer on our representative and get to see a few dozen exceptional performers from other schools - specific dates will be posted once we have them.

"Short Attention Span Theatre" - Our annual workshop evening for short one-act plays gives anyone the chance to put on any short piece they like. Students cast, plan, direct, and perform the pieces entirely on their own. Participants in the IB Theatre Arts and Drama I/II classes are already automatically involved, but anyone else is welcome to prepare and include a piece prepared on their own - get in touch during the fall for more details and to make plans.

Spring Musical - As stated above, we're still not sure what it is yet, but the cast we set in December will rehearse regularly during January and February in preparations for a March production date. Note: after a lot of hard work with schedules, we believe we've finally got dates that will allow spring sport people (Lacrosse, Softball, etc.) to participate and not be penalized by their coaches - but it means having the show quite a bit earlier than we have in the past. We can do it - it will just take some concentrated work on all our parts.

APRIL / MAY

Interactive Murder Mystery - Auditions will be held shortly after the spring musical is over for this final production of the year, again held on Memorial Day weekend, and featuring "senior night" on its closing night for an opportunity to recognize and say goodbye to our senior theatre participants. While things can still change this early out, we're preliminarily hoping to use a new script currently being written as a collaboration between both of the authors who have donated scripts to us for our past few years of murder mysteries.