Before this summer, 13 year-old Catherine Palmer had only participated in school plays and other productions of little magnitude. But after three weeks packed full of rehearsals and instruction, she found herself stepping into quite a different arena with just a few more spectators in the audience - the main stage at the Seattle Children's Theater.
Palmer is one of the many young people who participate in the SCT Drama School, which holds 192 summer classes and takes in around 2,200-2,500 registrations during that time. The school has been functioning since the mid-1970s.
During the summer, there are seven performance programs which prepare kids for a production in the theater itself.
Two hundred fifty-one students auditioned for the performance programs, but not all were selected to act in the plays. This year's group has performed or will perform "The Tempest," "All-of-a-Kind Family," "Speak," "The Crucible," "FOOTLOOSE," "Jungal-book" and "The Martian Chronicles."
"It's fairly competitive," said SCT education director Karen Sharp. "We ended up casting about half [the auditioners] in the shows and in our Young Actor Institute program, which is sort of our highest level of training that we do for high-school-age students."
Palmer, who played the part of Gonzalo in "The Tempest," and the rest of her cast received instruction from Summer Season Producer Don Fleming. Starting on July 5, the group worked from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Monday through Friday in preparation for last Thursday's big première.
"Our director Don - he's amazing, he's really cool," Palmer said. "We just kind of worked each day on different things, and learning our lines. I am still amazed that three weeks after we're starting, we're on stage."
Despite all the practice, Palmer was still a wee bit nervous when the big moment came.
"My first line without anybody else talking, I was, you know, heart going a hundred miles a minute, but that's the fun of it," she said.
"FOOTLOOSE" is the first full-length musical the Drama School has put on in the summer.
"We sat down and we talked about it, and it seemed like it's the next step for us to take," Sharp said.
Sharp thinks that the addition of a full-length musical drew more students to the initial auditions.
A byproduct of the program is the close relationships that the students form after spending hours upon hours together during the four weeks.
"We're really a close-knit group," Palmer said.
Sharp agreed that the program does produce lasting friendships among the cast.
"That is something that is so satisfying, being part of this program - to see that community that gets built in the summer season show," she said. "Because we know that's part of what we do. Of course for the summer season shows, we're trying to do the best shows that we possibly can, but we also know that it's such an important part of that for the students is building that group, that community that forms."
Palmer's "Tempest" group was drawn even closer together after a terrible accident last week.
Although tragedies in the theater usually come from the nature of the fictional plays themselves, reality dealt a harsh blow when cast member Jasmine Ball, 11, drowned in the Yakima River during a rafting trip with her family on July 22.
"That was kind of hard," Palmer said. "[Thursday] was the first performance that we got through without anybody crying."
Sharp said that she and her staff get ready for almost every possible situation, but there was little they could have done to prepare for such a blow.
"Words can't express how difficult this has been," she said. "We brought in a counselor who was wonderful, both for me, I think, and for the kids."
In the end, Sharp and her staff decided to go on with the play despite the trying circumstances. An intern read off Ball's lines from off-stage and the cast made it through all three performances.
"I knew midweek that [the 'Tempest' cast members] need to be together and they need to have this experience together," Sharp said.
All of last week's "Tempest" performances were dedicated to Ball's memory.
Once this summer's plays have come to an end, the SCT Drama School continues to offer classes during the school year.
And while the program seems to be functioning well, Sharp was sure to point out that the job is never completely done.
"I would say we're very lucky, we have a very successful program registration-wise and the quality of the program, the great faculty and directors that we have," she said. "So certainly this is the basic framework and model, but within that I would never say that we're done making any changes because I think a good program is always looking at ways to continue to improve in whatever ways that might mean."[[In-content Ad]]
