BWW Blog: Joscelyne Tamburri - A Finale at Beauty and the Beast

Well, here we are; Our last week of CCPA 2016/17. Our opening week of shows went extremely well, with a few minor "cringy" moments - as to be expected with live theatre - but in all, it was an incredibly successful week! These unexpected ended up adding humour to the show, like when Cogsworth goes to look up with the Beast and Lumiere and say "look at the Rose, it's wilting at an alarming rate" (or something like that), and the rose has disappeared, forcing the actors to improv while tech figures out how to get the rose back up there. Or when Babette's shoe flies off her foot in the tango, and our actress plays it off beautifully. It's that moment when at first you freak out, but 10 minutes later, you're dying of laughter from it. And, like I said, we have a great cast who can play it off so the audience doesn't know it's unintentional. My dad even asked me if Gaston's fall into the Orchestra pit (intentional) was supposed to happen because it seemed so real and spontaneous.

Also, helping out backstage has been awesome. Sure it's more days to put 1.5 hours of travel time to, but it's so special helping the Blue cast prepare for their show. I can feel the anticipation and excitement in the atmosphere as 30 minutes is called, then 15, 10, 5 all the way to places as they don on their 18th century fashions/style and prepare for such an uplifting, heartwarming and nostalgic show. It also means I get to spend as much time as possible with my favourite people in the world a few more times before we all disperse for summer...and I might not get to see some of them for a really long time. It's just a beautiful thing to share, this baby of our entire company, and be so connected to one another, and I am sad it's ending this Saturday.

CCPA has given me so many wonderful things in the classroom, the knowledge and skills I have learned this year is exponential, but the most wonderful thing I have received is this family. I love every one of my cast and crew mates, and we have all bonded together because of CCPA, who brought the most promising performers I have ever met, from all around Canada and put us all together under one roof. I would have never met some of them without CCPA because they're from Saskatoon or Regina or the Yukon or even Mexico and Brazil. I am so touched to have had the honour to work with all of the wonderful CCPA people, between the students, teachers, and faculty.

Anywho, like I said this week is our last 3 performances, boo. But, during a 3 day dark period, we had 2 annual college events, The CCPA Scholarship/Award Ceremony, and The "Frankies"; a student run event just for the students where we can be kooky and weird together one last time. I would like to give a big thank you to all of the donors who give so generously so we can have these CCPA scholarships and awards that help support and recognize the amazing students our Directors bring into the school. It was a wonderful evening with some great awards given out, one of them which I was lucky enough to win, The President's Award!

Then we have the Frankies; it's like the Oscars of CCPA, but funnier. The "stars" perform songs or dances, the hosts perform hilarious little skits between the transitions, and a group of students give out some real "special" awards to some of the students, who all get nominated for some fun recognition. These awards include best eyebrows, most likely to drop it low in the club, most likely to make their Broadway debut as Fork #3, etc. so they're all really funny and the winners get a small prize with a picture of the one and only namesake Frankie (a recent CCPA Year III, "Company C" grad) and a card that lets them know what they won. It's a really fun night, we all dressed up really fancy and it was a nice way to have an event where we can be weird all together for the last time.

By this time next week I will have started "Mary Poppins" rehearsals, which is kind of weird to wrap my head around, but I am really excited. I'll be keeping you updated in the rehearsal progress throughout the summer, and letting you know what this theatre gets up to in her 'big city" adventure. But for this week, we close this chapter of the CCPA school year with the closing of "Disney's Beauty and the Beast".

Until next week you guys, you know the deal, stay classy and sassy. <3