The CPCA US Tour Group arrived back in Melbourne on Tuesday, 7 October after a successful tour of the performance The Silver Donkey based on the novel by well known Australian author Sonya Hartnett.
Fifty-seven talented performers aged 10 to 19 years spent three weeks in the United States playing various solo and chorus roles to audiences in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston and New York City.
The tour contained many highlights including visits to the Hollywood Centre, The Kodak Theatre (home of the Academy Awards), the star pavement walk with the concrete hand prints out front, the Hollywood Bowl, and of course in New York seeing six Broadway shows!
The students performed at a number of schools including Burbank Middle School in LA where staff and students were astounded by the talent of our students. “We have never had anything this amazing on our stage before,” one teacher commented.
“It is an awesome responsibility to prepare a show like this for the world stage,” said Robert Coates, CPCA Director and Tour Leader. “Our performers travelled not only as representatives of our company, but as cultural ambassadors for Australia. It has been a wonderful opportunity to watch these young people grow as performers and rise to the challenge of an international tour.”
“With no scenery, and a minimum of props, the cast created all the locations and situations required for the story,” Robert continues. “Our wardrobe department had strict instructions that everything in the performance had to pack into a performers suitcase!”
The CPCA has a strong history of performing both locally, interstate and overseas. The company holds performances with over 3,000 students twice a year at major theatre's around Melbourne. International tours take place every two years with the company travelling to the USA in 1996, 1999, and 2006, and to Europe in 1997, 2002 and 2004. The CPCA have also taken part in three Adelaide Fringe Festivals.
Congratulations to the 2008 Tour group!
