The students have spent not quite 5 weeks, first auditioning, then studying and discussing the script, then learning music and blocking, memorizing like crazy, and now, in the last leg of this very fast process, are digging into the characters, the relationships, and are having a blast throughout the process.

Those of you who know Into the Woods, know that it is a HUGE show filled with incredibly difficult music, gigantic trees, elaborate costumes, and loads of magic.  We've stripped away all the production bells and whistles and are simply sinking down into the material.  (No small feat in and of itself, given the short time we've had!)

Next week on Wednesday, the 23rd at 7pm and on Thursday, the 24th at 5pm, we will be opening the doors of Willard's Metal Shop Theater (located on Regent street, just off of Stewart and one block East of Telegraph Ave) to anyone who would like to come watch this miraculous work in progress, free of charge!

Many of our students-- young artists we’ve known since they were just starting to understand their love of musical theater-- have gone on to study theater throughout the country and abroad.  At YMTC, we want to nurture the life cycle of the artist.  We encourage our students to come back and not only continue their training but to act as mentors to our younger students who are just coming up through the ranks. 

Since our production of Les Miserables several summers ago, we began opening up our auditions to college students and reaping the rewards, not just in the work that was happening on stage, but perhaps even more importantly, in the work that was happening off stage.  We found the relationships between the younger cast members and the older ones to be an amazing benefit for everyone involved, and so we decided to formalize the situation. This summer, for our production of West Side Story, we have given six college students -- in our cast of forty-four -- formal, internship positions in which they will be acting as mentors to the younger students in the cast, as well as performing a wide variety of duties related to the production. We would like to introduce them to you now!

Only just left...

Marnina Wirtschafter graduated from high school only a year ago. She graced the YMTC stage in many leading and supporting roles over her years as a young student,  including Little Red in Into the Woods, Maggie in A Chorus Line, and most recently Lucille Frank in Parade.  This past year, she’s been at UCLA doing all sorts of performing as well as growing roots in her new found home in southern California.  Marnina will be joining us this summer in the role of Anita and is thrilled to be taking on the formal role of a YMTC mentor.

Revisiting.....

Some of you may have seen Michael Hanley, a Freshman at UC Berkeley, in our most recent production of Ragtime in the role of Younger Brother. Michael found YMTC only this past year, and came to audition because he had done Ragtime in High School and said it was one of his favorites.  He is so pleased to be in a formal mentorship role this summer, and to be playing the role of Mouthpiece, and most especially because of his experience this past winter with YTMC.

Andrew Humann, who played Jesus in our production of Jesus Christ Superstar at the Ashby Stage last summer, is coming back too, this time for a change of pace, to play the role of Riff, the leader of the Jets gang.  Andrew, is in school at Diablo Valley College and he is very busy working as a professional actor all over the Bay Area with Shotgun Players, Berkeley Playhouse and most recently with Center Rep in their production of Spring Awakening.

We are so happy to welcome back Derek Luscatoff, a Junior at UC Berkeley who has already done two shows with us since coming to Cal. Most recently, he played J. P. Morgan in our production of Ragtime and almost two years ago now, he set the YMTC stage on fire with his tap dancing expertise in Anything Goes.  Derek is not only a stellar dancer, he is also an accomplished pianist, and has played for YMTC workshops in the past.  Derek, who will appear in the role of Indio, is delighted to be in a mentorship position with us this summer.

Finding us late........

We are so delighted to welcome YMTC newcomers, Jaron Liclican and Lorenz Gozales—both Theater and Performance Studies majors  at UC Berkeley— to our mentorship program this summer. 

Jaron (pictured left) who will appear in the role of Bernardo, has an extensive background in both theater and television and has been a first place prize winner, and placed in the final rounds in multiple talent award shows including Show Me Your Talent, Star Quest and the X Factor.

Lorenz, who will play the role of Chino this summer has been working in and around the theater both on stage and off for many of his young years.   Not only is he studying acting and voice at Cal but he is busy being a key player in several programs on campus including filming for the Southeast Asian Student Coalition, designing for the Celebration of Asian Pacific American Womyn, and being the Artistic Director of the Pilipino Cultural Night for the past three years.

Coming  full circle............

Simone Kertesz first appeared in a YTMC show as a 7^th grader in our first production of Les Miserables as Little Cosette.  She went on to play in both the ensemble and in many leading roles over the years with us, and came back to YMTC as an alum to play the role of Fantine in our revival of Les Miserables in 2009, and to originate the role of Emma Davis in the world premiere of The Mothers of Ludlow in 2010. This summer, Simone will be graduating from Chico State University with a degree in Musical Theater ; she will join us  again at YMTC, this time working as the Assistant Director on West Side Story as well as assistant teaching our Musical Theater Workshops at the end of the summer.  We are so excited to have Simone returning to share what she has learned over the years, both and YMTC and elsewhere with the young performers who are now in the same shoes that she grew up in.

Come see these students along side YMTC’s favorite young actors, as well as many new faces, in West Side Story this summer—a show that is bound to be one of our biggest hits yet! Opening at the El Cerrito High Performing Arts Theater, and boasting a live, 30-piece orchestra, the show runs for 6 performances only!  Don’t miss it!  Tickets on sale now at Brown Paper Tickets.

Before this production with Shotgun Players, David had the pleasure of music directing Assassins with Ray of Light Theatre in San Francisco last summer.  And on April 2^nd, The San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle  presented their annual awards ceremony honoring excellence in Bay Area theater for 2011.  There were nominations in 82 categories. The award for Best Musical Direction went to David Moschler, for his work on that production. So, understandably, we are thrilled to be offering this unique opportunity to 10 promising students who will win the upcoming auditions for our Understudy/Shadow Cast program.

