A few years ago, six students came together at Virginia Tech and discovered a common bond — a love for theater.
After graduation, this group of twentysomethings found themselves living in the Manorgate community of Centreville a block away from each other; they found themselves reminiscing about the great theater experiences they had shared. So they decided to raise the curtain once again — and 2nd Flight Productions was born.
“WE WANTED to bring the magic we had working together to this area,” said Centreville resident Rebekah McKendry, co-president and choreographer of 2nd Flight Productions, and English teacher at Robinson Secondary.
During last Wednesday's inaugural meeting at Chantilly High, the theater company members introduced themselves to the 13 people in attendance and talked about the first production, "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat," scheduled to run in August.
“It’s a great story,” said Director and Co-President Shannon Khatcheressian, who teaches theater arts at Chantilly High. “It allows for a lot of variation and offers a huge variety of music.” The show, which originated as a 20-minute children’s musical, has grown in length to an hour due to its popularity. It now includes such musical styles as country, Elvis, disco, calypso and French-bistro. “It’s a lot of fun,” said Khatcheressian.
2nd Flight Productions is looking for adults, five teen-agers, and four to five children (ages 6-12) to sing in the production. There are no spoken words during the show — just singing and dancing.
AUDITIONS TAKE place Tuesday-Wednesday, May 18-19, at 7 p.m. at Chantilly High School room 106. Callbacks will take place on Thursday, May 20, at 7:30 p.m. at The Cramer Center in Old Town Manassas, where the play will take place in August.
Adults wishing to audition should prepare 16 bars of an up tempo song. Children wishing to audition must be accompanied by a parent, though the audition itself will take place behind closed doors with the parent waiting outside.
“We just want to see if the child can stand on their own,” said Khatcheressian. Children are not required to have American Idol-level talent. “We just want to see if your child can keep a tune singing ‘Happy Birthday’ or ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb.’”
2nd Flight Productions is also accepting applications for many behind-the-scenes positions. The company is looking for a stage manager and a pit director, and is also seeking musicians to work in the orchestra.
“This is a really fun show to do, but it’s technical at the same time,” said Dave McKendry, technical director, who is looking for set builders, set designers, costume designers, and painters to help with the company’s first production.
“As long as you’re willing to hold a hammer, we’ll teach you how to do it,” said Khatcheressian.
All of the money raised by "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat" will be funded into future shows. “We do this for the love of it, for the love of the theater,” said Rebekah McKendry.
2ND FLIGHT Productions is encouraging anyone who has dreamed of working in a theater to apply. “If you want to help,” said Khatcheressian, “we’ll find a place for you.”
The founding members of 2nd Flight Productions prepared for more than a year before officially starting the non-profit company in March. “We wanted to make sure we had backing,” said Rebekah McKendry. “We didn’t want to jump right in and put up a play on Saturday. We wanted to do it right.”
2nd Flight Productions can be reached by e-mail at auditions@2ndflightproductions.com. Audition forms and schedules can be found at www.2ndflightproductions.com.