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LCT hosted a reading of
Waiting for Whimsey,
a play-in-development by Sherri Miller. Over the course of the
evening, Ms. Miller was able to not only hear her work aloud,
but also receive constructive feedback on her writing.
Volunteers for the event included
LCT staff,
interns, contract actors, Company B students
and
community members.
Many thanks to the participants and audience members whose
constructive ideas will help the playwright further develop her
work, as she continues her journey to successful publication of
Whimsey.
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In the Fall of
2002, the artistic staff at Lexington Children’s Theatre began
the process of developing this production pooling the creative
talents of Jeremy Kisling as playwright and Vivian Snipes as
Director. Spring of 2003, Jeremy decided to use the original
folktale as the basis for our adaptation of the story. He sat at
the computer clicking away on the keys — then with a rough draft
outline of the script we invited the 2003 season actors and
interns to help us shape the script. We explored the many tools
and concepts of storytelling— we worked masks and audience
participation in and out of various drafts of the play.
In the Fall of
2003 more intense work on the script began with draft 2.5.
Vivian Snipes, our director, and a committed group of LCT
interns spent several afternoons reading and re-reading the
play. They worked sitting around a table, on their feet in the
studios, sometimes with scripts, sometimes improvising but
always asking questions, giving feedback to the playwright and
giving voice to the characters. Through these sessions the
script really started to grow. We kept questioning: Do the
events of the play happen in the correct order? Is each
character distinctly unique? Does the beginning support the
ending? After many discussions, drawings and reworking we
arrived at a rehearsal draft (8.0).
In November and
December -- working from the rehearsal draft, Vivian
brainstormed with our Resident Designers, Eric Morris (Scenic
and Lighting Design) and Kirsten Aurelius (Costume and Puppetry
Design) to create the world of the play. Then in January 2004
rehearsal began with the cast. After two and a half weeks of
intensive rehearsal the show opened in our Main Stage theatre.
They were on tour
through April 9, 2004.
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Playwright John Urquhart worked
with director Vivian Snipes on a stage adaptation based on
Newbery Award-winner Karen Hesse's moving novel,
Witness -- to tell the tale
of a small Vermont town's encounter with the Ku Klux Klan in
1924.
Witness had a staged reading
at the NV/NV conference held in the John F. Kennedy Center
for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. in May of 2004.
Then the fully produced
production was performed on our Main Stage,
kicking off our 66th season of theatre for young audiences in
September of 2004!
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Cows Don't Fly
and other known Facts
Local author/illustrator Paul Brett
Johnson was generous enough to allow us to adapt three of his
delightful picture books. The resulting play, Cows Don't Fly and
other known facts is based on The Cow Who Wouldn't
Come Down, The Pig Who Ran a Red Light and
The
Goose Who Went Off in a Huff. A four member acting
company toured Cows and The Legend of John Henry
from January through May of 2005. |
