Best of Hollywood

OPENS JUNE 27th!!!

If you enjoyed “Razzle Dazzle” or any of our Award-winning Legend Series Shows, you will LOVE “Best of Hollywood”! Don’t miss this unforgettable musical homage to the films of Tinseltown. Once again, Mary Meserve-Miller and Suzy Miller combine their dynamic creative talents, along with the genius of Robyn Metchik, to create a fabulous song and dance-filled journey through eight decades of Hollywood films. Join us and one of the most incredibly talented casts ever assembled at SLOLT for what promises to be one of the most highly acclaimed shows EVER produced on our stage. You won’t want to miss this show! And don’t forget, every Saturday night is Martini Night, with a light gourmet supper and a no-host bar before the show. Hooray for Hollywood!

ACT Summer Camps

Summer is coming fast and with it comes 3 great ACT camps to keep all of our young performers busy this summer. Camps are filling fast, so register today!

The first camp is our Acting Out! Camp, a one week acting camp for performers in grades 1-6. The camp will explore character development, theatre games, improv, and audition techniques. At the end of the week, the students will perform for their family and friends. The camp runs June 16th -20th and costs $150. Grades 1-3 will work from 9am-12pm daily and Grades 4-6 will work from 1pm-4pm daily.

Our second camp is our Musical Theatre Camp, a two week camp for our performers in grades 1-6. In this camp the students will take classes in singing, acting, dancing, and audition techniques. The students will put their talents to work on a musical that will be performed on the last day of camp. The camp runs July 14-25th, with 1-3 graders attending from 9am-12pm and the 3-6th graders attending from 1pm-4pm. The last few days of camp (7/23, 7/24, 7/25) all campers will attend all day. The cost for the camp is $300.

Our final camp is for our older performers (grades 7-12), ACT Conservatory. The conservatory is a two week intensive camp where our students will attend classs from 9am-4pm. The morning sessions will concentrate on various workshops in different areas of theatre performance (Shakespeare, improv, voice, dance, stage combat, acting for the camera). The afternoon sessions will concentrate on various acting styles, advanced scene work, monologues, and audition techniques. The camp runs from August 3-15th and tuition is $450. On August 15th at 4pm, the conservatory students will present a showcase performance with what they have been working on for family, friends, and SLOLT directors.

For additional information, please contact the ACT Coordinator at (805) 781-3889 ext 14 or act@slolittletheatre.org There are scholarships, sibling discounts, and payment plans available for all our camps. A $50 deposit is due at the time of registration and the remaining tuition is due by the end of camp. Registration can be done via phone, mail, email, or fax. Camps are filling fast, so call today!

Here's a chance for single SLOLTers to support A.C.T.!!

COME HELP SUPPORT A.C.T.!!!

Known as “The Skim Event”—where singles meet & non-profits compete!
SCM helps singles meet & greet with our local non-profits & aims to provide education & inspiration to match our collective resources to better our non-profit community.
Mix it up, change it up & give it up to party for a cause!

Next Event
Date: June 24, 2008Time: 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm

Location: Embassy Suites, 333 Madonna Rd, San Luis Obispo

Click http://www.scmevent.com/ to register.

My Fair Lady Review - Mustang Daily

Stephen Espinosa (Col. Pickering), Lauren Alburn (Eliza) and Alan Benson (Prof. Higgins)
Photo by Jonothan of BluePhoto

A big thank you to Bridget for her coverage of My Fair Lady! For more Mustang Daily articles, click on the 'arts' link below.

'My Fair Lady' goes local, still amazes

By: Bridget Veltri

Issue date: 6/2/08 Section: Arts

I am a bit of a musical theater snob.

I've been lucky to have had opportunities to see the crème de la crème perform on the legendary stages of both Broadway and London's West End.

The San Luis Obispo Little Theatre's (SLOLT) performance of "My Fair Lady" was my first community theater musical experience.

As I filed into the intimate theater, a minority among a sea of senior citizens, I thought this local performance would need more than "a little bit of luck" to stack up to my previous experiences.

Armed with a pen, a notebook and cynicism, I settled into my seat and prepared for what I thought would be the longest two-and-a-half hours of my life. But as familiar tunes streamed out of the speakers above and the lights dimmed, my elitist attitude began to fade.

The cast scurried about the stage conversing in convincing Cockney accents and dressed in surprisingly elaborate costumes, except for one unlucky ensemble member in an ill-fitted red dress.

After Eliza Doolittle (Lauren Alburn) finished singing "Wouldn't It Be Loverly," I was a community theater convert and had to restrain myself from bursting into song with her.

Audrey Hepburn is to "My Fair Lady" as Julia Roberts is to "Pretty Woman." In Alburn's first performance with the SLOLT, she played a character immortalized on the big screen by the iconic Hepburn and on the stage by Julie Andrews - no pressure. She was impressive and belted out the songs as if she was a Cockney canary.

Alfred Doolittle (Mike Mesker) didn't need a "little bit of luck" to bring Eliza's pub-frequenting father to life. His rise to "middle-class morality" was both convincing and entertaining.

Alan Benson brought his professional acting experience to the role of Henry Higgins and was a delight to watch.

For those unfamiliar with the musical - based on "Pygmalion" by George Bernard Shaw - it is a story about love and personal transformation. It's the story of Eliza Doolittle, a woman plagued by a thick accent who makes her living by selling flowers on the streets of London, and Henry Higgins, an arrogant language academic who casually comments that "the way she speaks is what keeps her in her place" and with the right coaching he could turn her into a lady. Higgins eats his words when Doolittle shows up at his door for lessons.

Both the main characters embark on personal journeys: Doolittle's from flower girl to lady and Higgins' from snooty confirmed bachelor to a gentleman finally ready to let "a woman in his life."

There is a reason why they call it the SLO Little Theater: it's tiny. The audience surrounds the stage on three sides and the front row is inches away. The cast's witty banter compensated for the lack of curtains during set changes.

The atmosphere was crammed but comfy, and the theater's size added to the experience. While one of the women seated next to me dozed off and snored at several points during the performance, the other was there to see her young granddaughters perform, and informed me that her daughter made the strawberry tarts Col. Pickering (Stephen Espinosa) enjoyed in Higgins' study just before Doolittle has her breakthrough moment and sings about the infamous "rain in Spain."

The cast did more for me than just put on a show; they showed that you can do justice to a classic musical on a small scale, and the best part is you don't have to pay big Broadway prices to enjoy an afternoon of theater. Tickets are $22 for general admission, and $19 for students and seniors. The show, sponsored by Bob and Ruth Bostrom, will run through June 22.

Just as Higgins found love with someone he never imagined, I found a quality production in a place I never imagined: the SLO Little Theatre.

I am now a reformed theater snob.