SCPA students chosen for national cabaret conference

The International Cabaret Conference, a nine-day teaching program that holds auditions from New York to Los Angeles, has chosen three School for Creative and Performing Arts students, out of hundreds of applicants, to participate in the annual program. 

 

This is the first time the conference has accepted three teenagers, and all three are coming from SCPA. The conference, which is hosted by Yale University, has been teaching students for the past 10 years about the dying art of the cabaret. 

 

"The intimacy of it, I think, is the most important part," explains Erv Raible, director of the ICC, in an NPR interview. "The fact that, unlike any other genre in the entertainment world, you actually go into a room where you go out of there feeling like you know the person, you know something about them, they have touched your heart."  

 

The award-winning faculty instruct the students, which have ranged in age from 16 to 66, on everything from hair and make-up to clothing to sound and lighting. The 39 students come to Yale from all around the globe and after the nine-day course, each student demonstrates what they've learned and accomplished in a concert called, "Cabaret Stars of Tomorrow." The students are chosen for their vocal talent, not necessarily their interest in cabaret, out of a pool of hundreds of hopefuls.
 

The three students—William Gibson, Alexx Rouse and Xander Wells—will attend the conference from July 27 until Aug. 5, but need a little help getting there.

In order to raise more than $5,000 per student, the school is helping host a concert at the Emery Theater, June 20. Each of the three students attending the cabaret conference will perform, as well as the reggae band, Nature. There will also be artwork form fellow SCPA students. 

 

"Having three students from one school is unheard of for this conference," says Mark Magistrelli, whose daughter attended the conference last year and is helping organize the fundraiser.

 

 

Attend: The fundraiser at the Emery Theater and see the budding stars perform. Wed., June 20, from 7-10 pm. Tickets are $5 for students and $15 for adults.

 

Attend: Other events at the Emery and help the revival of the historic theater. 

By Evan Wallis