Welcome to STC's production of Honk!, a modern, musical adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's The Ugly Duckling.
In the last month, we've started production meetings, made it through auditions, and put together a cast of more than thirty students, all ready to commit their time and honesty to bringing you another stellar production.
Our tenth season has been amazing - we've staged our first company adaptation, expanded our workshop programming, and opened our third teen show in our new black box theatre. With every show the kids exceed our expectations and blow us away with their boundless imaginations. All we can do is to continue to challenge them. Honk! will be the perfect show to test their creativity. Here are a few of the elements we think will be challenging :
1) It's not a Disney musical and therefore is not ground into their cultural consciousness. For most of the students, they had never heard this score before the audition instructions were published.
2) The musical is done often by community theatres and middle schools and often their final product looks the same. It is easy to read this play and skate along it's surface but we will be pushing the students to dig in, do their dramaturgical research, question the cliches, and discover the play anew for themselves. We want a production that is the expression of our specific ensemble and that resonates with our specific audience.
3) For musicals especially, it is easy to get lost in the idea of spectacle and become blinded by the spotlights, flashy choreography, and intricate set pieces. We will spend a lot of time studying book musicals this production. A book musical is a fully integrated show. This means that every element (choreography, staging, costumes, singing) is only important insofar as it helps advance our story. Nothing can be done for show. Everything must reveal something about the characters, their relationships, or their circumstances. This has already proven a wonderful challenge to the production team, and we are excited to see the kids grapple with and overcome this obstacle as well.
4) Honesty. Our core acting curriculum at STC is based on the idea of listening to your circumstances and responding in an organic way. What is the best way to achieve this honesty when you are breaking into song? Or into dance?
All of these challenges will keep us on our toes and push us to excellence. Honk! is sure to wrap up our tenth season in a wonderful way
This last year has been special in many ways, but the best part of STC's tenth season has been you!
You have been more involved. You have read our blogs. You followed us on Facebook and Instagram. You've brought your friends to our shows and talked us up. Thank you!!!
We believe that an informed audience is an invested audience and so it is our goal to continue this conversation; to tear back the curtain and let you into our process. As we move into rehearsals for Honk! we will be posting pictures, videos, and blog posts for this show. Check in on Facebook or Instagram and spread the word!
Kivan Kirk
Artistic & Education Director
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