Footlight Players

Press Releases

Press Releases in reverse chronological order.

Press Release, June 29, 2009

Footlight Players Theater-For-Youth, SUMMER 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, by Brian Jones

Footlight Players Performing Stories of Roald Dahl

Footlight Players is celebrating its sixth birthday with two productions that put the familiar lyric “Come with me, and you’ll be, in a world of pure imagination!” into practice. Roald Dahl’s timeless story of the world-famous candy man and his quest to find an heir comes to life in Willy Wonka, the stage adaptation of Dahl's book “Charlie and The Chocolate Factory,” featuring songs from the classic family film “Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory.”

Roald Dahl's story James And The Giant Peach comes hilariously to life in this delightful dramatization that reveals the wickedness of some, the goodness of others, and the indecision encountered by many when they are faced with crises. A magical peach! An imprisoned boy! Insect friends! An incredible journey!

Willy Wonka will perform at 7:00 on Friday, July 10 in Waller Hall's main theater of the IUP Performing Arts Center. James and The Giant Peach will perform at 7:00 Saturday, July 11th, also at Waller Hall's main theater. For tickets call 724-357-2965, or purchase them from any Footlight Player.

Press Release, March 21, 2009

Footlight Players Theater-For-Youth, SUMMER 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, by Brian Jones

Footlight Players Announces Summer Program Dates

Summer is just around the corner, and Footlight Players has announced its summer plans for the community. Registrations are now being taken for the popular summer program that will begin on June 15th at Theater-by-the-Grove on IUP’s campus. Youngsters ages 7 to 12, and teens ages 13 to 17 will enjoy four weeks of fun preparing plays and musicals. These will provide a summer treat for the whole community on the weekend of July 10th.

In addition to robins returning to our front yards, another clue that the cold weeks of winter are behind us is the announcement of this popular program by Executive Director Brian Jones. “This is one of the benefits of living in a university community,” says Jones. “During the summer months we can provide the resources of IUP’s Department of Theater and Dance so that young people can joyfully explore their talents. At the end of it all they get to create an evening of live performance for their friends and neighbors.”

Workshops and rehearsals in IUP’s recently renovated Performing Arts Center begin daily at 9am, and last until 4pm. Under the direction of professional artists, students are engaged in age appropriate activities to explore their talents for acting, singing, story-telling, and dance, as well as behind the scenes crafts.

Theresa McDeavitt’s daughter Elizabeth has attended Footlight since it started. “Footlight has such a way of blending instruction and recreation that it has become our best four weeks of the summer,” says McDeavitt. “Elizabeth is learning a sense of self-assurance, and I just think every kid should have this opportunity. She just loves to go.”

The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, through its Partners in the Arts program, distributes funding to help support the program. Footlight has received a grant every year from the Pennsylvania Rural Arts Alliance to cultivate the arts in our area. Parents can go to www.iup.edu/theater to register and get more information about Footlight.

SUMMER 2008:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Written by: Brian Jones

Footlight Players Offers Weekend Audition Workshop

On May 24 th Footlight Players will offer a new feature of their popular summer program. A free weekend workshop will be held at IUP’s Cogswell Hall preparing young people to audition for Footlight productions. Tom Octave, a Pittsburgh-based singer and director, will lead an intensive workshop for teens. Octave will teach and coach professional practices to help young people land big roles. Jillian Orr, a recent IUP graduate and interactive theater specialist, will conduct a workshop for younger actors.

A “create a set in a day” competition will also be held for young people who enjoy building more than they do performing. Professional designers and technicians will challenge participants to make the best set possible in just a few hours using found materials.

The workshop begins at 10:00 am and runs until 3:00 pm. The event is free, but pre-registration is required. For more information and to register, go to www.iup.edu/finearts, or call Brian Jones at 724-357-2969.

