Guest Actors Make Something Rotten Feel Fresh

Each year, the Theater 3 class prepares a one-act musical for the Mid-Michigan Theatre Arts Festival. This year, they are working on a show called Something Rotten, a musical comedy set in the 1590’s made to poke fun at Shakespeare, as the characters try to create “the first ever musical.” 

To help the students prepare, Mary Bogrette, Theater 3 teacher, brought in Professional Stratford Actress Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane, who played Portia last year in Something Rotten, as well as Educational Outreach Director, Arielle Zamora, to work with the class. This opportunity was provided through the Michigan Residency Educational Grant Foundation, and is the 6th year they have been to Bloomfield Hills High School to run a workshop. 

Carson Miller (grade 12) explained the experience, saying, “We worked with two professional actors from Stratford. They wanted to help us with developing our characters and to understand what we actually were saying and why. They introduced us to the Tim Carrol method of acting. This helped us further understand not only what we were saying but also why we were saying it. The method is that the actor says a line and is then questioned, ‘Do you believe that?’, or ‘When did you think of that?’ The actor responds with ‘yes’ or ‘just now’ and then says their line again. You use this through[out] the whole song. This helps the actor know in their mind when and why they are saying lines. This opportunity was amazing and extremely helpful. I am so glad that we had the privilege to work with these amazing actors.”

Thank you to our guests, and to Bogrette for guiding our students with professional talent!