Meet our College Mentors working on West Side Story with us this summer!

It has been a long-time dream of ours to bridge the gap between the younger students who train and perform with us and the older students who are studying theater at the college level.   This summer we are doing just that!

Many of our students-- young artists we’ve known since they were just starting to understand their love of musical theater-- have gone on to study theater throughout the country and abroad.  At YMTC, we want to nurture the life cycle of the artist.  We encourage our students to come back and not only continue their training but to act as mentors to our younger students who are just coming up through the ranks. 

Since our production of Les Miserables several summers ago, we began opening up our auditions to college students and reaping the rewards, not just in the work that was happening on stage, but perhaps even more importantly, in the work that was happening off stage.  We found the relationships between the younger cast members and the older ones to be an amazing benefit for everyone involved, and so we decided to formalize the situation. This summer, for our production of West Side Story, we have given six college students -- in our cast of forty-four -- formal, internship positions in which they will be acting as mentors to the younger students in the cast, as well as performing a wide variety of duties related to the production. We would like to introduce them to you now!

Only just left...

Marnina Wirtschafter graduated from high school only a year ago. She graced the YMTC stage in many leading and supporting roles over her years as a young student,  including Little Red in Into the Woods, Maggie in A Chorus Line, and most recently Lucille Frank in Parade.  This past year, she’s been at UCLA doing all sorts of performing as well as growing roots in her new found home in southern California.  Marnina will be joining us this summer in the role of Anita and is thrilled to be taking on the formal role of a YMTC mentor.

Revisiting.....

Some of you may have seen Michael Hanley, a Freshman at UC Berkeley, in our most recent production of Ragtime in the role of Younger Brother. Michael found YMTC, only this past year, and came to audition because he had done Ragtime in High School and said it was one of his favorites.  He is so pleased to be in a formal mentorship role this summer, and to be playing the role of Mouthpeice, and most especially because of his experience this past winter with YTMC.

Andrew Humann, who played Jesus in our production of Jesus Christ Superstar at the Ashby Stage last summer, is coming back too, this time for a change of pace, to play the role of Riff, the leader of the Jets gang.  Andrew, is in school at Diablo Valley College and he is very busy working as a professional actor all over the Bay Area with Shotgun Players, Berkeley Playhouse and most recently with Center Rep in their production of Spring Awakening.

We are so happy to welcome back Derek Luscatoff, a Junior at UC Berkeley who has already done two shows with us since coming to Cal. Most recently, he played J. P. Morgan in our production of Ragtime and almost two years ago now, he set the YMTC stage on fire with his tap dancing expertise in Anything Goes.  Derek is not only a stellar dancer, he is also an accomplished pianist, and has played for YMTC workshops in the past.  Derek, who will appear in the role of Indio, is delighted to be in a mentorship position with us this summer.

Finding us late........

We are so delighted to welcome YMTC newcomers, Jaron Liclican and Lorenz Gozales—both Theater and Performance Studies majors  at UC Berkeley— to our mentorship program this summer. 

Jaron (pictured left) who will appear in the role of Bernardo, has an extensive background in both theater and television and has been a first place prize winner, and placed in the final rounds in multiple talent award shows including Show Me Your Talent, Star Quest and the X Factor.

Lorenz, who will play the role of Chino this summer has been working in and around the theater both on stage and off for many of his young years.   Not only is he studying acting and voice at Cal but he is busy being a key player in several programs on campus including filming for the Southeast Asian Student Coalition, designing for the Celebration of Asian Pacific American Womyn, and being the Artistic Director of the Pilipino Cultural Night for the past three years.

Coming  full circle............

Simone Kertesz first appeared in a YTMC show as a 7^th grader in our first production of Les Miserables as Little Cosette.  She went on to play in both the ensemble and in many leading roles over the years with us, and came back to YMTC as an alum to play the role of Fantine in our revival of Les Miserables in 2009, and to originate the role of Emma Davis in the world premiere of The Mothers of Ludlow in 2010. This summer, Simone will be graduating from Chico State University with a degree in Musical Theater ; she will join us  again at YMTC, this time working as the Assistant Director on West Side Story as well as assistant teaching our Musical Theater Workshops at the end of the summer.  We are so excited to have Simone returning to share what she has learned over the years, both and YMTC and elsewhere with the young performers who are now in the same shoes that she grew up in.