Footlight Players, a community theater-for-youth service program at IUP, still has some room in its popular summer program beginning June 9th. Open to anyone with a desire to explore their creative talents, Footlight now attracts over 50 young people each summer. This year’s program is putting a twist on familiar fairy tales with productions of the musical Into The Woods, Jr., and Big Bad, a play that puts the Big Bad Wolf on trial. The Brother’s Grimm, a hilarious spoof on the writers of many of our favorite fairy tales will also be performed. One of those tales will also be used to create a musical review by Footlight campers.

Footlight Players received a financial hug again this year from the Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts, the regional arts funding partnership of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. State government funding comes through an annual appropriation by Pennsylvania’s General Assembly and from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. They are also supported this year by the Indiana Teen Fund and generous contributions by area businesses and individuals.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: anytime after March 2008

Written by: Brian Jones

Popular Summer Program Back—Putting A Twist On Familiar Fairy Tales

Footlight Players, a community theater-for-youth program on IUP’s campus, is taking registrations now for its popular summer program. This year’s program is putting a twist on familiar fairy tales with productions of the musical Into The Woods, Jr., Big Bad, a play that puts the Big Bad Wolf on trial, and The Brother’s Grimm, a hilarious spoof on the writers of many of our favorite fairy tales. One of those tales will also be used to create a musical review by Footlight campers.

Footlight is a month-long day camp for children 7 to 13, and a teen academy for those 13 and older. Open to anyone with a desire to explore their creative talents, Footlight now attracts over 50 young people each summer. It is four weeks of daily workshops and rehearsals beginning June 9 th. It ends with a festival of plays produced and performed by the players on the weekend of July 4th.

This year’s special guest artist will be Sharen Camille. Camille, an accomplished professional actress from Maryland, will direct a production of Into the Woods, Jr., a show that seems to always delight audiences young and old. Camille has national and international experience touring as Maria in West Side Story, Ellie in Showboat, and Louisa in The Sound of Music among many others. In NYC she joined the cast of the record setting The Fantastics as The Girl. She’ll bring these years of experience and years of vocal training to Footlight as a workshop leader and director. She says, “everything sounds so exciting, I’m really looking forward to it.”

You don’t have to have experience on stage to participate. The Footlight experience is for anyone currently enrolled in a full-day public school setting and interested in pursuing their creativity in the performing arts, both onstage and backstage. It requires no previous experience. You can get registration materials by contacting the Footlight office at 724-357-2969, or on the web at www.arts.iup.edu/theater/footlight.

Teenagers will enjoy specialized workshops in performance techniques, as well as backstage crafts each morning, followed by rehearsals of their plays in the afternoon. Children in the day-camp will rehearse their plays in the morning, and then enjoy creative dramatics and stagecraft activities in the afternoon.

Six counselors, all successful IUP theater majors or recent graduates, support the directors with workshops and creative activities. They also take a major role in producing the plays. Jillian Orr, recent IUP graduate just accepted to graduate school at Harvard, will direct and lead workshops. Corey Lunchuck, an Indiana native and graduate of Indiana High School, is the lighting designer and technical director of Footlight, and helps kids learn hands-on the technology of theater production. About the value of the program, Lunchuck remarks, “each year we see many young people arrive somewhat quiet and in some sort of shell. By the end of the summer they are completely at home in front of an audience.” Dan Iwaniec, an IUP graduate now in the Costume and Scenery Design program at the University of Maryland, will return to design and teach design.

For more information and to register, go to www.arts.iup.edu/theater/footlight, or call Brian Jones at 724-357-2969.

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SUMMER 2007

FOOTLIGHT PLAYERS, IUP’S SUMMER THEATER PROGRAM, WILL BE HELD IN BRAND NEW PERFORMANCE SPACE WITH NEW PRICES AND DISCOUNTS

INDIANA, Pa. -- Footlight Players, a theater-for-youth summer program for the Indiana area, will begin its fourth summer program on June 25. This year, due to the construction of the Fisher/Waller Hall Performing Arts Center, Footlight will be held in the newly remodeled Cogswell music building. Footlight is four weeks of intensive workshops and rehearsals that take place Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., giving students a chance to be immersed in a theatrical experience. The program finishes in a festival of plays produced performed by the youth involved on the weekend of July 23.

