The Tennessean Newspaper mentioned CYT Alum, Michael Oakley, in a recent article that focuses on Spring Hill, Tennessee’s emerging theater scene. Oakley is directing Tom Sawyer with Old School Theater. He moved to Spring Hill from San Diego a year ago.
“People would rather stay in Spring Hill and have cultural events here than drive up to Nashville, especially for children’s events,” [local playwright] Collins said. “There certainly is a growing energy here.”
The Tennessean on Oakley:
“It was that sense of community and family that made Oakley comfortable in his move from San Diego. He is the worship arts pastor at Grace Park Church and said he came out of his shell as a child through Christian Youth Theatre. He said he sees Spring Hill as an ideal place to start something like that here.”
“This is such a young community of young parents and kids and young married couples,” [Oakley] said. “It’s all about considering the audience.”
Read the full article and check out Old School Theater’s website, here.
Chris Ninness contributed to the CYT Blog a couple weeks ago- urging CYT SD to help develop a commercial with Walmart Stores, in hopes that it would be hand-picked to be viewed on air during American Idol! Well, because of your help, the video is FINALLY here.
You can watch the video at the Mofilm website. The commercial, “Live Better Musical” was co-directed by Chris Ninness and David Gaetke.
Chris Ninness stressed that no community voting would be available for the competition, “It will be judged by a panel of Walmart executives…. Please pray and keep your fingers crossed.” He also spoke of everyone’s hard work amongst the video’s huge collaborative effort:
“The best way to help a project reach it’s full potential is to surround it with the best talent you can. The key was to find a great cinematographer, a great group of dancers, and an amazing song writer. When all the elements came together it was like magic. The enormous amount of effort put into it was why it has gotten such great feedback,” said Ninness.
CYT Chicago’s Rockford Director Ellen Mahan was interviewed by rrstar.com this week, for their “Get to Know Me?” section. Here is part of their Q & A session:
What inspires you to do what you do?
My love for the arts, and my love for teaching children.
What is up next for you that readers should know about?
I am directing the musical Narnia. After the run I plan on taking off six months to write a musical. I also want to go back to school.
What do you do for fun?
I love going to the movies, singing with my family and researching words. I am a bit of a word geek. Some of my favorite books are the dictionary, The Synonym Finder and the thesaurus.
Your motto in life:
Whatever you lay your hand to do, do it with all your might or go home.
What do you like best about your job?
As a teacher, it is such a high for me when one of my students has a light bulb moment. As a director, I love that I get the chance to be a small part of taking a not so popular student, an underdog, and watch them become a top dog.
What is something people are surprised to learn about you?
I love the old Horror movies — Dracula, Wolfman, Frankenstein with Bella Lugosi, Lon Chaney. You know, the old ones.
If you could take two weeks off from all your responsibilities, where would you go and what would you do?
The first week, I would spend on a beach somewhere so I could surf, walk, and do absolutely nothing. The second week, I would take my theater geek children to New York and see as many Broadway shows as we could.
CYT Lafayette was asked by their local Target to participate in their Read Across America Campaign. Target works with the National Education Association in supporting Read Across America- the largest nationwide celebration of children’s reading. The date coincides with Dr. Seuss’ birthday, March 2nd.
“Since our spring show is Seussical Jr., the local Target asked if we could send out the “Cat in the Hat” to read stories to the kids. CYT Lafayette’s very own Victoria Manning showed up at Target in full costume and was able to walk the store inviting kids to come read Dr. Seuss books. We were able to play the sound track to Seussical while Victoria read books to the kids. The store was so thankful that we were able to attend and make the event that much better,” said Gerald Broussard, Board Chair for CYT Lafayette.
Want to help promote CYT? Join the HYPE Street Team! Here is your first mission:
The goal of HYPE is to challenge and grow the advanced students of CYT to be leaders and get involved by serving the community around them. To look at all aspects of theater, not just from the actor’s point of view. And to continue to grow as an individual, committing themselves to excellence in all they do.
Jonathan Krohn is making waves in the political arena. He speaks at Tea Party Protests, is friends with Newt Gingrich, recently wrote a book titled, “Define Conservatism”, and appears yet again on CNN and Fox News as a television pundit, and this year, at another at CPAC. For all you non-political people out there, CPAC stands for the Conservative Political Action Conference, and was held in Washington D.C. this year. Make sure to check out his videos to hear him banter about politic, the Oscars, and being “a cool kid in school”. Huge, but very concrete dreams for a fourteen-year-old boy whose early career included performing on stage with CYT Atlanta.
In the last couple of months Jonathan has been interviewed by Mediabistro.com and Atlanta Magazine. This week Pointofview.net reprinted an article on Jonathan that was featured in The New York Times, “The Little Mr. Conservative”. The full article ran in the Fashion & Style section, and was published on March 6th. The following are some excerpts.
On his talk show hosting:
“SITTING in the back seat of his mother’s van as she drives through Atlanta suburbs, Jonathan Krohn is about to sign off with a conservative radio talk show host in Florida. In the 40 minutes he’s been on the air, with the help of his mother’s cellphone, this hyper-articulate Georgia eighth grader has attacked the stimulus bill, identified leaders he thinks will salvage the Republican Party’s image, and assessed the legitimacy of Barack Obama’s birth certificate….The show’s host chuckles and asks whether President Obama has called Jonathan ‘a little fascist.’…’The president hasn’t come after me yet,’ Jonathan says chummily, ‘but we’ve had other people come after me!’”
On “Define Conservatism”:
“The family said Jonathan paid to have the book published with his own savings, earned from writing and performing on a syndicated radio Bible show for children….His father made a spreadsheet of their contacts for publicity, and then Jonathan went to work, glad-handing. He already had developed poise, as he put it, ‘during the 20 or 30 productions I was in during my acting career” — he’d performed in Christian Youth Theater plays and regional shows.’”
