What an exciting day for Riverfront Juniors it was today!  Two wonderful things happened!

First of all, they got to have their first time with our Music Director.

Jeff played a quick warm-up game with them, and then did a couple of tests to see how well they found the notes. It went very nicely, and they even had a tiny peek at the opening number for Aladdin and the Arabian Nights, which, for the most part, they won’t be working with until after A Salute to Peanuts. And THEN, they blew his socks off by insisting that they don’t want the music simply to PLAY for the Hallelujah chorus – they want to SING it!!!  WOOOT, Juniors! They seem to want to WORK!

Once Jeff had moved back into the Senior room, the Juniors all settled into their seats for the very exciting announcement from their director, Curt Rusan!  They received their parts!  There were lots of smiles and enthusiasm when the roles were announced!

Here is your cast for the 2015 production of A Salute to Peanuts, taking place December 12th and 13th!

Narrator 1:  Arya Spickett

Narrator 2:  Mary Dominato

Narrator 3:  Hailey Chase

Narrator 4:  Kendra Simone

Charlie: Noah Wilson

Linus:  Lex Young

Violet: Ella Dufour

Lucy: Emma Longeuay

Sally:  Kelseigh Robinson

Snoopy: Isaac Finch

Woodstock:  Bella Lavoie

Schroeder:  Ryan Nesbit

Frieda: Priya Dube

Pig Pen:  Isaiah Pinkowski

Patti:  Rachel Tennant

Marci:  Erin Johnston

Schermy:  Samantha Davies

Franklin:  Roan Nesbit

A big congratulations to all the cast members!

We did a read-through of the script with the newly-assigned roles, and then the kids had a quick break – which, oddly, they seemed reluctant to take. They did some artwork prepping for some of the Christmas decorations for their set, and then had a chance to move in with the Seniors and do their VERY first vocal work with Aladdin together!

Here, have a peek at the Juniors’ first time with Jeff – lots of fun!

The Seniors, meanwhile, had had some time with their lapbooks, as we went through the coincidences of Pride and Prejudice that sustain and further the plot.

Then they had their time with Jeff – they got in a lot of vocal work today. Some good warmups and talking about posture and muscle work while singing was a nice foundation to that.

A few nice neck rolls…

It’s always nice to have a massage…

And a little “chop, chop, chop…”

And a few giggles along the way…

Everybody was loosened up and ready to sing in just a few minutes.

While that was going on, on and off, drifting back and forth, some of the Seniors were in the next room, doing scene work with Kerri.  They’ve run through the first five scenes of the play for preliminary blocking now.

It’s a little subtle before costuming and makeup, but this is, in fact, Sir Lucas and Mr. Darcy having a chat…

Jane and Mr. Bingley.

Elizabeth joins the chat with Sir Lucas and Mr. Darcy…and I suspect she’s going to be turning down his suggestion of a dance with Mr. Darcy, don’t you?

And then, as we said, the Juniors popped in, and the whole group of them got to work with a few songs from Aladdin!

And – I really, really shouldn’t, because they’re just barely underway with this – the Juniors hadn’t even heard it before today – but they started off so nicely that I can’t resist – here’s the opening number from Aladdin, simply being sung by the entire cast.