AMY STEL | FEATURES EDITOR
Did you know that St. Norbert offers theater opportunities to not only students at the college, but they also offer theatre experience through summer theatre programs?
There are two distinct theater programs through SNC, Summer Stage and Next Stage. Summer Stage welcomes all community members, while Next Stage is a program designed just for high school students interested in theatre.
Since 2015, Next Stage has been under the command of faculty members Sarah Parks, Michael Rosewall, Teresa Schmidt and Notre Dame Academy faculty member Andrea Hearden. These four individuals work together to coordinate, direct and lead the pit orchestra, vocals and choreography of the shows they present here at the college.
Of course, without the commitment and interest of the area’s high school students, Next Stage would cease to exist. With the excellent leadership and dedication of the student participants, this program has been permanently added as a musical theatre opportunity here at St. Norbert College.
Next Stage brings together high school students from all over northeastern Wisconsin to learn about musical theater. It provides opportunities for students to be members of the cast, crew or pit orchestra in a positive college level learning environment.
This August, Next Stage is presenting the musical Jekyll & Hyde and auditions will take place May 19-22, and callbacks will take place on May 23. The show will take place Aug. 8-12 and Next Stage welcomes adult volunteers!
The show is based off of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic story of the endeavor between good and evil when a man runs on an experiment on himself, creating two conflicting personalities in one man. Dr. Jekyll is known as a successful doctor and a romantic, who creates a groundbreaking chemical, but then decides to use himself as the experiment and creates Mr. Hyde, a madman.
St. Norbert also offers opportunities through the Summer Stage program, which is open to all members of the community.
The mission of Summer Stage is to encourage people to learn about themselves and the world through the presentation of music theatre. Summer Stage starts preparing for the show with auditions in March and focuses on age appropriate casting.
This year, Summer Stage is presenting Mary Poppins July 12-22. The show is based on the stories by P.L. Travers and the Walt Disney film where the character Bert introduces the audience to the troubled Banks family and to world of 1910 England. The two children, Jane and Michael, are known to drive away nanny after nanny, and that is when Mary Poppins appears on their doorstep. With the use of magic and common sense, Mary Poppins takes the children on adventures and teaches them valuable life lessons.
Auditions will take place March 19-22 and callbacks will be on March 24. People interested must register in advance in order to audition. There are volunteer opportunities open as well.
Tickets for both Jekyll & Hyde and Mary Poppins are available through the St. Norbert Ticket office or on their website at snc.edu/tickets.
St. Norbert Times 