National Youth Theatre Festival
SUMMER 2011
NYTF offers fun and educational workshops from local, regional and nationally-recognized industry professionals, including award-winning LA choreographer Linda Love-Simmons, who has worked on Disneyland Resort’s parades and shows. Participants will improve their acting, singing and dancing skills, learn about having a better audition - plus have a performance opportunity to show off what they've learned! Click here to download NYTF flyer.
AGES: 12-19
TUITION: $150 - includes a T-shirt, all workshops, activities, snacks, dinner on Wednesday, lunch on Thursday & Friday and breakfast on Saturday. Students with food allergies will need to provide their own meals.
Wednesday, June 22 | 4:00pm-11:00pm The fun gets started with check-in, welcome, introductions, games and a BBQ. Then we’ll start right in with choreography and music workshops from festival director Shawn Mortensen and begin learning an ensemble music revue. The day will end with everyone heading to the SCERA Shell Outdoor Theatre to relax and enjoy a local vocal competition and a big-screen outdoor movie showing of “The Goonies.”
Thursday, June 23 | 9:00am-10:00pm Enjoy a workshop on better auditions by Rodger Sorensen; and more choreography, music and performance rehearsals. That evening, we’ll return to the SCERA Shell Outdoor Theatre to watch SCERA’s production of the musical classic Singin’ in the Rain.
Friday, June 24 | 9:30am-10:00pm The morning starts off with more choreography and music and putting the finish touches on our ensemble performance, And then comes the highlight of the festival: a one-of-a-kind workshop with LA-based choreographer Linda Love-Simmons. That evening, all participants will perform their music revue as a pre-show to a large audience at the SCERA Shell Outdoor Theatre. Then it’s off to a parking lot dance and pizza party to celebrate!
Saturday, June 25 | 10am-12Noon The festival concludes with breakfast and an awards ceremony!
SPECIAL GUEST: Linda Love-Simmons
Linda Love-Simmons is an award winning director and choreographer whose work has been seen on stage and screen from coast to coast. Linda has created works for Disney, Mattel, the 2002 Olympics, Megan Mullaly, Paramount, Holland America cruise lines and Under Armor to name just a few. More than just creating technical and energetic choreography and thoughtful dramatic pieces, Linda has a personal mantra of creating positive success experiences. By inspiring performers to strive for their very best and encouraging them to dwell in the realm of possibility, there is passion and excitement in everything she does. Leading by example and having no tolerance for low expectations, she creates a creative environment where everyone she works with can attain the same personal excellence that she strives for in herself.
SPECIAL GUEST: Rodger Sorensen
Rodger is a professor and thechair of BYU’s Theatre and Media Arts Department. Earlier in his career, he taught at the College of Eastern Utah, and moved to Ricks College (now BYU-Idaho), where he stayed from 1979 to 1996, serving as Department Chair for ten years. He completed his doctorate at the University of Texas at Dallas in 1999. Sorensen has directed more than a hundred theatre productions, including premieres of original scripts, adaptations of his own pieces, a range of interdisciplinary projects, many operas, musicals, dramas, and comedies. He worked every summer on the Hill Cumorah Pageant near Palmyra, New York, from 1978 to 2004, serving as Artistic Director from 1997 on. He has also taught introduction to theatre, all aspects of acting, and public speaking.
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FESTIVAL DIRECTOR: Shawn M. Mortensen
Shawn is an accomplished director, choreographer and performer. He directed the Utah County premiere of Hairspray, and has directed and/or choreographed Smokey Joe’s Café, Swing, Disco Inferno, Joseph…Dreamcoat, Funny Girl and the upcoming Disney’s Camp Rock. He has performed lead roles in Seussical, Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan, A Year with Frog and Toad, Plaid Tidings, Disco Inferno and many, many more. Shawn also serves as SCERA’s Production & Programs Manager, oversees the entire SCERA Youth Theatre program and teaches youth and adult ballroom dance classes.
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TO REGISTER: Register by phone at (801) 225-ARTS or pick up a registration form at the main office of SCERA Center for the Arts, 745 South State, Orem, open 10am-6pm weekdays or download and print summer 2011 registration form. Bring the completed form and full payment to our main office. There is a $15 cancellation fee.
