The Imagination Blog

The King and I is off with a big bang!  More than 124 people auditioned for our fifty some roles- what a huge group of talent to choose from.  It took us a full week of call backs to be sure we gave everyone a fair chance to show us their talent- and of course to match the talented actors in groupings that made sense- be it families, lovers, etc.

A huge thank you to our dedicated staff who made this all run smoothly.  We have an amazing cast and an amazing support staff- it looks to be a fabulous show.  Be sure and check out our first photos of some of the children with Anna by clicking on the King and I icon on our homepage.

This week the focus has been on the classroom scenes, and we are starting to work on creating characters.  Our wives have learned to “stop drop and bow” as soon as the King enters in the ancient way of Siam- to quote the script “crouching like toad”.  Ouch those knees!.  The support staff learned something this week too- ladies in hoop skirts take up twice as much room on stage as actors in regular clothing. We spent last evening redesigning portions of the set to make sure we can handle quick exits in large costumes.

And speaking of children..I began work with the Royal Prince and Princesses last evening- and all were asked to be able to describe their character in three words:  an adjective (who I am) an adverb (how I do things) and a verb (what I want).  Then they wrote a journal entry as their character, telling what they think about the new teacher Mrs. Anna.  The results were awesome! One young actor wrote the following as his character:

“I feel so honored to be chosen by Father to be tutored by Mrs. Anna.  Even though my father the King is a little scary to me, I hope to become one of his favorite childrenby honoring him and doing well with this tutor.  I also hope to impress Mrs. Anna and become one of her most excellent pupils.  My mother said this is a rare opportunity, so I will try to take advantage of this as much as possible.”

and another creative young talent wrote:

“I am excited and determined to be a good student and to take advantage of the opportunity I have been given.  Also, hopefully to get noticed by the King and Mrs. Anna.”

Fabulous character development!  These kids are learning to create a real personality on stage and bring this character to life.

I’ll close this post with a smile… and a testimony to the power of technology.  Our youth actors were assigned the task of researching Thai culture and choosing a Thai name for their character as homework.  By the end of the evening several of them had already found a name; using their down time to search the internet with an iPhone.  Cool!

Cory Wilkerson, director