Come see these students along side YMTC’s favorite young actors, as well as many new faces, in West Side Story this summer—a show that is bound to be one of our biggest hits yet! Opening at the El Cerrito High Performing Arts Theater, and boasting a live, 30-piece orchestra, the show runs for 6 performances only!  Don’t miss it!  Tickets on sale now at Brown Paper Tickets.

David Möschler, Come on Down!

YMTC’s Resident Music Director, David Möschler has become a favorite about town for many theater companies to work with, and Shotgun Players is no exception.  He was the Music Director for The Threepenny Opera there in 2010, and this coming fall, will be doing Stephen Sondheim's Assassins, the show for which we-- Shotgun and YMTC--  have developed an exciting new partnership: the Understudy/Shadow Cast program.

Before this production with Shotgun Players, David had the pleasure of music directing Assassins with Ray of Light Theatre in San Francisco last summer.  And on April 2^nd, The San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle  presented their annual awards ceremony honoring excellence in Bay Area theater for 2011.  There were nominations in 82 categories. The award for Best Musical Direction went to David Moschler, for his work on that production. So, understandably, we are thrilled to be offering this unique opportunity to 10 promising students who will win the upcoming auditions for our Understudy/Shadow Cast program.

Students chosen for the program will work with YMTC, Artistic Director, Jennifer Boesing as well as Shotgun Players director, Susannah Martin, and of course, David Moschler, who bridges both companies, and will bring award winning talent and skills to his music direction on this show!

Read a review of Light Theatre's production of Assassins »

For more info about auditions, visit our auditions page. 

YMTC live on KALW's Crosscurrents

Carolina Hidalgo did an awesome job on a feature story about our production of Ragtime and our company.  This five minute radio piece features interviews with Director Jennifer Boesing, young artist Luna Lewis and segments of the dress rehearsal with orchestra!  Listen to the entire story here:

Listen to the story »

Story about YMTC's Ragtime on KALW!

On Wednesday, February 15th, at 5:00 pm, KALW (97.1 FM) will air their program, Crosscurrents, featuring a story by Carolina Andrea Hidalgo Espinoza about YMTC's latest production of Ragtime. The story will feature interviews with Jennifer Boesing, Luna Lewis and recorded excerpts from a dress rehearsal.

If you happen to miss the live broadcast, stay tuned for a link to their website where you can hear the story anytime!

http://www.kalw.org/post/youth-production-old-time-play-channels-present-day-movements

The Sitzprobe

Today is a day like any other at the Julia Morgan Theatre in Berkeley. Actors hurry through the aisles to the stage, where voices ring out like a chorus of bells as Dave Moschler, the musical director, warms them up. There is an aura of excitement in the air that is palpable, as the young actors start singing the epilogue of Ragtime, our latest show, which opens on February 10^th. The voices of the young actors fill up the entire theatre with sound, filling every pore of the theatre with music.

There is even more anticipation in the room than usual, because today is the sitzprobe for Ragtime—the chance for the cast to sit and sing through the show, accompanied for the first time by the orchestra. Forty chairs for the actors, and twenty six chairs for the instrumentalists, the biggest orchestra to ever perform in the Julia Morgan, is set up, and soon the light sound of a flute plays, and the actors and musicians take their seats, as all talking ceases instantly, and the orchestra begins to play.

 As the evening progresses, it becomes clear that all the work the actors have put into the show has paid off.  Totally unafraid to sing in front of twenty-six professional musicians, the actors relish the experience to sing with such a large orchestra supporting them.  A very rare experience indeed.

Song fills the theatre with renewed vigor, as all the actors lend their voices to this spellbinding tale. As the last chords fade of the final act, the actors break out in cheers, applauding the orchestra as well as each other, congratulating everyone on a job well done. 

Without any staging, set, costumes or lights, this music alone is a powerfully moving thing.  We can hardly wait until opening night!

Here's a sneak peak of what I'm talking about.