Students chosen for the program will work with YMTC, Artistic Director, Jennifer Boesing as well as Shotgun Players director, Susannah Martin, and of course, David Moschler, who bridges both companies, and will bring award winning talent and skills to his music direction on this show!

Read a review of Light Theatre's production of Assassins »

For more info about auditions, visit our auditions page. 

Listen to the story »

If you happen to miss the live broadcast, stay tuned for a link to their website where you can hear the story anytime!

http://www.kalw.org/post/youth-production-old-time-play-channels-present-day-movements

There is even more anticipation in the room than usual, because today is the sitzprobe for Ragtime—the chance for the cast to sit and sing through the show, accompanied for the first time by the orchestra. Forty chairs for the actors, and twenty six chairs for the instrumentalists, the biggest orchestra to ever perform in the Julia Morgan, is set up, and soon the light sound of a flute plays, and the actors and musicians take their seats, as all talking ceases instantly, and the orchestra begins to play.

 As the evening progresses, it becomes clear that all the work the actors have put into the show has paid off.  Totally unafraid to sing in front of twenty-six professional musicians, the actors relish the experience to sing with such a large orchestra supporting them.  A very rare experience indeed.

Song fills the theatre with renewed vigor, as all the actors lend their voices to this spellbinding tale. As the last chords fade of the final act, the actors break out in cheers, applauding the orchestra as well as each other, congratulating everyone on a job well done. 

Without any staging, set, costumes or lights, this music alone is a powerfully moving thing.  We can hardly wait until opening night!

Here's a sneak peak of what I'm talking about.

at this live music and art event at The Public Market in Emeryville!

Come visit us at our table there, and you can get a ton of information about Ragtime, about our upcoming auditions for West Side Story and about our programs in general.

Also, as if getting a sneak preview of Ragtime wasn't enough, you'll be showered with cool, live music and art for the rest of the evnening, including everything from the Oakland School of the Arts guitar ensemble to a showing from the Firehouse Art Collective.  

 AND... you'll have over 20 unique food stalls --offering food from around the globe-- to choose your dinner from.  

The event starts at 4:30pm and will go until Midnight! FUN FUN FUN at the PUBLIC MARKET at 5959 Shellmound Street in Emeryville.

Here's a Flyer for the event! [PDF] »

For audiences who saw our Jesus Christ Superstar at The Ashby Stage this past summer, you know that YMTC is not your average youth company. We always give our audiences the experience of a full, live orchestra, and we attract the Bay Area's most talented and dedicated young singer/actors to our programs. Merrily is no exception. 

Rehearsals have begun, and it is already clear that what we've got here is an exceptionally sophisticated group of young artists in this cast. 

Don't miss what's sure to be a truly refreshing and entertaining piece of theater!

Buy tickets one line now at Brown Paper Tickets.

Audience members have said again and again that they just need to get people in the door and then they are blown away by what they experience at a YMTC show.  "This is not just any youth company," one audience member said, "It is so unexpected."

Well, audiences, get used to it!  YMTC is now attracting the most talented and dedicated young performers throughout the entire Bay Area and our popularity is growing.

Not only are audiences inspired by the level of training that the young singer/actors are clearly getting at YMTC, but it is amazingly good musical theater at crazy low prices.  One audience member said, coming to see your shows is "like having a fine dining experience at the Culinary Academy. You know you are going to get an amazing meal, and at an affordable cost because all of the chefs are students."

The band, always live at YMTC, is once again stellar, the sets and lights a perfect synergy in the Ashby Stage theater-- a welcome and exciting change change of venue for this show.

The theater is small -- only seating 110 -- so houses sell out fast. Don't wait to buy your tickets and be one of the people to get turned away at the door. Shows run Wednesday-Sunday the week of the 18th and Tuesday-Saturday the week of the 25th.

On Saturday, July 30th, we are throwing a special Gala Closing Night performance with champagne, deserts, and surprise performances by directors and YMTC alumni. All the proceeds form this event will go toward our tuition assistance fund, to help talented students have access to our programs, who would not otherwise be able to afford it.

But tickets at Brown Paper Tickets.

In the spring of 2005, only 6 years ago, we were producing one musical a year at Longfellow Middle School. And that year Jesus Christ Superstar was the slated show. YMTC's founder, Bruce Wicinas, single-handedly produced the show, managed the space rental, hired and managed the two directors, and over saw almost all aspects of the production including all design aspects and building the entire set in his backyard. Those were the days of running cue-to-cues with no stage manager and doing it on the fly during a cast run-through.

A scant six years later... it's a whole new world.

This summer, we'll be remounting the rock opera at The Ashby Stage, home of the Shotgun Players and our direction and design team has grown to eleven people as well a slew of amazing assistants and other crew members to help run the show.

The Ashby Stage is a professional house and a wonderful space to perform in and to see live theater. And... it is a 100 seat theater — ie. pretty darn small for YMTC. We are excited about doing this show in a small theater because JCS is a highly charged, emotionally intense, and intimate kind of show when done very close up to the audience.  We've got a seven-piece professional rock band playing in the show and the players are being integrated into the set so that they are scattered in and around the cast.

We've had several production meetings already; our designers have completed the scale model of the set and are starting to build any day now; our music director has been meeting one on one with the principal cast members to get a head start on coaching their music; our choreographer team are well underway with creating the big dance numbers; and full cast rehearsals will begin in another two weeks.

Come one, come all, old-timer YMTC-ers and those just learning about us.  Come see what the buzz is all about!  Tickets on sale now at Brown Paper Tickets.  Get 'em fast-- with only 100 seats available a night, there might just be a line out the door!