Gloucester Stage Company to present summer showcase

Tonight, the Gloucester Stage Company will present its Musical Theater Intensive Showcase at 6. 

The showcase is a part of the company’s week long Youth Summer Camp, where for the past week, students have been learning about voice training, choreography, and more. 

“Working here in the summer is a great opportunity,” Lilliana DiMercurio said. “The biggest thing I’ve learned is how to tackle hard choreography.” 

While the Youth Summer Camp has been running for many years, it was recently taken over by Director Ts Burnham in April of 2024. 

“We do a full musical in the winter, so this is their intro into it all,” Burnham said. “We teach them how to have a good audition and introduce them to different kinds of musical theater.” 

Voice projection is one of the many skills that Burnham has been teaching her students in the past week, as they will not have microphones during Friday’s performance. 

“That’s the thing about our wonderful black box theater – it’s intimate, it’s beautiful, it seats a great audience – but there’s no microphones,” Burnham said. “So we’re going back to the old days of projection and saving your voice and vocal placements and how to use your full body to become a performer, not just a singer.” 

Tomorrow’s performance will feature songs from famous productions like “In the Heights”, “Dear Evan Hansen”, “The Producers”, and more.

In addition to group performances, duets, and trios, each student will also perform a solo. 

Tickets are by donation only, and they will be given out at the door. The proceeds will go towards funding the youth program and its winter show in December, as well as providing scholarship opportunities for kids looking to join the program.