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!
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| 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?!
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.
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!
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