Step It Up Summer Stage
P.O. Box 353
Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY 12520
845-534-3645 (Studio)

SCHOOL OF ROCK to Feature Latest in Crowd Synched Lighting Technology
…and Andrew Lloyd Webber Will Be Watching!

On December 27th, Step It Up Performing Arts owner and artistic director Ronda Barber sent a text message to Summer Stage director Karen Eremin during intermission at SCHOOL OF ROCK on Broadway:
“Can’t wait until this goes off Broadway. Would be awesome to do for SUMMER STAGE!”
At the time, Barber was unaware that Andrew Lloyd Webber and R&H Theatricals were already licensing rights for amateur productions of SCHOOL OF ROCK , concurrent with the Broadway run, in an effort to engage children in musical theatre in an unprecedented way. Traditionally, it can take years after a Broadway show closes and its national tours run, before a non-professional group may perform the production.

Since January, Summer Stage’s creative team of Barber, Eremin, T.J. Larke and musical director Ben Kohn have been working to make its production of SCHOOL OF ROCK worthy of the honor of performing the same show presently running at the Winter Garden theatre in New York. In May, Eremin was contacted by Samantha McConnell, a marketing and social media executive with The Really Useful Group, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s production company in London . Summer Stage has been asked to document its production process from rehearsals through performance with video footage and cast and crew interviews answering specific questions provided by Really Useful, as well as candid observations about being in the show. Really Useful plans to use some of this footage in their upcoming promotional video for SCHOOL OF ROCK for Schools, Youth Groups and Amateur Societies worldwide.

Local audiences have come to expect a high caliber of production value in Step It Up shows. Before they were even contacted on behalf of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Barber and Eremin had conspired to treat their audiences to an event experience pioneered by Coldplay, Taylor Swift and the producers of this year’s Super Bowl. Working with Grammy award winning sound designer Alan Douches of West West Side Music in New Windsor and Lawrence Helfant of Crowdsync Technology in Los Angeles, Summer Stage will provide each ticket holder to its two shows with an LED bracelet which will be programmed to light at varied times throughout the show. Eremin has shared this plan with McConnell in London , who called it “brilliant…and very cool”, and said she was going to mention it to the overseer of merchandising for the Broadway production. One of the main themes in the story is to show children that music played from the soul can be liberating and life-affirming. For many, SCHOOL OF ROCK may be their first true concert-like experience. May the appreciative sea of swaying Bic lighters live on for the next generation; electronically, of course!

Summer Stage’s SCHOOL OF ROCK will be performed Friday July 8th and Saturday, July 9th at 7pm at the Walter Reade, Jr. Theatre at Storm King School . Tickets go on sale for $18 each Wednesday, June 29th either in person at the Step by Step Dance Studio in Cornwall-on-Hudson , or by calling 534-3645. Seating is general admission. For more information, call the studio or write director Karen Eremin at KUE at StepItUpPerformingArts.org