Behind the Curtain: The Busy Life of a Paper Mill Conservatory Student

My original plan for this week's article was to interview each of the teachers, in order to give everyone an idea of how lucky we are to get to work with such amazing people. However, as you can see by the title, that did not happen. This week has been absolutely, utterly, insane! In fact, classes on Friday were cancelled to provide extra time to rehearse for the New Voices Concert! But, as crazy as it has been, we continue to learn, grow and - most importantly - have fun!

This past Monday, we began section rehearsals for the concert. I spent almost all of my time rehearsing for the dance section, It Had To Be You, and John Housley's wonderfully challenging section, The Joint Is Jumpin'. I began my day at 8:45 with morning announcements, where we were welcomed back from the weekend by Paper Mill's lovely Director of Education, Lisa Cooney. From there, every student headed to their first period class – which, for me, is Dance! Because I am in the dance section, we started spacing and choreography for the piece with our dance teacher and choreographer, Michele Mossay. The piece shows a fluid blend of jazz, ballet, and contemporary, with many ethnic influences. The movement is quite beautiful and will bring a nice balance and contrast to the concert.

From dance class, I went to my Monologues class with John Robert Armstrong. We worked on a centering and focusing warm-up, followed by individual coaching sessions on our dramatic monologues. After this, I went to Acting, with John Housley, where we explored a scene, from Avenue Q, between two characters named Kate Monster and Princeton. This scene challenged us all to use strong objectives and find originality in our work.

After our third period class, all students eat lunch and have the freedom to work with our extremely talented music intern, Matt Lowy, or rehearse on our own in one of the studios, or sit and chat with our friends. Many birthdays have been celebrated during lunch, as well (and our "Happy Birthday" is the most beautifully harmonized version you might ever hear!).

From lunch, I then go to Musical Theater with Sara Lazarus. This week, we were responsible for preparing either a ballad that shows range (emotional or vocal) or a comedic piece. Each of us performs during the week and Sara gives us feedback and coaching sessions to better our performing skills. After fourth period, we go to our skill session courses. This week, my schedule had me in Improvisation, with Jon Colby! We always have so much fun while exploring movement and character creation. After skill session classes, the final two hours are devoted to section rehearsal. Monday's rehearsal was exciting! We began learning music and even worked on movement and choreography.

On Tuesday, my section rehearsal was strictly dedicated to music. We finished learning most of the songs and, with tape recorder in hand, vowed to learn our harmonies and lyrics. At the beginning of Wednesday's section rehearsal, we dove into All That Jazz, with full Fosse choreography and tons of charisma. Everyone learned the sequence and we were given one day to master it before the directors (John and Michele) chose where they wanted to space us.

All day on Thursday, those in The Joint is Jumpin' were practicing that choreography - during lunch, during morning announcements, during down time in class. By the time we got to section rehearsal at 3:00, we all felt good about the movement. But even our hardest work wasn't enough to master Fosse's tough style. So, we ran the choreography in groups, and those who had it figured out helped those who needed a little more work. From there, we were given spacing, and the number seemed to be coming together! But we had to go home and get some good rest, because Friday was going to be the hardest day yet.

On Friday, during morning announcements, Lisa Cooney told us our schedule for the day, and we were on our way! From 9:00 to 12:15 we had section rehearsal in our three sections. In rehearsal for The Joint is Jumpin', we finished All That Jazz. The choreography is phenomenal, and we are all very excited to show it off. At 11:00, those in the dance section, It Had to Be You, left to rehearse until 12:15. During this rehearsal, we got one whole piece finished - spacing and all. We were let out at 12:35, which meant that we were late for lunch, but none of us minded!

After we finished lunch at 1:00, we had full company music rehearsal with our wonderful music director, Meg Zervoulis. We worked on the Opening, the Finale of Act I, and the Finale of Act II. At 1:45, we began rehearsal for staging and choreography of the Opening number with Mark Hoebee, the artistic director of Paper Mill Playhouse and a New Voices Concert director. We finished the Opening number at around 4:00 and went straight into the Finale of Act I with the help of Michele Mossay and Patrick Parker. This years Act I finale is a medley of songs from the many versions and takes on The Wizard of Oz. The senior girls sing a beautiful arrangement of Defying Gravity from Wicked, and the senior boys sing Ease on Down the Road from the Wiz. We all finish out the medley with Brand New Day, also from the Wiz.

By the end of the day on Friday, the panic that had been so prevalent in the students had turned into a satisfying kind of exhaustion. We now have a fabulous opening number, an amazing Act I finale, five phenomenal sections, and a beautiful overall Finale. Who wouldn't want to see that? For New Voices Concert tickets, call (973) 376-4343, or visit www.papermill.org.