Ready for Dress Rehearsal

We're nearly ready for you to see our production!

Our thespians are ready to hit the stage, having completed their final rehearsal before tech week begins on Monday. 

The Stage is set. 

Our little bookstore set is fully stocked with books and bursting at the seams with laughter, goodwill, and a rollicking good time. 

The costumes are perfected. 

It doesn't pay to mess with the law - or with our slightly disheveled, but thoroughly lovable cop, Officer Ketchum (played by Brooke Berger). 

No storybook tale is complete without a prince! Ours is played by Alecia Hoerr.

The stage blocking is complete. 

Princess, Isabel Hoerr, listens intently, hoping to hear the prince coming to her rescue.

Bookstore owner, Margie (played by Alma Maurer) and her madcap sister, Matilda (portrayed by Summer Schopp) are simultaneously confused and amazed at surprising plot twists and an unexpected turn of events. 

A whole host of beloved book characters will come to life. 

The storybook characters are willing to - waiting to - wanting to.... leap into action to save their beloved bookstore owner. 

Doctor Doolittle (played by Philip Ware) is flanked in this photo by Tom Sawyer (portrayed by Cliff Leman) and Pollyanna (A.K.A - Faith Reinhard) 

Avast me hearties! Long John Silver (played by Joshua Gay) reminds you that the play won't be complete without you in the audience next week. 

It's elementary! My dear fellow, you don't want to miss Daniel Ware as Sherlock Holmes. You'll see that his skills of deduction are a force to be reckoned with. 

Leader of the merry band in Lincoln green, Robin Hood, has left Sherwood Forest for just a few hours to help bring justice (and prosperity) to the little bookstore. 

Winnie the Pooh is searching for something even more valuable than his pot of honey in our enchanted bookshop tale.

The cast is practicing taking their bows.

All they need is YOU!

Their "hats" are off to you!

Their "hats" are off to you, the audience, and they can hardly wait to see you enter the theater next Thursday and Friday. 

Creating Costumes and Adding the Props

Our characters are coming to life as we go off script and being rehearsing wearing some of the special costume pieces. 

Our young thespians are paying close attention to remarks being made by our director learning the blocking so they can find their way around the stage with ease. 

Our Director

Rebekah Schwind, our PCA fall play director, gives credit to her friends for encouraging her to try out for a community production of Robin Hood.

It was to be a magical, life-changing experience.

After dipping her toe into the pool of being on stage, she was hooked and a life-long thespian was born.

Soon she was auditioning for every play, musical, madrigal, and choir production that crossed her path. She loved the thrill of simply being in the theater evening after evening, rehearsing, building sets, running lines, and blocking scenes. 

After high school, she combined her love of the theater and horses, by acting and directing small skits on horseback at the state fair.

Rebekah believes that theater allows us to connect with the audience in profound ways, portray incredible stories, and share extraordinary messages. She sees it is a gift from God.

Bring on the Costumes!

One of the most delightful parts of this play is the chance to bring beloved storybook characters to life. 

The audience will fall in love anew with The Three Musketeers, Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood, Pollyanna, Heidi, Tom Sawyer, and Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. 

Attachments area

When you need to change costumes in a hurry, it pays to have practiced doing it many times before performance day. 

The Three Musketeers will be appropriately adorned in glorious blue capes, trimmed in silver, hand-made by two of our stage moms. 

Still Gathering Props

The prop table is looking much fuller than a few weeks ago. The finishing touches will be added in the next few days, as the search for the perfect pieces for perfect our quaint, little bookstore scene are found. 

Snacks for the hungry crew 

Nothing says, "love" to a group of hungry high school students like a table full of snacks. The moms take turns each week supplying carb-laced food and drink to keep our actors happy and fueled up. 

Mark Your Calendars

Don't forget to save the date for our action-packed, fun-filled performance. All the deets are below. 

Good Beginnings

 As per PCA Fall Play tradition, students discovered the roles they had been assigned at the "Read Through" party. 

Students met two weeks before the start of the fall semester to share a meal and have the first read-through of the play script. There were smiles all around as the parts were handed out. 

Rehearsals Begin 

Although for now scripts are in hand, lines are being memorized and the process of scene blocking will soon begin in earnest. For now, the goal is for the actors to become familiar with listening for oral cues, letting them know that their line is coming up next.  

Alma Maurer plays the kind used bookstore shopkeeper.

A shopkeeper whose passion in life lies in creating a love of reading in pretty much everyone she meets, finds it more difficult than she imagined to find a story that will pique the curiosity of and awake the joy in a young man whose main preoccupation is playing video games.  

Sister and brother playing mother and son

The room is filled with anticipation as the actors become familiar with the storyline and each part and character in the play. 

Lines are recited a number of different ways and multiple times to ensure that each phrase receives the correct emphasis on each word.  

A line of actors wait patiently for their cue as they follow along in the script. 

Coming Soon!

The costume and prop room - ready and waiting. 

Costumes and props will be added in the next few weeks. The collection of props and costumes from past performances will be explored first, when hunting for supplies for our current production, "The Enchanted Bookshop". 

Local thrift shops, followed by the attics and basements of play parents and grandparents, will then be scoured in hopes of finding the perfect pieces to complete our enchanted tableau. 

Mark Your Calendar

Let's cheer on our young thespians as they perfect their craft and prepare to dazzle an enthusiastic audience in November. 

Be sure to mark your calendar and plan to join us! Here's a reminder of all the details of our upcoming production. 

  

The Enchanted Bookshop: A Delightful Comedy About Friendship, Goodwill, and the Power of Never Giving Up

The Peoria Cooperative Academy high school department is proud to present, The Enchanted Bookshop, by Todd Wallinger. 

This delightful, heartwarming story takes place in A Likely Story, a used bookstore with an owner, Margie, whose unflagging enthusiasm for life is superseded only by her unfailing belief in the the power of reading good stories. 

Margie may be a little scatterbrained, but her heart is as good as gold. She has developed a habit of giving books away rather than selling them, because she "can't imagine a child not owning a book". 

Margie's generosity, however, has put her business is in jeopardy. 

If she doesn't make changes, the shop may close very soon. 

What Margie doesn't know is that the real magic in her little shop happens at night. That's when the characters from her favorite novels come to life.

Aware of Margie's financial difficulties, Dorothy Gale, Robin Hood, Pollyanna, Sherlock Holmes, Heidi, and Tom Sawyer are joined by a host of other well-known story heroes and heroines as they prepare to do whatever they can to help their faithful owner keep the shop open.

However, the Book Fairy has an unbreakable decree.

All book characters must follow two very important rules. 

1. They cannot leave the shop
2. They must never be seen by any humans. 

If they stray from these dictates, these storybook friends will disappear forever. 

The Plot Thickens

When a smuggler interrupts the storybook characters' late night meeting by breaking in and attempting to steal a priceless necklace hidden in one of the books, a difficult decision must be made. 

Can they find a way to warn Margie of the danger? 

And can they do it without allowing Margie to see them? 

Misadventures may ensue! 

This funny, delightful comedy is fun for the whole family. 

The Enchanted Bookshop is filled with important lessons in friendship, goodwill, and the power of never giving up. 

Meet Our Cast

Don't Miss Our Production

Be prepared to laugh, smile, and maybe even shed a tear or two when you attend Peoria Cooperative Academy's rendition of The Enchanted Bookshop. 

Grab an event flyer by clicking, here.