The Evening
program is open to students entering grade nine up through
age 23. Please Note Schedule: Rehearsals are scheduled from 6:30 p.m. -
10:30 p.m., Sunday through Thursday. Friday evening rehearsals will be
added when needed. Daily attendance is required. Rehearsals are at
Regis College Fine Arts Center, 235 Wellesley Street. The Evening
Program focuses on character development, scene study, vocal
projection, movement and dance while rehearsing for elaborately mounted
productions.
Special
Schedule Change This Year: Since both night musicals take place
on the main stage, during Tech Week actors must be available to
rehearse between the hours of 1PM and 11PM, with shows alternating
rehearsal schedules each day.
Book
by John Caird
Music
and Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz
Based
on a concept by Charles Lisanby
From Stephen
Schwartz ("Godspell" and "Pippin") and John Caird of "Les
Miserables" comes a joyous and inspirational musical about parents,
children and faith... not to mention centuries of unresolved family
business!
Freely based on
the story of Genesis, "Children Of Eden" is a frank,
heartfelt and often humorous examination of the age-old conflict
between parents and children. Adam, Eve, Noah and the "Father" who
created them deal with the headstrong, cataclysmic actions of their
respective children. The show ultimately delivers a bittersweet but
inspiring message: that "the hardest part of love... is letting go."
Produced through special arrangements with Music Theatre International.
STAFF:
Director: Chris
Brindley
Musical
Director: Christopher Holownia
Choreographer:
Erin Law
Production
Stage Manager: Margaret Ryan
Costume
Designer: Jana
Asst. to the
Costume Designer: Joanne Sargent
Chris Brindley
(Director
of
Children
of
Eden,
Associate
Producer
of
WDW)
is
thrilled
to
be
back
again
at
WDW
for
his sixth season on staff
after serving as the Associate Producer for the past two years,
piloting the new afternoon program last year as Director of Charlotte’s
Web, Production Stage Manager of the morning show for three years, and
directing New Beginnings: the 45th Anniversary Revue. Previous WDW
acting credits include: A Chorus Line (Zach), Bat Boy (Dr. Parker),
Steel Pier (Mick), Ragtime (Houdini), West Side Story (Baby John),
Can-Can (Hilaire Jussac). Chris will be receiving his BA in Theatre
Education/Acting this Spring from Emerson College. Previous President
and Producing Director of Rareworks Theatre Company, a member of the
Musical Theatre Society of Emerson College, and Chair of the Broadway
Cares Equity Fights Aids Board. Previous directing credits include:
GODSPELL (MTS), Guys and Dolls, Wiley and the Hairy Man (FHS Drama
Co.), Sylvia (Emerson), Assistant Director: The Caucasian Chalk Circle
(FHS Drama Co.), Esperanza Rising (Emerson Stage). Previous producing
credits include: The Void, John and Jen, A Devil Inside, Five Women
Wearing the Same Dress (Rareworks), Schoolhouse Rock Live!, Birthday,
Pippin (MTS) Into the Woods (FSTW). Chris spent this past Spring
student teaching in the Theatre Arts Department at Framingham H.S and
is the co-coordinator of the their trip to the Edinburgh Fringe
Festival this August where they will perform Once On This Island. An
active member of the Massachusetts High School Drama Guild, Chris
serves on the Executive Council and is a certified Supervisor for the
state drama festival. Chris also had the privilege to serve as an
intern and teaching assistant at The Huntington Theatre Company.
The 25th Annual Putnam County
Spelling Bee Cast List
Click here for information on how to be a
guest speller at the Bee!
Music
and Lyrics by William Finn 
Book by Rachel Sheinkin
THE 25TH ANNUAL
PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE is a hilarious tale of
overachievers' angst chronicling the experience of six adolescent
outsiders vying for the spelling championship of a lifetime. The show's
Tony Award winning creative team has created the unlikeliest of hit
musicals about the unlikeliest of heroes: a quirky yet charming cast of
outsiders for whom a spelling bee is the one place where they can stand
out and fit in at the same time.
Produced through special arrangements with Music Theatre International.