The Footlight experience is for anyone interested in pursuing their creativity in the performing arts, both onstage and backstage, and requires no previous experience in theater. In addition to cultivating onstage and backstage skills, Footlight also gives students ages 7 to 18 a chance to discover their own creativity as they prepare for and create theatrical pieces. They learn values such as teamwork, self confidence and responsibility.

"We’ve found that there’s loads of talent in the Indiana area," says Footlight executive director Brian Jones. "When the schools let out for the summer, there’s just no creative outlet around like Footlight."

Teenagers will enjoy specialized workshops in performance techniques, as well as backstage crafts and will also rehearse for and work on their own productions. Children in the day-camp will also have their own productions and separate workshops to take part in.

Six counselors, all successful IUP theater majors or recent graduates, support the directors with workshops and creative activities. They also take a major role in producing the plays. Corey Lunchuck, an Indiana native and graduate of Indiana High School and IUP, is the lighting designer and technical director of Footlight, and helps kids learn hands-on the technology of theater production. Lexa Hough, also an Indiana High School graduate, is Footlight’s choreographer and leads physical warm-ups and workshops on dance styles for musical theater and hip-hop performance.

Registration materials are available by contacting the Footlight office at 724-357-2969, or looking us up on the web at www.arts.iup.edu/theater/footlight.

Footlight is implementing a payment schedule that is different from past years. Due to the necessary costs of creating these wonderful productions, the registration fee was raised this year. However, Footlight is offering an opportunity to register for the 2007 program at the 2006 rate of $450 until March 15. Also, a discount rate of $475 is available to those who register earlier than the May 1 deadline. After May 1, the cost will be $500.

Cena Chovanic, a Footlight alum, said "This was the most awesome thing I’ve ever done. I really can’t wait ‘til next year…the counselors were extremely helpful and fun to be around."

For more information and to register, go to www.arts.iup.edu/theater/footlight, or call Brian Jones at 724-357-2969.

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SUMMER 2006

FOR RELEASE ANYTIME AFTER, June 28, 2006

Written by: Brian Jones

Local Talent Joins Broadway Talent

Home-grown Indiana talent will be joined by a recent transplant from Broadway to share the stage for Footlight Players “Festival of Plays” at 7:00pm on Friday and Saturday nights, July 7^th and 8^th. Forty seven aspiring and talented young people spent four weeks rehearsing and training for this festival. They will take to IUP’s Theater-by-the-Grove stage with an Appalachian Folk Tale, a musical revue, a Greek myth told in the style of an ancient tragedy, and a comic drama about characters in search of a play.

For the second half of both nights’ performances Billy Hartung will present a Cabaret Performance of songs linked together with a humorous and touching story about the experience of fatherhood. Hartung is a Pittsburgh native who has appeared on Broadway, off-Broadway, in films, television and in regional theatres throughout the country. He says, “This Cabaret is about what I as an actor, husband and father …celebrate…honor…and experience. I’m a father and a son and I’m also a father who has a son. I guess it could be said that there is a lot of material out there that touches on this theme.”

On Friday night, audiences will enjoy Athena and the Spider Woman, a Greek-styled tragedy written by Altoona native Dick Caram. Like many Greek tragedies, this story is about love, hatred and pride. In it, the prideful Arachne, played by Adrianna LaMantia, challenges the goddess Athena, played by Nyla Numan, to a weaving match. The results? Let’s just say that there is a reason we call spiders arachnids.

“Athena” will be followed by 100 Years of Broadway, a musical theatre revue spanning the history of the American musical. “There’s No Business Like Show Business rings true. Familiar songs such as “Music of the Night” from Phantom of the Opera and “76 Trombones” from The Music Man are threaded together with a narrative and choreographed by Indiana High School alum Lexa Hough.

