Tag Archives: Eagle Rock Theatre

Music & Performance Instructor Sought for Deeply Creative Students

Eagle Rock School & Professional Development Center (PDC) is seeking a music & performance instructional specialist who can help high school students committed to engaging themselves in their own education build confidence and express themselves — sometimes before an audience — through music and performance.

In addition to leading our school’s music program, our next Music & Performance Instructional Specialist will be asked to deliver innovative curriculum and oversee student theatrical performances. Specifically, we’re searching for someone with a number of advanced skills, including vocal technique; piano (the ability to play contemporary and popular music, improvise over chord changes and read written music); music theory and ear training; American contemporary and popular music performance; teach voice, piano, guitar, bass, and drums; as well as direct a theater production team.

Our best candidates for this unique opening will also have a basic understanding of technical theater (lighting design, sound design, set construction, props, and costumes); be able to teach non-Western music (knowledge of Latin music and ability to speak Spanish is a plus); and be able to instruct students on basic digital music and sound recording software.

Specific duties and responsibilities include:

Eagle Rock School Produces Colorado Premiere of the Musical Allegiance

The Colorado premiere of the musical Allegiance will be staged early next month in Estes Park by students at Eagle Rock School, with a talk-back session with cast members on the docket for one of the three performances.

Allegiance, which was inspired by the personal experiences of noted actor George Takei (who currently stars in the Los Angeles premier of the musical), is the story of the Kimura family, whose lives were upended — along with those of 120,000 other Japanese-Americans, all of whom were forced to leave their homes following the events of Pearl Harbor that preceded World War II.

Allegiance

The Colorado performance constitutes Eagle Rock School’s 2018 Spring Musical, and in preparation, students attended numerous local theater performances, visited with Japanese American internment survivors, attended history lectures and toured a traveling Smithsonian exhibit called “I Want the Wide American Earth,” and participated in a rigorous 10-week Eagle Rock School class aimed at supporting students in the development of their acting and production support skills.

Allegiance will be shown at Continue reading…

Follow the Yellow Brick Road to Eagle Rock’s Take on ‘The Wiz’

Eagle Rock School students and faculty members are busy rehearsing for a series of performances of the Tony Award-winning 1975 musical, “The Wiz,” which are scheduled in Estes Park at month’s end.

The Wiz Eagle Rock SchoolOur production of “The Wiz” (March 31-April 2, 2016) is an urban retelling of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 tale, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” using Motown, Funk and Soul music to rework the story into the context of modern African-American culture. A film adaption of the show was released in 1978, starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson.

Eleven talented Eagle Rock students and four staff members will perform in our staged version, backed by a live four-piece professional pit band. Meghan Tokunaga-Scanlon, Eagle Rock School’s Music Instructional Specialist, directs the show, with co-direction by World Languages Instructional Specialist Brighid Scanlon and musical direction by 2015/2016 Public Allies Teaching Fellow Michael Grant.

Performances will be staged beginning at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 31 as well as Friday and Saturday, April 1 and 2 at the Hempel Auditorium within the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park. Admission at the door is “pay what you like” and all proceeds benefit the Eagle Rock Graduate Higher Education Fund.

But we digress. The story of Dorothy and her road trip to Oz has become known worldwide for its themes of home, belonging, belief in oneself and freedom. “The Wiz,” with its original premiere in 1975 with an all-black cast and African-American styles, boldly showed that this classic story belongs to everyone, with audiences of all races flocking to watch productions of “The Wiz” over the past four decades. In addition to be culturally empowering, it is a “joy machine,” gorgeously designed, with quick humor and irresistible melodies.

Preparations for our production began last fall with a Continue reading…