Footlight Players rehearsing Finding Nemo Jr. on the Theater-by-the-Grove main stage.
Just keep swimming, just keep swimming!” IUP’s summer youth theatre camp, Footlight Players, will perform the musical Finding Nemo, Jr. and the play As You Wish It in a double bill on July 14 and 15 on the main stage at Theatre-by-the-Grove in IUP’s Performing Arts Center. Performances are open to the public at a low cost. Advance tickets can be purchased at IUP’s Marketplace or at the door. Friday’s performance is 7:00 p.m., and Saturday’s performance is a 2:00 p.m. matinee.
The Players spend their mornings rehearsing spoken lines, songs, choreography and movement to prepare for the performances. After a “company lunch” of everyone together, the Players split off to several workshops in support of the skills they will need to succeed. Then at 4:00 p.m. they end their day together again to review the “word of the day” and how they experienced values like “focus,” “bravery,” “discovery,” and “accomplishment.” It is a full day for these forty two creative young people. But worth it. Most of them are from Indiana county but some come from states far away to experience Footlight while staying with friends and relatives.
Both the musical and the play are one-acts based on films.
Finding Nemo, Jr. is based on the 2003 Disney/Pixar film Finding Nemo written by Andrew Stanton (director), Bobo Peterson, and David Reynolds. In it, Marlin, an anxious and over-protective clownfish, lives in the Great Barrier Reef with his kid Nemo, who longs to explore the world beyond their anemone home. But when Nemo is captured and taken to Sydney, Marlin faces his fears and sets off on an epic adventure across the ocean. He is soon accompanied on the journey by the helpful but forgetful blue tang Dory who’s perseverance drives them forward with the mantra, “Just keep swimming.”
As You Wish It is based on the popular movie The Princess Bride directed by Rob Reiner. It tells the story as originally written by William Goldman of a swashbuckling farmhand named Westley, accompanied by companions befriended along the way, who must rescue his true love Princess Buttercup from the odious Prince Humperdinck. This one is a Shakespeare version of The Princess Bride! The fair maiden Buttercup is betrothed to the evil Prince Humperdinck, but she is forlorn since her true love Westley has died at sea. Before she can make it to her ill-fated wedding day, three thieves and a man in black will change everything, and be proof that true love conquers all.
Footlight Players is a project of the IUP Theatre, Dance and Performance department. It provides creative opportunity for young people in our community and valuable experience for IUP students learning to become teaching artists. All participants enrolled in Footlight get a role onstage and are given tasks to help complete backstage production tasks as well.
These performances are supported in part by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. Footlight is also funded by a generous financial hug from Kiwanis International, and individual donations to the Footlight Players fund of the Foundation for IUP.