NAPA News - Week 5, Term 1, 2021
Dear NAPA Families,
We are already halfway through the term and it is great to see our new students gaining more confidence in their classes as they make new friends, get to know their teachers and understand the class routines and expectations. We are seeing improvements already and are excited for the rest of the year for outstanding results and happy faces as an outcome of exceptional teaching by our staff.
Welcome home happy (yet exhausted) campers!
What an experience our college students had!!! No glamping for this group, it was as basic as you can get to really test their resilience. They bathed in the lake, used a bucket for a toilet, carried everything they needed for the three days including their food and trekked for kilometres. They battled the heat and the storms but enjoyed the beauty and tranquillity of the Tallebudgera Valley. Without their mobile phones and other social distractions, the students were able to reflect and re-establish their goals. The experience bonded the group enabling them to support each other and to move forward with greater confidence. A big thank you goes out to the camp’s staff for providing this program for us and supporting our students throughout this experience with so much care. Thank you also to Miss Kim who gave up her time to go with them and brave the elements.
Costumes
As our dance classes and performance teams settle in, we will begin the process of ordering costumes soon. As we have so many new team members this year it may be difficult for us to do hire costumes as we may not have enough costumes in our sets. However, we will try to keep our costume costs to a minimum by sourcing the most reasonably priced costumes for what we need. You will see your costume invoices start to appear in your portal over the coming weeks. Please note that these will have a 2-week due date on them and if these are not paid before then, the total cost will automatically be added to your monthly autopay. We look forward to seeing all of our Performance Team Cherubs on stage at their first competition!
Productions and audition processes at NAPA
We have had a number of questions about upcoming auditions and the productions we will be doing, so it’s time for a bit of an explanation. For new families, please note that every class (except Acro) does a performance whether it be a play, musical, film screening, dance concert or singing performance. All dancers are in the end of year dance concert and the Performance Teams also have an additional concert earlier in the year.
For our productions, we usually do not decide on shows until the teacher has got to know the students, their talents, interests, the numbers in the class and boy/girl ratio. Once they have done this, they then pick a show that will suit their group. Because we are a learning institute where we cast all children in the class in the production, we are casting in the opposite way to a professional show, where the show is picked that they want to do then they audition people to best suit the roles. Whereas we have to pick the show that best suits the type of ‘cast’ we have, which, as you can imagine, is more difficult.
The next stage is to apply for the Rights – this is a timely process and a very costly one. Once the Rights have been granted, the audition process can begin.
Depending on the production, the teacher (Director) will outline the requirements and processes of the audition and have this sent to you. It is important for the student to understand what is required of them and work hard to give their best at the audition. If your child is very new to this and lacks confidence in auditioning or taking on a lead or even a minor role, then let us know prior to the audition and they may be best to be part of the ensemble where great stagecraft is learnt and confidence is gained.
At NAPA we make it a practice for all students to hand in a CV at the audition as we firstly want them to learn how to do a CV (younger students will need to do this with a parent) and follow as close as possible to a professional audition, as this is also part of their training.
There is always disappointment when you don’t get the role you want but it is part of this industry and we work at building their resilience in this aspect of the audition process. All children have a fantastic time in a production, and this outweighs the disappointment of not getting the role they had hoped for.
After much deliberation this past month, the shows we have currently confirmed, and the productions we have been granted the Rights for, can be announced with their performance dates, these are as follows:
Performance Teams - Dance Concert
16 & 17 July
Senior Tread the Boards - Abigail’s Coven
30 & 31 July
Broadway Bound Extension - Into the Woods
3, 4, 10 & 11 September
* NOTE date change from original calendar *
Intermediate Tread the Boards - The Game
29 & 30 October
Broadway Kids & Tweens - Lion King
12, 13, 14, 19, 20 November
FTV classes - FTV Screening night
27 November 2021
Mini Dance classes - Dance Concert
28 November
All Dance classes except Minis - Dance Concert
3 & 4 December
Please note that other class performances will be added to the Playbill when we have finalised these.
Glee Club
This class is currently building up a repertoire of songs in readiness for their performances. The Glee Club will be performing out in the community at events and venues when they are ready. If you think your child would enjoy this and benefit from David’s incredible teaching, please book your child into this class soon as it will be difficult to catch up further down the track.
Private Lessons
Please note for this term all private lessons slots have been filled. If openings become available next term we will communicate his through the newsletter.
NAPA performers share their talents in Community Theatre
It is great to see NAPA students, past students and teachers performing in professional and community theatre. A few teachers went to see Bye Bye Birdie on closing night and managed to capture a photo after the show. Congratulations to Director and past teacher Amy Anderson, teachers Kristine Dennis (Rosie Alvarez) Stuart Morgan (Albert Peterson) and graduated and present students Flynn Anderson (Conrad Birdie), Nadine Chia (Kim MacAfee), Bryn Larkin (Hugo Peabody), Kaden Forbutt (Harvey Johnson), and in the Ensemble – Andrew McMath, Courtney Sutherland, Jessica Eaton, Ethan Cook. Great job guys!
Professional Achievements
Has your child worked (paid) in a professional production in stage, theatre, film or television while training at the National Academy of Performing Arts? We love to acknowledge these wonderful achievements. Complete the form below to submit their recent work.
Please note: due to some production restrictions, there may be some achievements that are held until the public release of a particular production. We will compile a list of these students and will load them when timing is appropriate.
