Local
kids prepare for The Muny's 2005 season
Tess Boyer of Glen Carbon, Ill., and Nicholas Oliveri of
Clayton will be two of the younger cast members in The Muny's
2005 summer season. As Muny Kids members, they also will do
advance publicity appearances for the new season.
Twelve-year-old Tess is starting her second season at The
Muny. She will play Minnie in "Annie Get Your Gun," the second
show of the season.
Thirteen-year-old Nicholas is starting his fifth Muny season.
He's to play either Young Cosmo or Young Don in "Singin' In
The Rain." That's fourth in the 7-show season at the Forest
Park theatre.
The Muny is the oldest and largest outdoor musical theatre
in the
country. Every season, there are lots of parts for young
kids in the various popular musicals. This year is The Muny's
87th year of operation.
(For complete details about The Muny, visit
www.muny.com.)
Before the season starts, a troupe of Muny Kids performers
make public appearances around the metro area to promote the
season. Rehearsals for the promotional tour began shortly
after auditions were held late in February.
Auditions were held for younger kids (8-13) on Feb. 26, and
for older kids (14-19) the next day at University High School.
Tess and Nicholas already have had plenty of big-time performance
experience all over the country.
Tess is a 7th grader at Liberty Middle School in Glen Carbon.
She is the reigning Miss Junior Teen USA, becoming the youngest
winner in history last fall.
Also, she considers her best musical experience to be her
3½ months with a Vee Corporation group that toured the country.
She said it was fun "going up on stage and making people smile."
Nicholas is a 7th grader at Wydown Middle School in Clayton.
In 2003, he was selected as a St. Louis representative to
perform in the White House. First Lady Laura Bush was in the
audience.
He and another boy sang a medley of patriotic songs at the
national awards ceremony for service to the arts.
Tess has been singing since she was five and Nicholas started
when he was six.
Tess's first performance at age five was as an angel in a
church musical at the Harvest Assembly Church, where her father
is the pastor. She remembers that musical well because it
still ranks as her worst performance experience.
"I played an angel and I got stuck on a stool. It was so
high I couldn't get off without falling. Joseph and Mary had
to carry me off the stage on the stool," she said.
She considers her singing to be her main strength as a performer.
But, she admits she has been learn how to read her lines slower.
"I go really fast," she said.
Tess is also taking private lessons to improve her dancing
ability.
She's hoping to study theater in college. She wants to be
either a professional actress or a singer. "I don't care which;
I want to be a star either way," Tess adds.
Nicholas said his first musical experience was in "Sound
of Music" in a Kirkwood community theater performance when
he was six.His first Muny performance was in 2001 in "Wizard
of Oz."
He said his worst performing experience was in another Muny
appearance that year.
"I was on a Gershwin show. We had to dance on blocks that
were 1½ feet tall. I fell off," he said.
Both of the young performers said they like singing better
than other forms of performing. Nicholas said he still sings
soprano because his voice hadn't started to change as yet.
Nicholas also wants to study theater in college. He wants
to go either to Julliard, NYU or the Cincinnati College of
Art and Music. As a career, he wants to be a performer in
musicals.
Both of the kids say they're more nervous before auditions
than during performances. They said that's because they haven't
yet earned a show spot before the auditions.
The 2005 Muny season includes "Beauty and The Beast," June
20-29; "Annie Get Your Gun," July 4-10; "Jesus Christ Superstar,"
July 11-17; "Singin' In The Rain," July 18-24; "Mame," July
25-31; "Westside Story," Aug. 1-7, and "The Sound of Music,"
Aug. 8-14.
For ticket information, you can call (314) 361-1900
or visit www.muny.com.