On Saturday, Footlight presents Wiley and the Hairy Man, Suzan Zeder’s retelling of this familiar folk tale. In it, a tomboy name Wiley (played by Lauren Wolfe) keeps trying to conjure his way out of trouble, but in the end learns an important lesson about his own magic.

“Wiley” will be followed by Impromptu, a comic drama about 4 actors awaiting a stage manager who has called them together, to perform “life”. They are not allowed to leave the stage until they have acted out not a play called life, but life itself. A young, searching actor named Tony (played by Tyler Mumau) wants desperately to find truth among this group of typecast actors. Through theatrical improvisation and illusion, they stumble upon the reality of life.

Actor Billy Hartung and playwright/director Dick Caram are professional guest artists invited by Footlight to share their talents and messages about how art brings life to life.

Hartung, a Pittsburgh native with family ties to Indiana County, began his passion for theater in high school, graduated from Point Park University and pursued his dream to Broadway where he appeared as Chuck Cranston in the original Broadway cast of Footloose among others. Hartung is a strong advocate for healthy priorities, and regards his wife, Sharon, as his favorite leading lady. His favorite role? “Being a Daaaaaaddy.”

Caram, a playwright and director from New York, now living in Altoona, has written several plays and is brought to Footlight through an ArtsPath grant. He was a summer faculty member for 30 years at the nation’s oldest arts camp, where he founded their creative writing program. He is a member of the Society of Stage Director and Choreographers.

ArtsPath provides funds for artists to create their work in residency at school and community settings. These quality arts experiences promote the arts as a rich, multifaceted way of learning.

Footlight Players Theater-for-Youth program is in its third year providing creative opportunities. Footlight helps kids discover their creative gifts through producing live theater for the Indiana regional area. They receive funding from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

This project is supported by the Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts (PPA), the regional arts funding partnership of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency. State government funding comes through an annual appropriation by Pennsylvania’s General Assembly and from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal agency. PPA is administered in this region by the Pennsylvania Rural Arts Alliance (PRAA).

Theater-by-the-Grove is located on IUP’s Oak Grove at the intersection of Oakland Avenue and 11^th Street. Tickets are $8 for adults, $5 for youth and are available at the door beginning 45 minutes before show time. Tickets are sold only at the door, or in advance by Footlight cast members.

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FOR RELEASE ON OR BEFORE FRIDAY, May 23, 2006

Written by: Brian Jones

Footlight Players Begins Its Third Summer Program June 12th

Footlight Players, a theater-for-youth summer program for the Indiana area, will begin its third summer program on June 12^th at IUP’s Theater-by-the-Grove in Waller Hall. Footlight is four weeks of daily workshops and rehearsals culminating in a festival of plays produced and performed by the youth involved on the weekend of July 7th.

“We’ve found that there’s loads of talent in the Indiana area,” says Footlight executive director Brian Jones. “When the schools let out for the summer, there’s just no creative outlet around like Footlight.”

But you don’t have to have experience on stage to participate. The Footlight experience is for anyone interested in pursuing their creativity in the performing arts, both onstage and backstage, and requires no previous experience. Youth ages 7 to 18 (anyone in primary and secondary school) can get registration materials by contacting the Footlight office at 724-357-2969, or looking us up on the web at www.arts.iup.edu/theater/footlight.

In order to provide lots of creative opportunity, Footlight will produce four plays this summer. Kevin Bean, programming director for Footlight, will most likely direct a rambunctious “commedia del’arte” performance for teens, and Randall Thorn, music director, will direct a musical theater production for talented singers and dancers. Dick Caram, here on an ArtsPath grant to teach playwriting, will direct some of the younger campers in a stage version of a popular children’s book. Brian Jones will also direct some of the younger campers in a production of Dick Carem’s classic greek play for young people: Athena and the Spider Woman.

Six counselors, all successful IUP theater majors or recent graduates, support the directors with workshops and creative activities. They also take a major role in producing the plays. Corey Lunchuck, an Indiana native and graduate of Indiana High School, is the lighting designer and technical director of Footlight, and helps kids learn hands-on the technology of theater production. Lexa Hough, also an Indiana High School graduate, is Footlight’s choreographer and leads physical warm-ups, and workshops on dance styles for musical theater and hip-hop performance.

