Oklahoma! - 2007 Cantate Musical - Youth Choir Musical

Cantate presented Oklahoma! in March 2007 for four sold-out shows.
The production featured two casts and an orchestra that included many youth.

Photogallery:

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Rodgers & Hammerstein's first collaboration remains, in many ways, their most innovative, having set the standards and established the rules of musical theatre still being followed today. Set in a Western Indian territory just after the turn of the century, the high-spirited rivalry between the local farmers and cowboys provides the colorful background against which Curly, a handsome cowboy, and Laurey, a winsome farm girl, play out their love story. Although the road to true love never runs smooth, with these two headstrong romantics holding the reins, love's journey is as bumpy as a surrey ride down a country road. That they will succeed in making a new life together we have no doubt, and that this new life will begin in a brand-new state provides the ultimate climax to the triumphant OKLAHOMA!

Music by Richard Rodgers
Book and Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Based on the play "Green Grow The Lilacs" by Lynn Riggs
Original Dances by Agnes de Mille

Rationale
With all of the opportunities for students to perform musical theater in schools or community theater organizations, why are we doing it at church? Here are just a few of the many reasons:

The church brings a spiritual dimension to theater that the schools and community groups cannot and should not. Our production of Oklahoma! will include Bible study time and opportunities to discuss the spiritual lessons that can be learned and applied to our own lives.
Those who have been involved in musical theater before know the tremendous sense of camaraderie and group-building that occurs in a production such as this. Where better to build a strong sense of community than with a church youth group?
Given the many students in our schools and communities who wish to do musical theater, there just isn’t room for some students to get a part. Since we anticipate drawing from a smaller pool of students we may provide an opportunity for someone to get a lead role where they otherwise might not in a school or community group.
Our focus on solo singing, stage presence, poise, confidence and leadership translate directly into learning how to be leaders within our church.
Doing a musical is just downright fun and whoever said that God’s people can’t just have fun?

Philosphy
While we emphasize to our students that worship participation is NOT performance (by the way, that’s why we don’t encourage applause in worship) a production such as this one certainly is. We will endeavor to provide the appropriate balance between fun and inclusiveness and the highest quality performance that we can possibly achieve. There are many who say “it’s just church” and quality and integrity aren’t as important. I beg to differ. If there’s any place where quality is paramount, it’s in our spiritual endeavors. To put it quite simply – God deserves nothing less than our very best. Our students will be challenged to discover their gifts and talents and use them to their fullest. We will produce a performance of Oklahoma! that our students and our entire church will be proud of. Yet, we will do all of this and respect the needs and time constraints of families. Many school and community organizations will run 2-3 months of rehearsals with 6-8 hours of rehearsal per week. We will do our homework and plan rehearsals to run smoothly and efficiently while only requiring 3-4 hours of rehearsal per week.