Loara Theatre Arts / MACY Awards

Fall Production of Antigone December 2012 Poster

Introduction: 

Loara Theatre Arts has a long tradition of performances, whether it's through choir or as a program itself Loara has always worked hard to make these performances to remember.  This year is no exception.  Following a successful run of Sophocles' Antigone

With Loara doing "Godspell" we were sure to raise eyebrows but our students took the song "We Beesech Thee" and truly made it their own, taking notice of the MACY's Awards program.

Promo Poster of Godspell May 2013

"Godspell"

"Godspell" is a musical by Stephen Schwartz and a book by John-Michael Tebelak. It opened off Broadway on May 17, 1971, and has played in various touring companies and revivals many times since, including a 2011 revival which played on Broadway from October 13, 2011 to June 24, 2012. Severalcast albums have been released over the years and one of its songs, "Day by Day" from the original cast album, reached #13 on the Billboard pop singles chart in the summer of 1972.

The structure of the musical is that of a series of parables, based on the Gospel of Matthew (though three of the parables featured are recorded only in the Gospel of Luke). These are then interspersed with a variety of modern music set primarily to lyrics from traditional hymns, with the passion of Christ treated briefly near the end of the performance. It started as a college project performed by students at Carnegie Mellon University and moved toLa MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in Greenwich Village. It was then re-scored for an off-Broadway production which became a long-running success. A junior one-act version with some songs removed has also been made under the title "Godspell Junior."
With all this, Loara took the musical to award winning fame.  The following is an email sent to the staff from the Theatre Arts teacher in regards to their performance on May 25, 2013 at Segerstrom Stage One:

"We did it!!!  We competed for our first time in the MACY's going against other Orange County Theatre programs such at Mission Viejo, Fullerton and OCHSA-which in case you don't know are considered a few of the best theatre schools in the OC. We were asked to perform at the MACY awards ceremony on the Segerstrom stage-one of only 20 schools to perform out of the 45 schools that competed. We also had Nick Fortinberry nominated for actor of the year.

Not only did Loara have an amazing performance but we brought home 4 achievement medals by Codey Foltz, Ian Villaescusa, Cynthia Espinoza and Laura Robbins.

4 outstanding achievement trophies by Matt Argame, Briana Frias, John Rushman and Desiree Nguyen.

2 highest achievement trophies by Nick Fortinberry and Charishma Marquez.

1 MACY scholarship ($500) awarded to Desiree Nguyen who will be attending UCI in the fall majoring in Theatre!

And THE Heart and Soul Award-awarded to the production with wonderful characters and voices with large heart and soul!-yep that's us!!!

Yep!  We received a production award our first year!  Pretty darn awesomely amazingly terrific if you ask me!

I must say this is one of the most memorable years I have had teaching Theatre and I owe it all to the amazingly talented, dedicated and hard-working students and their families, friends and teachers that support them!

Now I'm going to truly enjoy the rest of my weekend!  Congrats Loara for having such amazing kids!

Vanessa Montgomery"

A big congrats to cast and crew for an amazing run.  Below is the program for this award winning show.  Try to catch our shows next year.

Fall Production 2013 /December 5-7, 2013

Talent Showcase 2014 / February 21, 2014 

Spring Production 2014 / May 8-10, 2014