Footlight Players began as the brainchild of Zac Campbell, then a student at IUP, and his professor, Brian Jones. They felt that Indiana needed this kind of opportunity for kids and teens in Indiana to pursue their creativity.

Campbell and Jones began a day-camp in 2004 with the help of a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts “Partners in the Arts” program. The next year they added a teen academy with some support from the Children’s Advisory Council of Indiana, and expanded to 39. This year, with the help of an ArtsPath Grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, they are adding a playwriting competition led by playwright and director Dick Caram, and expect over 45 kids and teens to register.

The playwriting competition is currently underway in conjunction with area school teachers. Plays will be selected by Caram for further work in the Footlight program, where kids and teens will use the scripts for workshops and performances.

Cena Chovanic, who joined Footlight last year, said “This was the most awesome thing I’ve ever done. I really can’t wait ‘til next year…the counselors were extremely helpful and fun to be around.”

For more information and to register, go to www.arts.iup.edu/theater/footlight, or call Brian Jones at 724-357-2969

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SUMMER 2005

FOR RELEASE ON OR BEFORE FRIDAY, March 31, 2005

Footlight Players Expands Summer Theater-for-Youth Program

Footlight Players, hosted by IUP’s Department of Theater and Dance, will again offer a summer Theater-for-Youth program, June 20^th through July 16^th. New this year will be a Performing Arts Academy for teens who want to take workshops in theater, music and dance. Younger children will be in Footlight Players day camp and will learn about theater through creative activities. The program will feature guest artist Doug Levine, co-creator of the original musical COLORFAST, which premiered last fall at the Pittsburgh International Children's Theater Festival. With Levine's help, Footlight Players will create their own musical production!

Brian Jones, Footlight’s executive director, says that, “we want to offer opportunities for children and teens to discover their creative talents through making their own musical. We’ll offer opportunities backstage, onstage, and in writing the production so that anyone with an interest will have a successful experience in the company.”

Program director Zac Campbell is especially looking forward to the expanded program. His vision for an exciting theater-for-youth program guides the development of this program that he and Jones want to make an Indiana tradition. When Campbell came to Indiana a few years ago, he saw that there was no opportunity for youth to immerse themselves in a summer theater experience like he had growing up. “There is more to Footlight Players than the children’s theater I was raised in,” says Campbell. “I can’t wait to share the opportunity IUP has provided for us with these young artists.”

All kids and teens that join Footlight will form a company to produce and perform their own show on July 15^th and 16th. The Theater-for-Youth Day Camp operates daily from 9am to 4pm, and the Performing Arts Academy will operate from 1pm to 6pm.

A special guest artist will help the company create the music of the performance. Composer and musician, Doug Levine, from Pittsburgh will show the company how to take their musical ideas into performance through song-writing and rehearsal workshops. Levine co-wrote the musical Colorfast featured at the Pittsburgh International Children’s Theatre Festival last Fall. His experience creating that show will be the basis for Footlight’s production this summer.

Footlight musical director, Randall Thorn, will be working closely with Levine to produce a top notch show. Thorn’s emphasis will be on helping kids and teens enrolled in Footlight to achieve their broader dreams. He is the vocal and music director at Blairsville Middle-Senior High School where he produces and directs many musical productions and straight plays each year. His experience teaching workshops in musical theater, improvisation and private vocal lessons throughout the Indiana area will be shared with the community through the Footlight program.

Five counselors, advanced majors from IUP’s Department of Theater and Dance, will work with the campers and academy students every day. “We chose the counselors for their experience with youth as well as their creative spirit and ability,” says Jones. “They will offer spectacular role models in the arts.” They will lead workshops in creative movement, dance, playwriting, costuming, and backstage crafts as well as assisting with acting.

