Lizzie Stoxen - Voice Teacher

Cascade Theatre is thrilled to announce the roles and actors for 'The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical'! 🌩️✨ Get ready to embark on an epic journey with our talented cast as they bring this mythical adventure to life. Congratulations to each actor for their incredible roles! Break a leg, and let the lightning strike on stage! ⚡🎭

Percy - Malakai Langenberg
Annabeth - Breanna Hagen
Grover - Finn Hansen
Luke - Cadge Percia
Sally - Jessica Cox
Mr. Brunner aka Chiron - Henry Patterson
Clarisse - Roxy Rataj
Mrs. Dodds - TBD (To Be Determined)
Gabe Ugliano/Hades - Collin Cadilli
The Oracle/Charon - Jessica Jamerson
Ares/Poseidon - Kaydn Haines
Mr. D - Blake Fisher
Silena Beauregard - Coco Downs
Katie Gardner - Maddie McCaffrey
Aunt Em aka Medusa - Rachael Lafferty
Campers/Ensemble - Josh Dodson
Campers/Ensemble - Caspar Prewett
Campers/Ensemble - Michael Grubaugh
Campers/Ensemble - Sam Bowman
Campers/Ensemble - Wyatt Molter
Campers/Ensemble - Bella Ray
Campers/Ensemble - Moriah Floyd
Campers/Ensemble - Stella Villalobos
Campers/Ensemble - Julia Swope
Creatures/Ensemble - Marin McIntosh
Creatures/Ensemble - Daphne Read
Creatures/Ensemble - Luna Blasingame
Creatures/Ensemble - Clara Stoxen
Creatures/Ensemble - Alba Patterson
Creatures/Ensemble - Aydin Hauptman

Be gentle on yourself with your learning curve! Singing is an incredibly physical art done with mostly involuntary muscles that need to be trained to juggle all the differing needs of your air flow, support and placement AS WELL AS to be able to shift tone and texture as appropriate to the piece and that’s ONLY AFTER you’ve dealt with any emotional baggage you’re carrying into the room and the SOMEHOW you’re supposed to find a way to tell the story focus on the words and go on the emotional journey in a way that feels authentic and vulnerable but NOT TOO vulnerable because you can’t let everything physical go to hell because you’re feeling too much but DONT HOLD BACK…

Oh my gosh the exhausting process of developing those physical skills to juggle all of those layers so that they become automatic and you can stop thinking about it. Do we ever really stop thinking about it?!

As a pianist the requirements for music making are very different. No text, but still give emotion in the phrasing and the intention; but primarily it’s a physical skill that requires all ten fingers and both feet to work independently of each other while your brain is analyzing the mathematical equation of the musical line for both the right and left hands. There’s a physical repetition and a kinesthetic memory that’s the same as singing—do it over and over and over again until you can stop thinking independently about each finger and foot—but they’re such large muscles compared to the pharynx and larynx and tongue and I can see them at work, I can measure my progress as I get faster or do a run with fewer mistakes. On the piano I don’t have to think about tone production, something so incredibly personal and ethereal and intangible it can take a singer years to really define for themselves how they produce a specific song to a very specific aesthetic. And how do you measure your progress as a singer? There’s no metronome or tracker that can let you know you were at an 86 last month and now you’re at 91. We have to go on FEELING, and HEARING, and TRUST.

Singing is a juggling act like few others. Give yourself grace to learn it, practice it, and develop it! I believe in you ❤️❄️❤️

New reason to pay attention to the halftime show! I maintain that marching band is highly athletic and complex and something to be admired—this breaks down part of why that is.

Borrowed from Robert Stocklas :

Why band ... here's why ... grab your coffee and read this ...

Let’s assume, for simple math, we have a moderate to above average-sized marching band of 100 wind players, 20 percussion, 20 color guard, and two drum majors. Now, while it seems fairly straight forward…just play your music and march to various spots on the field… here’s what REALLY is facing them.

In an average production of 2 minutes duration, there will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 notes played per student (some parts will be less, some more). For each note played, the student must be responsible for:

Correct fi*****ng of note
proper tone quality
proper pitch
correct beginning articulation
correct release/ending
correct duration/timing
balance to other players
blend with other players
appropriate volume

This means at least 9 responsibilities per note times 300 notes…understand that sometimes the student will not play during segments, so this is an average…2,700 responsibilities per student…times 100 players = 270,000 musical responsibilities for the wind section.

Percussion will have more notes in snare/mallet parts, perhaps fewer in bass drum and accessory parts, but on average, about the same number of musical concerns …substitute stick heights for pitch correctness, since it is not typical to tune drums as you go. This adds 2700 responsibilities…times 20 percussionists = 54,000 musical responsibilities for percussion.

Color Guard must be concerned with:

timing
hand positions
equipment angles
speed of spins
height of tosses
direction of spins…not to mention holding on to or catching equipment

Number of counts roughly parallels musical notes, so assume 300 beats times 6 responsibilities, or 1800 items per guard member…times 20 members = 36,000 more things to do.

So far, we are up to 360,000 responsibilities, and we haven’t touched marching. With marching, there are at least the following considerations:

posture
direction of facing
instrument position
staying in step
staying in form
size of step
tempo
style of movement (Toes up? Knees straight? Shoulders square?)
control of space between members

On average, there will be one step per beat of music, or approximately 240 steps. This means 240 times 9 responsibilities per member,…times 140 members …302,400 more things to think about.

The drum majors must be on top of:

tempo, beat pattern
dynamics
communication of style/energy to band
poise/showmanship
or approximately 1200 items… times two majors…2400 more responsibilities.

Keeping up so far? We’re up to 664,800 things that have to be done correctly… AND WE’RE JUST TALKING ABOUT THE FIRST PRODUCTION OF THE SHOW!! Assume there are three segments in the average show, our grand total jumps to a staggering 1,994,400 responsibilities on the members for a single performance.

The next time you watch a marching band show, examine the level of expectation and delivery that occurs with each student. It is truly remarkable, and it will help you appreciate even more the feeling that comes from a well performed show. When they are done, stand up and cheer their efforts…they are truly at the top of the ‘responsibility pyramid’ when performing in marching band.

Why Band? That's why ...