STAFF:
Director: Aidan
O’Hara
Musical
Director: Jonathan Eldridge
Production
Stage Manager: Kristin P. Kurz
Costume
Designer: Sarah Smith
Aidan O’Hara (Director
of
The
25th
Annual
Putnam County Spelling Bee)
returns to WDW for his fourth season after directing musicals in the
night show for the past two summers: A Chorus Line, and Bat Boy: The
Musical.. Previous directing credits include The Wiz, Into The Woods,
Fools, Bye Bye Birdie, Honk!, Where The Sidewalk Ends, Once On This
Island, I Never Saw Another Butterfly, Barnum, Guys And Dolls, You're A
Good Man Charlie Brown, and Wonderful Town. Aidan has been a drama
teacher and director at Weston Middle School for the past eight years.
Two years ago, Aidan received the Margot Stern Strom Teaching Award
from Facing History and Ourselves. With this award, he produced and
directed two productions (Shades of Gray and The Stories That We
Weave), which explored race and identity at the school through
playmaking. He has also taught theater at Hingham Middle School, Salem
High School, and the Chestnut Hill School Creative Arts Program. He
holds a Masters in Theater Education from Emerson College and a BA in
History from American University.
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2010 Theater for Young
Audiences (TYA)
About this new
exciting program:
Hours of the
Program: 1:30-5:30PM Monday through Friday Age Range of
Participants: Entering Grades 6, 7, 8, and 9.
A dedicated
group of 20 middle school students will join together 5
days a week to expand their knowledge of basic
theatre
skill-sets of: movement, voice, improvisation, and the
fundamentals of storytelling. In the process, a children’s theatre
performance project will be created and performed for audiences.
Auditions for the TYA Show will be held within the program. No prior
auditions will be held. The first few days will be spent feeling out
the group dynamic and building an ensemble. On the third day of the
workshop, students will be prepped as to how to handle themselves in an
audition situation and then be given the chance to try out their
newfound skills. All students will be cast in the production. There
will be four performances in the Black Box theater.
Alicia in Wonder
Tierra Cast List
By
Sylvia Gonzalez S.
Alicia enters a
Mexican curio shop with her mother. Fascinated by the
Latin American imports, Alicia reaches for a Mexican doll, but trips
over a piece of pottery. Spinning out of her hand, the doll vanishes
beneath a Mexican blanket. Alicia follows and thus begins an amazing
adventure. In a fantastical world, Alicia meets a variety of
characters: a Day of the Dead sugar skull, an armadillo, and the
chicken-claw-wielding Elvira gang -
if touched by the claws, the soul
becomes trapped in Mexican pottery. With the aid of the puppet, Ramon,
Alicia heads off to find the Pottery Maker and learn the
truth about
the trapped souls. During the journey, she meets a goat head steaming
in an oven, a sad old toad that is so ugly bricks keep falling on him,
a soul-brother cactus man, and the Tree of Heads which holds the heads
of Pancho Villa, Charo, a mambo king, a pachuco, and a Hispanic yuppie.
Alicia journeys through the Distorted Memory Forest, the Village of
Laughter, and a maze of black velvet paintings. Finally, she finds the
Pottery Maker who reveals the truth about Mexican Pottery. Alicia
magically finds herself back at the curio shop, where the shopkeeper
looks like Ramon, and her mother reminds her of Rosa the doll. As they
leave, Alicia's mother tells her they must hurry home to help cook a
very special meal for a family gathering: baked goat head.
Produced through special arrangements with Dramatic Publishing.
STAFF:
Director:
Roxanne Schroeder-Arce
Assistant
Director: Meg Seaman
Production
Stage Manager: Katie Humbert
Costume
Designer: Joanne Sargent
Roxanne
Schroeder-Arce (Director of Alicia in
Wonder Tierra) is
excited
to be working with Weston Drama Workshop for the first time this
summer. This coming year she joins the faculty at the University of
Texas Department of Theatre and Dance after four years at Emerson
College in Boston, Massachusetts where she served as an assistant
professor of theatre education. Prior to teaching at Emerson, she was
an assistant professor at California State University Fresno. Professor
Schroeder-Arce received her M.F.A. in Drama and Theatre for Youth from
the University of Texas at Austin and her B.S. degree and teaching
credential from Emerson College. Prior to her college level
appointments, Professor Schroeder-Arce taught high school theatre both
in Laredo, Texas and in Austin. She served for several years as
Artistic and Education Director of Teatro Humanidad. A product of
Upward Bound, she taught Performing Arts for the Keene State College
Upward Bound program. Professor Schroeder-Arce has taught teachers at
programs throughout the U.S. and in Switzerland. She has worked with
secondary school students in numerous projects and has taught drama at
multiple elementary and middle schools throughout the nation. She also
served as an apprentice at the Dramashop Program at Seattle Children's
Theatre.
