At illuminate, we believe that students of all ages should be treated to the same level of quality theatre. Our Junior Productions include sets, costumes, lighting, and a real stage! All while making sure each student feels comfortable, confident, and encouraged in their individual role. Through acting exercises, theatre games, improvisation, and more, students ages 8-11 learn how to study a script, create a character, prepare for a show, and work as a team–culminating in an entertaining performance. It’s an unforgettable experience for them!
This Year’s Junior Production needs some explanation…
Our Junior Production announcement for Year 11 needs explanation…
In 2019… a graduating senior named Hannah Macomber approached me and asked if she could write the Junior Production for her senior year. She had interned as a creative writer for years, assisting with adapting stories for the junior production. She had also participated ina gazillion other aspects of illuminate, earning her the senior award that year. She wrote a play that worked perfectly in our one-rehearsal-per-week schedule, and was funny and fun for the kids. These pictures show Hannah as a student teacher, and the cast of her show rehearsing in February of 2020. When covid hit, we were two weeks away from the performance. And as you know, suddenly everything changed.
We continued to rehearse weekly with the cast of 50 kids over zoom, breaking out into breakout rooms to run lines and trying our best to do virtual improv games. We thought that we’d be able to get back to rehearsing in a month or so. When it became clear that we weren’t going to be able to hold a regular performance, our incredible creative team came up with an outside-the-box solution: a drive in theatre.
In June 2020, we presented Hannah’s junior production as a drive in theatre. We bought equipment that sent the sound from the microphones to a radio station that the cars tuned into. The students stood in hula hoops, 6 feet apart, and basically performed a staged reading. You might have guessed where this is leading. With a beautifully written junior production ready to go, we have decided to revisit this show that never saw the stage.
Our Junior Production for March 2024 will be alumni Hannah Macomber’s “Once Upon a Fairy tale,” which offers snippets of old fairy tales like “Thumbelina” and “The Ugly Duckling” in a fun, quirky, entertaining tale. we are thrilled to finally give this show the production it deserves.
Directed by Jennifer Keating, Cara Sherrod, and the interns of illuminate. Click here to learn more about our instructors, and click here to learn more about our interns!
Click Here for Registration Information including pricing and detailed schedule info
*Note that The Junior Production has additional rehearsals and performances outside of the Winter Class Session. Dress rehearsals will be held on the afternoons of March 19+21; Performances held on Saturday, March 23 (three separate matinee performances). More details to come!
