AIS students gear up for ‘Rock of Ages’
‘Local Hunt’ - a chart show featuring original English music videos will kick off on Channel Eye with producers keen to help young musicians put together their own videos in a bid to showcase the country’s local talent ‘Rock of Ages’ promises to showcase
Set in the beautiful Sunset Strip of L. A. - Asian International School ( AIS) will take audiences back to the 1980s as they set the stage to perform the jukebox musical ‘Rock of Ages’.
Bringing back the glam metal bands of the 80’ s, the story of Sherrie, Drew, Stacee and the Dupree room will be brought to stage on February 8 and 9 at the Lionel Wendt Theatre.
The play is directed by Anushka Senanyake, Founder of Theatre Junction and also the name behind productions such as ‘The Last Five Years’, ‘ Cinderella’ and ‘ Next to Nor mal’ to name a f ew. Joining her with musical direction is Natasha Senanyake who is known for winning the inaugural 2014 Commonwealth Music Competition with her original composition of
Local Hunt, a chart show featuring original English music by Sri Lankan artistes, kicks off today at 8 p.m. on Channel Eye. The show is directed by Sunanda Hettiarachchi. “We have numerous requests coming in to feature local English songs,” Ms Hettiarachchi said, explaining what led to the creation of the chart show. “At Channel Eye we have our Rise and Shine programme 365 days a year. We showcase entertainment per se only on Fridays and Saturdays. We ‘United We Stand’. The choreography for the action-packed show will be undertaken by Umeshi Rajeendra, the Founder and Chief Artistic Director at Mesh Academy of Dance who has worked with artists such as Shen Wei, Jesse Zaritt, Erin Law and Dada Masilo.
This will not be the first play that these talented ladies have collaborated on together having worked on ‘Cinderella’ back in July 2017. ‘Rock of Ages’, which is originally based on the book by Chris D’Arienzo with arrangements and orchestrations by Ethan Popp, will follow a condensed script that is suitable for school audiences due to the mature themes involved in the original storyline.
Natasha was behind selecting ‘ Rock of Ages’ and owing to her position as Choir Director at AIS she understood the voices required to pull a play as demanding as this feature various artistes,”
“When we feature local artistes on the show, they put the video of this on YouTube. We looked at the likes and views of these videos, and we realised that there was a demand for original music. This was a void waiting to be filled,” she pointed out.
“Most of these artistes do covers, but a lot of them are willing to do originals, or have worked on original material. We have to encourage this talent.” especially in terms of solos.
“Just in general,the overall energy and the power behind the music, the fact that a lot of people would identify with the songs, I thought that the students would be excited to perform. It was because of the music.”
Umeshi looked into the individual strengths of students and the 80s style of dance when she prepared the choreography for the play. It was a lot of extensive research on the rock era to reflect the energy of the classic songs performed. “I just tap
And Channel Eye offers a nationwide platform to showcase this talent. “We want to give them exposure,” she smiled. “We felt there was no suitable platform for local English music videos. Now we are providing a platform.”
Producer Achala Solomons, who is a lyricist himself, pointed out that ‘Local Hunt’ is the first and only English, Sri Lankan, original, television music video chart show. He acknowledged that with the net available to many, people get to into the individual styles of students through their performance. We use and improvise it to what’s best for the piece. We also look into a style that will best suit the space we work with.”
“For a high school type of play, it is highly energetic and it requires all three - acting, singing and dancing. It really pushes them to grow because you have to be a triple threat. It gives them a good understanding of what a musical requires from a performance,” says Anushka of directing a student cast.
Elaborating more on working with children between the ages of 10-17, the team agree that a real challenge they faced has been a time for practice that accommodates the entire cast. However, working with a huge cast of students who each have different personalities and styles does not intimidate the three. They encourage open communication