Friday, January 23, 2015

HONK If You Love Seeing Actors As Animals!

HONK! JR. will have you quacking up!

With a cast of students all the way from 3rd grade to 12th, HONK! JR. should have people flocking to QCT! In this adaptation of The Ugly Duckling, an odd-looking duckling named Ugly (Carson Frese) is made fun of and excluded by the other farm animals until he finds himself lured away by a hungry cat (Lydia Hilbing) with a talent for purrsuasion! This different little ducky ends up on quite the journey that leads to a whole flock of unique animals and a lesson that even when you're different, you can "hold your head up high"!





Because this show is filled with fun, farmyard animals, every actor in the show has had to learn how to uniquely carry themselves as a completely new creature--whether it be baby ducks, adult ducks, turkeys, geese, swans, frogs, cats, or some other animal! This cast of young people had to learn that becoming a whole new species effects every little thing from posture to manners to the way we speak. One of the very first days of rehearsal, the director, Kelsey Celek, had the cast spend a big chunk of time walking through a room as each type of animal…

As 25 students transformed into 25 frogs, we were encouraged to find new ways to add hops to our steps and experiment with new twists on the idea of frogs with hip hop. We were especially encouraged to find the particular kind of sass that you'll get to see with our fabulously ugly froglets!
As we became military-driven Canadian geese, everyone suddenly had something to do (not exactly an unusual concept for the busy actor) and a perfect plan for getting it done, along with some amazing posture (which is an unusual concept for a room filled with quite a few teenagers).
Suddenly the room was filled with children sprouting wings and hatching from eggs as our cast began to come into their own and fit the bill with the physicality of their poultry parts.

Having fun with our "duck" faces!!