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July 01, 2016
SCHOOL OF ROCK to Feature Latest in Crowd Synched Lighting Technology
...and Andrew Lloyd Webber Will Be Watching!
On December 27th, Step It Up Performing Arts owner and
artistic director Ronda Barber sent a text message to Summer Stage
director Karen Eremin during intermission at SCHOOL OF ROCK on
Broadway:
“Can’t wait until this goes off Broadway. Would be awesome to do for
SUMMER STAGE!” At the time, Barber was unaware that Andrew Lloyd
Webber and R&H Theatricals were already licensing rights for amateur
productions of SCHOOL OF ROCK , concurrent with the Broadway run, in
an effort to engage children in musical theatre in an unprecedented
way. Traditionally, it can take years after a Broadway show closes and
its national tours run, before a non-professional group may perform
the production.
Since January, Summer Stage’s creative team of Barber,
Eremin, T.J. Larke and musical director Ben Kohn have been working to
make its production of SCHOOL OF ROCK worthy of the honor of
performing the same show presently running at the Winter Garden
theatre in New York. In May, Eremin was contacted by Samantha
McConnell, a marketing and social media executive with The Really
Useful Group, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s production company in London .
Summer Stage has been asked to document its production process from
rehearsals through performance with video footage and cast and crew
interviews answering specific questions provided by Really Useful, as
well as candid observations about being in the show. Really Useful
plans to use some of this footage in their upcoming promotional video
for SCHOOL OF ROCK for Schools, Youth Groups and Amateur Societies
worldwide.
Local audiences have come to expect a high caliber of
production value in Step It Up shows. Before they were even contacted
on behalf of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Barber and Eremin had conspired to
treat their audiences to an event experience pioneered by Coldplay,
Taylor Swift and the producers of this year’s Super Bowl. Working
with Grammy award winning sound designer Alan Douches of West West
Side Music in New Windsor and Lawrence Helfant of Crowdsync Technology
in Los Angeles, Summer Stage will provide each ticket holder to its
two shows with an LED bracelet which will be programmed to light at
varied times throughout the show. Eremin has shared this plan with
McConnell in London , who called it
“brilliant...and very cool”, and said she was going to mention it to
the overseer of merchandising for the Broadway production. One of the
main themes in the story is to show children that music played from
the soul can be liberating and life-affirming. For many, SCHOOL OF
ROCK may be their first true concert-like experience. May the
appreciative sea of swaying Bic lighters live on for the next
generation; electronically, of course!
Summer Stage’s SCHOOL OF ROCK will be performed Friday
July 8th and Saturday, July 9th at 7pm at the Walter Reade, Jr.
Theatre at Storm King School . Tickets go on sale for $18 each
Wednesday, June 29th either in person at the Step by Step Dance Studio
in Cornwall-on-Hudson , or by calling 534-3645. Seating is general
admission.
For more information, call the studio or write director
Karen Eremin at [email protected].
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