All of us in the MCT troupe had been rehearsing our 15 minute competition piece, selections from Guys and Dolls Jr., since October. Though the casting changed around throughout the process, overall we had an amazing group and I was really excited to be playing Sarah Brown- she's a part I've always wanted to try.
We had a calm and safe Friday the 13th flight, and got on a coincidentally named "MTI" bus to the hotel. We dropped off our stuff and went straight to the mall for some lunch. Then we walked over to the enormous Cobb Galleria Centre where the all the festival stuff was to do some last minute rehearsing and vocals with Ana. Afterwards we all had Asian stir fry for dinner, and then went for a completely pajama-ed mall run. We actually ended up running around the mall like crazy people looking for last minute costume replacements, but it all worked out ok in the end. I was so exhausted by the time I got back to the hotel that I passed out at 11ish.The next morning we had an early wake-up and berries for breakfast before walking back over to the Cobb Centre for the festival kick-off ceremony. Then we moved into the adjudication room to wait our turn to perform. We watched a couple groups and their feedback from the judges before moving back into the rehearsal room for a final run through. I think everyone was feeling pretty confident by the time of the performance, and we did better than we'd ever done. Everyone was basically glowing with pride by the end, and the judges has only positive comments- it was just so great.
We watched the rest of the performances in our "pod" and then went to our traditional spot by the escalators to sit together and eat lunch. Then we went off to do three different workshops with the JTF staff- one each for singing, dancing, and acting. We learned "Brotherhood of Man" and this weird angry dance from The Who's Tommy... weird but fun. By the time those were over, it was back to the hotel and out again for dinner at a cute all-natural deli place in the mall with good salads. Then we went back to the Cobb Centre for the Disney New Works Showcase, which was basically a preview of all the new Broadway Jr. shows that are going to be available for licensing in the near future. I really don't understand why they'd make a Dr. Doolittle Jr., but Finnian's Rainbow and Peter Pan both looked really cute. Afterwards was the dance party, but we ditched and went back for a fun MCT-only night at the hotel.
The next morning, some of us got up early with Christine and walked over to the Cobb Centre for the Broadway Slam lottery- basically, she entered 4 girls and 4 guys from our group and the names were picked randomly to be part of the "Slam", where you make a fully choreographed musical number in one hour. My name wasn't picked, but two MCT'ers got it so the rest of us hung out in the empty mall while we waited for their performance. The Slam itself was so much fun to watch- Scottie actually got a huge solo and nearly made everyone cry, it was such a perfect moment.
THEN it was time for the special guest speakers, who this year were the producers and cast of the new NBC musical TV show Smash. Specifically, Brian D'Arcy James and Christian Borle!!! Ok, the producers were pretty cool too- their other stuff includes Chicago, Hairspray, etc. But it was so amazing to hear two of my Broadway idols just sitting their talking to us about performing so modestly and respectfully. I love them! Afterwards, I got to meet someone who is famous in a totally different way- Mary Pope Osbourne, author of the Magic Treehouse series. She was there because they're making her first book, Dinosaurs Before Dark, into a new Jr. musical. I got Sari a signed copy of the book, and also recorded a video of her saying "Hi Sari!".Speaking of famous people, other cool guests at the festival were the original choreographer of A Chorus Line, and the actor who played Mr. Mistoffelees in the Cats movie, of all things. Anyways, after a Subway lunch we went back into the theatre for the awards ceremony. Before it started though, we had some final special guests- the authors of Annie, including Charles Strouse! They were all quite old and adorable, and it was really sweet when about a million Annies with red wigs and all came out onto the stage to sing to them. Then we watched Brooke and Sean dance in the front for "You Can't Stop the Beat" and some of the teachers do some really interesting dancing to a "You're Never Fully Dressed/ Born This Way" mashup... what?
During the awards ceremony itself, we didn't win outstanding performance, but we DID win Best Acting AND Jerrod won Outstanding Male Actor. And Scottie won Best Performance at the Slam, of course. Everyone was really proud, and we got to go home with a gorgeous trophy. Right afterwards, we went back to our rooms to change into nice clothes and met back in the hotel lounge to eat some pizza before heading out to the Fox Theatre to see Annie. After being Annie in Annie for 6 months straight a few years back, I'm understandably kind of tired of the show, but it was really incredible seeing it in the Fox Theatre. I couldn't describe a more breathtaking performance space with the starlit blue ceiling and whatnot, and the atmosphere was particularly perfect because all of the JTF kids were there in a celebratory Charles Strouse-ish mood. Everyone agreed that the Miss Hannigan was hilarious and the Sandy was the cutest ever... and I finally stopped being a terrible daughter and bought Dad some Fox Theater stuff for his birthday.
We stayed up really late that night playing hide-and-go-seek in the hotel, and on Monday morning we got to sleep in the tiniest bit before heading off back to Miami. It was a really fun trip and I know I keep saying this but I can't even express how much I love MCT! I would embed a YouTube video of our performance but I don't think it's up yet, so click here to watch it on Facebook!
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