Aside from her
teaching, Schroeder-Arce is a director, performer,
scholar/researcher and playwright. She has received two playwriting
commissions and her bilingual plays have been presented to children and
youth in theatres around the United States. Her plays Señora
Tortuga and Legend of the Poinsettia are published by Anchorage Press.
She has taught workshops on issues of diversity in theatre for young
audiences nationally and internationally. Professor Schroeder-Arce
currently serves as a Board member of the American Alliance for Theatre
and Education and she is actively involved with Theatre for Young
Audiences/USA where she is the U.S. representative to the NEXT program
and a former Board member. She is active in the American Society for
Theatre Research and the International Theatre for Young Audiences
Research Network. Her research interests include multi-cultural theatre
education and Latino theatre for young audiences.
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2010 Morning
Program
The Weston
Drama Workshop Morning Summer Theater program is designed
for students entering grades 6, 7, 8, and 9. The NEW workshop rehearsal
hours are 9:00 a.m. - 1:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. The hours are
extended during tech week (the week leading up to the performances).
Daily attendance is required. Students should bring a bag lunch.
Rehearsals are at Regis College Fine Arts Center, 235 Wellesley Street,
Weston, MA. The cast members will be exposed to various aspects of
theater production, i.e., basic stage terms and safety, stage presence,
movement, and voice projection.
Book
by Anthony Drewe
Music by George Stiles
Lyrics by Anthony Drewe
Based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Ugly Duckling
Written by
George Stiles and Anthony Drewe (dubbed "The brightest hopes
for the future of the British musical" by The London Daily Telegraph),
"Honk!" is the story of Ugly, whose odd, gawky looks instantly incite
prejudice from his family and neighbors. Separated from the farm and
pursued by a hungry Cat, Ugly must find his way home. Along his
rollicking and harrowing journey he not only discovers his true beauty
and glorious destiny, but also finds love and acceptance in all its
forms.
Produced
through
special
arrangements
with
Music
Theatre
International.
STAFF:
Director/Musical
Director:
Christopher
Holownia
Choreographer:
Becky Dillaway
Assistant
Musical Director: Katie McTyre
Production
Stage Manager: Mariah Minigan
Costume
Designer: Meg Cowe
Asst. to the
Musical Directors/Accompanist: Luke Flood
Christopher
Holownia
(Director/Musical Director of Honk!) has been
participating in Weston Drama Workshop almost uninterruptedly since he
was in 6th grade. Among other roles, he has played Alan in "Babes in
Toyland," Joseph in "Joseph...," King Pellinore in "Camelot," The
President in "Dear World," Boris in "Can-Can," and Mr. Walker in "Steel
Peer." Chris has also music directed many shows for WDW, including
"Children of Eden," "West Side Story," "Once on This Island," "Hello,
Dolly," "Thoroughly Modern Millie," and "Seussical." He currently
teaches foreign languages at Wellesley High School and directs music
for St. John the Evangelist Church in Wellesley, Emerson College, the
Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, and Wellesley Middle School. A
native of Wellesley, Chris graduated from Yale University with a degree
in Philosophy and will receive his Masters in Teaching from Simmons
College this May. He is thrilled to have been asked to direct his first
show with Weston Drama Workshop and is very much looking forward to
this exciting opportunity.
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2010 Technical
Theatre Program
Designed for
students entering grade 9 up through 23. The workshop hours are
5:00pm-9:00pm, Sunday through Thursday. Hours
are extended
during tech and production weeks. Daily attendance is required. The areas of
technical production include: basic stage terms, stage and tool safety, set
design, lighting, painting, sound design, set construction and stage management. The
Technical Crew are responsible for the run of all the shows.
STAFF:
Technical
Director/Set Designer: Margot Law
Lead Carpenter:
TBA
Lighting
Designer: Chris Fournier
Assistant
Lighting Designer: Sean O'Leary
Sound Designer:
TBA
Properties
Designer: Nick Sulfaro
Scenic
Painters: Katie Humbert and Nick Sulfaro
Technical
Intern: David Shockett
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