VVS students Nadir Yondu from Istanbul, Turkey; Jennie Harlan from Sedona; Lola Olorode from Nigeria; Tatiana Krakhamaleva from Moscow, Russia; Rachel Harper from Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia; teacher Claire Brislin; and Jess Harmon from Flagstaff rehearse “The Tsar’s Favorite Circus” to be performed this weekend. Photo by Jennifer Gill
Sedona AZ (April 22, 2015) – Come one, come all, to the greatest show on earth! The Verde Valley School Music and Theater departments will present an original musical, The Tsar’s Favorite Circus, this weekend, April 25 and 26, in Brady Hall, 3511 Verde Valley School Road, Sedona. Circus performers and a fortune teller will greet the public before the Saturday night and Sunday afternoon shows.
All music, lyrics and dialogue for this musical were written by faculty and students at the Village of Oak Creek independent day and boarding school. The VVS spring performance is a community affair with auditions opened to the entire school – all students, faculty, staff and faculty children. Parts were also written especially for community members interested in performing!
The show idea was hatched in the fall of 2013 during a two week artist-in-residence program with Jamie Cowperthwait. Cowperthwait, a New York based lyricist, musician and composer, worked with VVS theater teacher Bridget Broomfield and junior and senior theater students with the objective of writing and performing a musical in one week. The creative process went so well the VVS students actually produced and performed two musicals in that week.
VVS students Tatiana Krakhamaleva from Moscow, Russia; Morgan Bailey, Sedona; Haley Cox, Sedona; and James Williams, Sedona rehearse scenes from “The Tsar’s Favorite Circus” – Photo by Ingrid Sandness.
That success got Broomfield thinking about producing a full-scale, homemade musical. Cowperthwait visited the school again in the fall of 2014 to work with Broomfield, art teacher Jeremy Broomfield and music teacher Cooper Evans, to lay the groundwork for a spring 2015 performance. The Broomfields and Evans worked to finish writing the show with input from VVS theater students. In addition to acting and singing, the students are also responsible for sound, lighting and costumes.
The Tsar’s Favorite Circus features eight original songs and follows a past-its-prime circus in 1917 Russia. Once the greatest circus in all of Russia, it is in decline – the acrobats have anxiety, the clowns are escaped felons, the strongman can barely lift an eyebrow. Gypsy siblings Viktor and Vera must whip the show into shape before it reaches the Capitol, because the Tsar himself is planning on attending the show!
Tickets are available for purchase before the 7:00 p.m. Saturday performance and the 2:00 afternoon performance on Sunday. Come one, come all!
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