Year in Review 2014

Year in Review

2014 was a year of big changes for Bottle Tree Productions. We became a company in residence at The Grand Theatre at 218 Princess Street. We produced two music shows on the main stage at the Grand; We Walk the Line and The Bobby Show. We also produced Cyrano-a fun-slimmed down version of Cyrano de Beregerac in the Baby Grand Studio. Our two Musical Theatre classes were five sold out shows of Disney Jr.'s Beauty and the Beast at the Baby Grand  and a sold out free show as Peter Pan flew into St Andrews Presbyterian Church in July. Most of our end of class shows will be performed at the Baby Grand Theatre. Lots of new and exciting things. To top it off we did a full scale musical theatre version of A Christmas Carol on the main stage of the Grand Theatre December 18-20.

In other news, we sold 140 of our plays in 2014.Those plays are Ghost of the Tree and Pretty Pieces. Our website which promotes our classes and shows but also offers mentoring advice to parents and young actors was ranked in the top 1 percent of websites in the world.

Our classes continue to be taught at St Andrew's Presbyterian Church and we have acquired two more rooms for those classes. Our Acting Classes start on Saturday January 10th and our Musical Theatre Classes start the following week. For more information please go to Bottle Tree Acting Classes

Eight years ago Bottle Tree Productions was a company of only three people but we are happy to report that in the last year we paid 26 people for doing music and theatre. We also paid for the rights and books for three musicals so that our productions are completely legal and we paid for a play as well, meaning money from those shows went back to the creative artists like Alan Menken and Stephen Sondheim. Join us on our journey to share the performing arts with Kingston and the surrounding area. Check out our website at Bottle Tree Productions

Hope to see you in 2015!

Spring Acting Classes in Kingston

As a resident company of the Grand Theatre, we have a number of productions lined up on the main stage and in the Baby Grand Studio. We prefer, when we have child or teenager roles in our musicals or plays to use our own acting students. The reason for this is simple. We know them. We know what they can do and we see how well they work with others and how well-behaved they are. There are other very good acting schools in Kingston but for our purposes, for our shows, we will support our students in leading roles, The other acting schools can do the same thing for their students. Because we are a resident company at the Grand Theatre our final performance of the acting classes will be upstairs at the Baby Grand Studio. When children of similar ability come to audition it makes sense for us to cast the kids that we know just as it would make sense for any other company to do the same. When a director auditions actors for a role in a production he or she is always taking a risk. The actors have to get along with each other for two months or more and it is not easy so we like to use kids we know that have talent and character.

Our production of A Christmas Carol

Our spring acting classes start up again Saturday May 18th.

Saturday morning our Stage Right Junior class for 6-10 years old runs from 10 am - 11 am. From 11 am to 12:30 pm it is our intermediate classes which consists of 11-12 years old. Our teen class runs for ninety minutes from 1 pm until 2:30 pm.

For further information please go to Spring Acting Classes

Or you can purchase a class on our secure link below.

Stage Right

Junior 6-10 $150.00 CAD Intermediate 11-12 $225.00 CAD Teens 13 and up $225.00 CAD

Baby Grand Studio

August Newsletter/2014

Charles and I have a lot of news to share with you this month. 

First and foremost, we are happy to announce that we are now designated as Company in Residence at The Grand Theatre. Our productions and end-of-session shows will be held at The Grand Theatre. We are fortunate to work with other theatre professionals at the city’s premiere venue, and we are excited to share that enriched environment with our acting students and with our pool of community performers.  Our studio space ( for classes and rehearsals) continues to be up the street from the Grand, at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church. 

We are thrilled to announce that Amie E. Bello is joining 'The Bottle Tree Family' as Acting Instructor, and we are excited to introduce two brand-new artists to the Kingston community; Choreographer Sasha French, and Music Director Darrell Bryan.

Amie E. Bello is a familiar face on stage in Kingston. She has performed and directed with many of our local theatre and musical theatre companies. You may have seen her on stage at The Grand as Mama Rose in Gypsy, or in Les Miserables as Mme. Thenardier. Amie received her Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Performance from the University of Findlay, in Findlay, Ohio. She also earned a Bachelor of Education degree from Queen’s University in the Artist in Community Education track. We are fortunate to have someone of Amie's calibre teaching classes for us this year. We look forward to giving our students meaningful new opportunities in theatre! Read about Amie http://www.bottletreeinc.com/amie_e_bello.html

Shasha French holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance from the University of Florida. She has spent the last five years between dance communities in the Southern states, teaching as adjunct faculty and guest artist at two Tampa area colleges working and producing at the American Dance Festival, creating new work for her own company, HEMISPHERE dance, and performing with Moving Current Dance Collective and American Stage. We look forward to some exciting choreography in our upcoming production of A Christmas Carol!  Read about Sasha http://bottletreeinc.blogspot.ca/2014/08/sasha-french.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BottleTreeProductionsBlog+%28Bottle+Tree+Productions+Blog%29

Darrell Bryan hails from the UK and has over 15 years' experience as a performer, educator, and conductor. He has studied at Keele University (UK) and York University (Ontario), and holds  a Bachelor of Arts in Music and Music Education. He has an extensive background in musical direction for theatre, and in both orchestral and vocal conducting, that spans three continents. Darrell has recently been appointed Artistic Director of The Kingston Townsmen and Musical Director of Cookes'-Portsmouth United Church. We are very happy to have him on board!  Read about Darrell http://www.bottletreeinc.com/darrell_bryan.html

ACTING CLASSES - REGISTER NOW for Fall session http://www.bottletreeinc.com/acting_classes.html
    - session starts Sept. 20
    - end of class shows at The Baby Grand
    - classes for age 6-10, 11&12, and teens

DANCE AUDITIONS for A Christmas Carol http://www.bottletreeinc.com/auditions.html
    - looking for females, 14-24 for our dance chorus

TICKETS NOW ON SALE - The Bobby Show http://kingstongrand.ca/event/bobby-show
    - all of your favourite 'Bobby' singers of the 50's and 60's, their hits and stories 
    - Bobby Darin, Bobby Vinton, Bobby Rydell, Bobby Vee and others ("Beyond the Sea" "Blue Velvet" "Volare" many many more!)
    - one night only - sold out last time performed in Kingston! 
    - proceeds to support our Christmas community theatre production of A Christmas Carol

UPDATED website front page http://www.bottletreeinc.com
    - site renovations underway, you should not notice any disruptions in the use of our site


We hope that you have had a happy and relaxing summer, and we look forward to seeing you at our classes and events. Please forward this email to anyone who may be interested - we are always happy to make new friends!

Warm regards

Anne Marie and Charles

Peter Pan flies into St Andrews Presbyterian Church

The Bottle Tree Productions Musical Theatre Class presents the Disney Jr version of Peter Pan-the story of a boy who never wants to grow up and his adventures with pirates, crocodiles, mermaids, lost boys and Native Americans. The Darling family; Wendy, John and Michael, learn to fly and join Peter in his battle against the evil Captain Hook and his slimy side-kick; Smee. With great songs to enchant the young and the young at heart, this production takes place Friday July 18th at 2 pm in the hall at St Andrews at the corner of Princess and Clergy streets. Admission is free! kids of all ages welcome. The cast runs in age from 8-14 and have learned what it is like to work as a team to put their talents on stage. Our musical theatre classes are a great way to build talent, team work and self-esteem. For futher information about our musical theatre and acting classes go to Bottle Tree Acting Classes