Diary of a Triple Threat Performer - Part Two

We at The Palace Theatre could go on and on about the talented students that participate in our Arts-Education programs.  We thought it was about time you hear about the experience directly from the source.  Brandon Wolfe is an 18 year old student from Stamford who participated in our Triple Threat program for a second time.  It wasn't easy, but with hard work and endless talent, the group put on a spectacular show for parents and friends to see!  

This is Part Two of a two part journal chronicling his time in the Triple Threat program.  Thank you Brandon, for sharing your experience!

Campers "break the mold" and rehearse for the big day!

Thursday, July 23 - SANCTUARY

Today was probably the best day this week! We finally got to put everything together and see how the show was going to go, and my thoughts were: not too shabby! We got to hear almost everyone’s prepared songs, but our teacher put a little twist on it. After he listened to each person individually, he gave each of us a different exercise to help our acting. Mine was push-ups (keep in mind I am not that strong and instead of 16 bars I did 32). It helped a lot, but I was pooped for the rest of the day.

Then, we finally put the body percussion together (WHICH I FINALLY GOT!!!). We added free styles and as I was volunteered by the others, (this happens a lot at Triple Threat) I remembered that I can’t dance but I could sing. I decided to sing “You Can’t Stop the Beat” since we were, in fact, making beats. It didn’t fit into the time frame so I decided to speed it up double time.

As some of you may remember, I have an alternate name for that song: “You Can’t Stop to Breathe.” So, doing it twice as fast was interesting. By that day we had all came out of our shells, so the energy was up and we were all ready for tomorrow.

But the biggest problem had to focus on for the rest of the night was…what am I going to wear for the show?!

Friday, July 24 - ESTOOO!!!

So, today is the day of the show and by now we are all ready. That’s the great thing about intensive programs; by the end of the week, you learn so much that by Friday, it’s like you have been training for months (I hope this is how college is). We have grown together quite nicely and I’m really going to miss all of them.

The start of the day was basically just a recap and warm up so I’m not going to waste time going into that. I’m going to tell you about what you really want to hear about; the show.

For starters, the amount of energy and the lack of anxiety were impressive. I still don’t know why I, of all people, was not scared because I’m scared of everything. We messed up quite a few times but Luis (our main teacher) managed to cover it up and made it look like it was all on purpose. He presented us like he was teaching it right before their eyes.

One of my favorite solos that day was “Defying Gravity” (Wicked) when she performed it on Tuesday her exercise was to have everyone in the room laugh at her and discourage her because she was singing it to her classmates who were mean to her and she had to sing it like she was proving them wrong (which she did amazingly). This time, the audience had to discourage her (which they did rather well…) and we had to stand behind her as her as she represented us. I felt the most connection to her having because I have a similar story and decided instead of just standing behind her, we should encourage her. The rest of the kids joined in and you could hear the difference in how powerful her voice was she was asked why did that song her response told us of how bullied and how everyone doubted her and as she graduated middle school she finally overcame and let her confidence shine. If I ever see her again, I just hope she keeps that spirit because it took me until senior year of high school to get where she is now.

P.S . if you are wondering what ESTOOO meant  here’s the story. Valeria, our body percussion teacher, was Italian with a very thick accent and every time we did something right she would yell out ESTOO and now all of us also yell ESTOOO.

Epilogue

One of the best quotes from this program that I will keep forever is, “There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.”  This overall was a great experience and I’m glad I got to do it. I like this quote because I often held back in fear I might outshine someone or be too much but because of it I always ended up falling short. I have learned that my light, talent energy or whatever you want to call it is powerful and there is no use holding it back.

Thank you to all of our camp participants for their hard work and dedication year after year!  We look forward to the fantastic talent coming to next year's Triple Threat!

Diary of a Triple Threat Performer - Part One

We at The Palace Theatre could go on and on about the talented students that participate in our Arts-Education programs.  We thought it was about time you hear about the experience directly from the source.  Brandon Wolfe is an 18 year old student from Stamford who participated in our Triple Threat program for a second time.  It wasn't easy, but with hard work and endless talent, the group put on a spectacular show for parents and friends to see!  

This is Part One of a two part journal chronicling his time in the Triple Threat program.  Stay tuned for Part Two tomorrow!

Brandon Wolfe, seen in a yellow shirt, at Triple Threat week

Monday, July 20 – THE DAY HAS FINALLY COME

The first day of Triple Threat was amazing. I must be honest, I had a little trouble keeping up in the body percussion class, but I’ll catch up. It was a lot different from when I did it two years ago. For starters, we did not split up by age group, but it gave us a chance to help the younger kids and meet even more people. These kids are very talented (they could probably give me a run for my money!), and I look forward to the rest of the week with them.

Tuesday, July 21 – TIME TO CRANK THIS UP

So, today was totally different from yesterday in many ways. We finally broke into groups, but not by age. Yesterday, we broke into groups while still together for a body percussion exercise. She gave us three different routines, and we split ourselves based on what routine we felt most comfortable with. Today, we took those groups and finally rotated between acting, singing and body percussion. 

I started off with acting and learned another poem, but mostly just got to learn about the people in my group better (my favorite part about small groups). Then, we went to body percussion practice. Remember how yesterday I said I would catch on to this body percussion thing?  I was wrong. We added on to the dance we did yesterday, and it took me over 30 minutes to learn a dance that took less than 30 seconds to do. (Imagine if I had to do a whole song).

Then we went to my favorite subject; singing. We got a chance to sing 16 bars which is around 30 seconds to a minute of a song we were supposed to prepare for Monday. I forgot my sheet music, but luckily the teacher knew the song (“Proud of your Boy” from Aladdin). My favorite song sung by someone other than myself was “Naughty” from Matilda, sung by one of the most adorable little girls I’ve ever seen. She performed the song with the British accent like the soundtrack and could totally be “Matilda” on Broadway.

After lunch, we focused more on singing, but the bulk of the afternoon went to dance. We learned “Fame” which went great for the program but not so great for me. All the moves were super balletic and me who has not done ballet since I was 6 (don’t ask me why it was not my choice) was not ready. This dance is probably the second hardest dance I have ever done (right after “You Can’t Stop the Beat” from Hairspray which should have been called “You Can’t Stop to Breathe!”). However, I refuse to let a little dance slow me down, so I have a lot of practicing to do if I’m going to catch up.

Wednesday, July 22 - WHAT DID I GET MYSELF INTO?!

As the days go by, this continues to get harder and harder. Those of you who are reading this may know about “hell week” (the week leading up to a performance where the director is scattered, everything is super busy and you stay really late 'til everything is done) and the stresses that go with it. Now, imagine a “hell week" where you not only have one week until the show, but the whole cast is brand new. As we get closer to the performance, the dances get harder, there is more to memorize and people become more distracted.  

So, today we started off with dancing and boy, was that something! We learned a new dance for a song (“96,000” from In the Heights) we had just learned that morning which is all still jumbled in my head. We finally put the final parts together for the body percussion, which I’m starting to get. 

After lunch, we went back to dance FOR THE NEXT 2 HOURS! It’s actually not hard to do two hours of dance, but when you wake up on the wrong side of the bed with a pain in your neck and a cold, it becomes a bit harder. We learned the rest of the dance to the song “Fame” from Fame which is so fast. The fact that I am 6’1" and I was 2 seconds from kicking someone in the face multiple times scares me. It was a very tough day today. 

Will Brandon make it through the week?
Tune in for Part Two tomorrow to find out!