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VOA标准英语2010年-Setting the Stage for Future Stars

时间:2010-09-08 03:09来源:互联网 提供网友:yl6642   字体: [ ]
    (单词翻译:双击或拖选)

At the Stagedoor Manor1 summer camp theater, kids from all over the world put on 13 full-scale productions in three weeks.

Among the many specialty2 summer camps in the U.S. are drama camps, where youngsters learn about theater and put on a play.

There is a summer camp in Loch Sheldrake, New York, that has nurtured3 some well-known Hollywood actors.

Intense experience

The campers who attend Stagedoor Manor have an intensive introduction to professional theater. They perform 13 plays. The talented teenagers love to sing, dance and act, and are willing and able to endure the long hours of training and rehearsal4.

 
Stagedoor Manor
Actress Natalie Portman is a Stagedoor Manor summer camp alumnus.

A re-designed hotel in a Catskill Mountain resort town two hours north of New York City seems an unlikely place to find tomorrow's Broadway and Hollywood stars.

Journalist Mickey Rapkin was curious to discover what this camp is all about.

"I heard about this summer theater where kids would come from all over the world and put on 13 full-scale productions in three weeks and Hollywood casting directors would come to see the productions." he says. "I just didn't believe that place existed."

He discovered that it does. Stagedoor Manor'a alumni include well-known actors like Robert Downey Jr., Jennifer Jason Leigh and Mandy Moore. The camp, which opened in 1975, holds three 3-week sessions each summer. About 280 teens sign up for each.

'Theater Geek' follows three Stagedoor Manor campers.

Last summer, Rapkin joined them. He spent long hours attending classes and workshops, following the campers during their free time and watching them rehearse.

"What separates this camp is they challenge those kids by casting them in really mature roles and sort of seeing what they can pull off," he says. "The idea of teenagers doing Sondheim festival might sound scary. Stephen Sondheim musicals are very difficult and harmonies are complicated. You can't believe they can do this in three weeks, but they do."

'Theater Geek'

Rapkin tells the story of Stagedoor Manor, and three of the campers he met there, in his new book, "Theater Geek."

"The first of those kids, Harry5 Katzman, grew up mostly in London and went to theater all the time by himself as a kid, and just fell in love with the theater," Rapkin says. "He ended up moving to the U.S., to South Carolina. He makes his way to Stagedoor Manor and has this completely transformative experience there where he is really pushed and challenged to perform and to work on his skill level and his talent."

 Stagedoor Manor
'Scrubs' actor Zach Braff performed 'Godspell,' at Stagedoor Manor.

Harry Katzman was only 14 when he attended Stagedoor Manor for the first time. Hungry to learn more, he says, he returned every summer for the next 3 years.

"Really, I felt like it was the right place for me," he says. "The best learning you can do is by doing and by performing a show, memorizing the lines, getting it done and watching your peers around you doing the same thing and realizing their talent. It just makes you want to be better. So you're constantly trying to improve yourself. I think that it's just impressive to see the amount of people who do really have talent, that do care about this profession as much as I do."

Katzman says the skills he developed at camp laid a solid foundation for his future. He is now studying musical theater at the University of Michigan.

Nineteen-year old Natalie Walker, a theater major at New York University, still remembers how she learned about Stagedoor Manor. It was featured in a movie called "Camp." She was in 8th grade.

"I was like, 'Oh my gosh, I wish there is a real place like this.' Then, you know, in the credits of the movie, it's like this camp is based on Stagedoor Manor," she recalls. "I went to my computer, entered Stagedoor Manor into Google search and it came up. I saw the pictures of all those shows that they are doing and I'm like, 'Sign me up for the entire time.'"

Head first

Walker says she was amazed at the camp's pace and approach to learning.

"You audition6 the first day of camp, you get measured for costumes," she says. "You get thrown in head first into the deep end and you really have to work hard. There is so much pressure, but you know that teaches you a lot. The big part of the training was to put everything together in such a short amount of time."

To be able to perform in 13 full-scale Broadway shows in just three weeks, kids need to be well prepared. And they are, says New York theater director Raymond Zilberberg.

"We rehearse twice a day for 4 hours," he says. "And then between those rehearsals7, we have classes: dance classes, vocal8 technique classes and various acting9 classes as well."

Zilberberg teaches an audition technique class.

"They all come in with their music prepared and we go through every single student and work with them on the song they are choosing to audition with," he says. "What's the meaning of the song, how to better deliver it, how to enter a room, how to compose themselves. So it's about giving them the best possible opportunity when they walk into an audition space."

Each Stagedoor Manor session ends with an awards ceremony, and a lot of hugs and tears, because camp is over.

But for many, the end of camp is also the start toward realizing their dream of becoming a star.


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 manor d2Gy4     
n.庄园,领地
参考例句:
  • The builder of the manor house is a direct ancestor of the present owner.建造这幢庄园的人就是它现在主人的一个直系祖先。
  • I am not lord of the manor,but its lady.我并非此地的领主,而是这儿的女主人。
2 specialty SrGy7     
n.(speciality)特性,特质;专业,专长
参考例句:
  • Shell carvings are a specialty of the town.贝雕是该城的特产。
  • His specialty is English literature.他的专业是英国文学。
3 nurtured 2f8e1ba68cd5024daf2db19178217055     
养育( nurture的过去式和过去分词 ); 培育; 滋长; 助长
参考例句:
  • She is looking fondly at the plants he had nurtured. 她深情地看着他培育的植物。
  • Any latter-day Einstein would still be spotted and nurtured. 任何一个未来的爱因斯坦都会被发现并受到培养。
4 rehearsal AVaxu     
n.排练,排演;练习
参考例句:
  • I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。
  • You can sharpen your skills with rehearsal.排练可以让技巧更加纯熟。
5 harry heBxS     
vt.掠夺,蹂躏,使苦恼
参考例句:
  • Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天,人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
  • Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。
6 audition 8uazw     
n.(对志愿艺人等的)面试(指试读、试唱等)
参考例句:
  • I'm going to the audition but I don't expect I'll get a part.我去试音,可并不指望会给我个角色演出。
  • At first,they said he was too young,but later they called him for an audition.起初,他们说他太小,但后来他们叫他去试听。
7 rehearsals 58abf70ed0ce2d3ac723eb2d13c1c6b5     
n.练习( rehearsal的名词复数 );排练;复述;重复
参考例句:
  • The earlier protests had just been dress rehearsals for full-scale revolution. 早期的抗议仅仅是大革命开始前的预演。
  • She worked like a demon all through rehearsals. 她每次排演时始终精力过人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
8 vocal vhOwA     
adj.直言不讳的;嗓音的;n.[pl.]声乐节目
参考例句:
  • The tongue is a vocal organ.舌头是一个发音器官。
  • Public opinion at last became vocal.终于舆论哗然。
9 acting czRzoc     
n.演戏,行为,假装;adj.代理的,临时的,演出用的
参考例句:
  • Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她,她只是假装的。
  • During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代,她的表演生涯黯然失色。
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TAG标签:   VOA标准英语  specialty  specialty
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