Sara Steelman, president of the Indiana Arts Council calls this a chance for children to, “have that very important experience of working together to produce a work of art.” Brochures for Footlight may be picked up at the Arts Council office in the Indiana Theatre Building on Philadelphia Street in Indiana.

For more information and to register, go to www.arts.iup.edu/footlight, or call Brian Jones at 724-357-2969.

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SUMMER 2004

FOR RELEASE ON OR BEFORE FRIDAY, MAY 14, 2004

New Theater-For-Youth Day Camp Still Accepting Registrations

Footlight Players, a new theater-for-youth summer day camp at IUP, still has places open for kids 7-14 years old. The camp begins June 7^th and runs Mondays through Fridays until July 2^nd. Footlight Players is a fresh opportunity for children in the Indiana area to explore their talents in a safe and creative atmosphere. Sara Steelman, president of the Indiana Arts Council calls this a chance for children to learn, “that very important experience of working together to produce a work of art.”

Footlight Players offers an outlet for children to explore all aspects of the theater arts including acting, music, dance and backstage crafts. They will play improvisational theater games, build puppet characters, learn musical theater dance combinations, and learn about the great tradition of American Musical Theater. Workshops are taught by professionals who themselves fell in love with theater at an early age.

Zac Campbell, programming director of the camp, says, “I am excited. There is more to Footlight Players than the children’s theater I was raised in. I can’t wait to share the opportunity IUP has provided for us with these young artists.”

Each child will enjoy the company of children their age under the supervision of counselors who are advanced theater majors at IUP. “We chose the counselors for their experience with child care as well as their creative spirit and ability,” says Brian Jones, executive director of Footlight Players.

Each young camper will participate onstage or backstage in a gala performance of a special musical on the nights of July 1^st and 2^nd at 7:30pm. Tuition for the full four week program is $575 per participant. “That’s only $144 per week for incredibly enriching activities,” says Brian Jones, executive director of the new program.

To enroll your child in this exciting opportunity, please send your name, address, phone number and participant’s name along with a $50 check or money order to: The Footlight Players, Department of Theatre and Dance, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 104 Waller Hall, Indiana, Pa 15705.

If you have any questions or would like a brochure feel free to call Tara in The Footlight Players office at 724-357-4026 or email brjones@iup.edu.

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FOR RELEASE ON OR BEFORE MONDAY, APRIL 19

Camp Starts on June 7^th at IUP

The Department of Theatre and Dance at Indiana University of Pennsylvania presents a theater for youth summer day camp; The Footlight Players. Dates of the camp are Monday through Friday beginning June 7^th and runs through July 2^nd. Parents may drop their children off between 7:30 and 8:30am. Pick up time is between 5:00 and 5:30pm. Classes will be held on the IUP Campus at 104 Waller Hall.

The Footlight Players is an educationally based summer day camp for students ages 7 through 14. We will offer an outlet for children to explore all aspects of the theater arts including acting, music, dance and backstage. Our workshops are taught by instructors who are professionals in their respective fields and counselors with experience in theater and working with children. These young artists will learn about the arts and more importantly, themselves while working toward a final show open to the public at the end of the exciting four week program. Each young camper will partake in a musical performed on the nights of July 1^st and 2^nd at 7:30pm.

Our aim is to provide a safe and creative atmosphere for your children while being able to explore the many opportunities in theater. Our service is designed to supply a theater-based education, and we look forward to helping each participant discover and expand his or her creative potential.

Tuition for the full four week program is $575 per participant. Spaces are limited, so act quickly. By sending in your non-refundable deposit of $50 now, you will insure that your child will be able to participate in this summer’s camp.

To enroll your child in this exciting opportunity, please send your name, address, phone number and participant’s name along with a $50 check or money order to:

The Footlight Players

Department of Theatre and Dance

Indiana University of Pennsylvania

104 Waller Hall

Indiana, Pa 15705

If you have any questions or would like a brochure feel free to call Tara in The Footlight Players office at 724-357-4026 or email brjones@iup.edu