BG OnStage
Upcoming Events:
BG OnStage is the resident community theatre of SKyPAC. We are dedicated to bringing educational experiences in the arts and quality theatrical productions to the students and families of BRADD area. Past School Day productions have included The Hobbit, Junie B Jones JR the musical, The Giver, Frozen JR, Seussical JR, and Charlotte’s Web, just to name a few! For the last eight years, we have worked with and prepped with students who successfully auditioned for and were accepted into the Governor’s School of the Arts programs for Drama and Musical Theatre.
Thank you to our sponsors!
Classes, Workshops, & Events
Seven Pillars Acting Training with Tiffany Gilly-Forrer
In this 10-week course, you will learn 1 tool from each pillar and apply it to a scene, which you will then share in a final “sharing” of your application of the tools. It is important to avoid the word “performance” for several reasons; first, this causes actors to behave unnaturally and “present” their scenes rather than live truthfully under imaginary circumstances, and second, this word puts unnecessary pressure on the actor’s shoulders to deliver an abstract thought for a product instead of simply telling the story. So while the final sharing may be very similar to a performance, it is not a performance and will be referred to instead as a sharing.
Seven Pillars Acting is a technique written by Sonya Cooke that assimilates exercises, practices, and principals developed by Konstantin Stanislavski, Sanford Meisner, Declan Donnelan, and Jerzy Grotowski. The seven pillars are:
- Contact
- Circumstance
- Meaning
- Emotional Life
- Objective
- Action
- Physical Life
Ages: 13-17
Times: 6pm-7pm
Dates: Mondays, September 11, September 18, September 25, October 2 (Fall Break), October 9, October 16, October 23, October 30, November 6, November 13, November 20 (if don’t meet 10/2).
Fee: $300. If you are unable to pay the full class amount before the first class, we ask that you pay an installment of $100 for your spot in the class.
Location: SKyPAC blackbox
To register, we need to receive a completed class registration form and the class fee (or first installment). Class Registration Form
Please note that we do not hold spots for students. For someone to be considered completely registered, we need to have a completed registration form and payment. Spots are limited!
Ages: 18-Adult
Times: 7:30pm-8:45pm
Dates: Mondays, September 11, September 18, September 25, October 2 (Fall Break), October 9, October 16, October 23, October 30, November 6, November 13, November 20 (if don’t meet 10/2).
Fee: $315. If you are unable to pay the full class amount before the first class, we ask that you pay an installment of $100 for your spot in the class.
Location: SKyPAC blackbox
To register, we need to receive a completed class registration form and the class fee (or first installment). Class Registration Form
Please note that we do not hold spots for students. For someone to be considered completely registered, we need to have a completed registration form and payment. Spots are limited!
School Day Performances
All SCHOOL DAY Performances are open to classes/groups of school age children.
PUBLIC Performances are open to the general public.
School Day Production tickets are $7 per person.
For every ten (10) students booked, a class will receive one (1) free adult ticket.
To reserve your class, email Artistic Director, Elise Charny at echarny@artsofsky.org with an initial email of interest and she will get your reservation started!
Magic Tree House: A Ghost Tale for Mr. Dickens, JR
School Day Performances:
Thursday, November 30, 2023 at 9:30am
Friday, December 1, 2023 at 9:30am
Public Performance:
Friday, December 1, 2023 at 6:30pm
Magic Tree House: A Ghost Tale for Mr. Dickens JR. is an adaptation of book #44 of Mary Pope Osborne’s award-winning fantasy adventure books from the Magic Tree House book series, which has sold more than 100 million copies and is available in more than 100 countries around the world. Jack and Annie’s tree house takes them to Victorian London in this holiday-themed story, where they learn the importance of charity and kindness through their friendship with legendary author, Charles Dickens.
Thank you to our School Day Sponsors, Bank of Edmonson County & Flora Templeton Stuart Accident Injury Lawyers.
Thank you to our show sponsor, Community Education and to our Music Director Sponsor, ATMOS Energy.
Summary provided by MTI at www.mtishows.com
Rainbow Fish
School Day Performances:
Thursday, March 28, 2024 at 9:30am
Friday, March 29, 2024 at 9:30am
Public Performance:
Friday, March 29, 2024 at 6:30pm
Everybody loves the international bestseller and award-winning book, The Rainbow Fish, with its wonderful message of friendship and belonging. With shiny, multi-colored scales, Rainbow Fish is the most beautiful fish in all of the ocean, and the only one of his (or her!) kind. But when Rainbow Fish refuses to share his vibrant, shimmering scales, the whole ocean seems to turn against the vain creature. Unhappy that no one adores him anymore, the Rainbow Fish seeks out the wise Octopus, who helps him learn that it’s far better to be admired for being kind than for being beautiful.
Thank you to our School Day Sponsors, Flora Templeton Stuart Accident Injury Lawyers & Key Oil.
Summary provided by Pioneer Drama at www.pioneerdrama.com
Auditions for
Magic Tree house: A Ghost tale for Mr. Dickens, JR!
We are looking to cast actors ages 8-18 for our production of MTH: A Ghost Tale for Mr. Dickens, JR.
Audition Dates:
Friday, August 25, 2023 from 5pm-7pm
Saturday, August 26, 2023 from 1pm-3pm
Sunday, August 27, 2023 from 3pm-4pm
In-person auditions are open call (no reservation required) will consist of an acting, singing, dance portion. Actors will audition in groups of five. As soon as an actor is finished auditioning, they are free to leave. An actor only needs to come to ONE audition day. Auditions are open call, so there is no need to reserve a spot. Actors audition on a first come, first audition basis.
Day of auditions, actors will select one provided side (cut from the script) to choose to read. Below are music cuts provided for actors to prepare, which they will then sing in the audition room. Actors need to choose ONE music cut to sing. A dance combination will also be taught day of the audition.
You are welcome to send in a video audition if you are unable to attend the in person audition. Please email us that you would like to submit a video and further instructions/materials will be sent to you.
If you have any questions, please email echarny@artsofsky.org
Music Cuts
We highly encourage you to have these memorized by the time you audition in person. NOT required, but highly encouraged.
Actors need to prepare ONE music cut. Please select whichever best fits your vocal range OR for whichever character you are most interested in.
Meet Our Instructors
Lessons Information
We are currently looking for new voice teachers!
Contact us to get set up with one of our instructors for one-on-one lessons.
In person lesson rates, $35/half an hour & $50/hour.
Call 270-904-5016 or email echarny@artsofsky.org.
Past BG OnStage Productions
Tiffany Gilly-Forrer
Tiffany Gilly-Forrer (she/her), hailing from Portland, OR, has an MFA in Acting from LSU where she was certified to teach Seven Pillars Acting. She’s taught acting to students ranging 7 to 70 years old at studios, theatre companies, and universities across the US. Recent work includes being published in the anthology Vocal Traditions: Training in the Performing Arts, producing a two-person cabaret in NYC, and Dialect Coaching for UT and UNCG.
She and her husband, Chris are travel-obsessed nerds who both share a passion for theatre, film, and their two cats, Ridley and Houdini.
Elise Charny
Elise graduated Cum Laude from Marymount Manhattan in New York with a BA in Theatre Arts, concentration in Performing. Continuing with her education and experience, Elise obtained her Masters in Theatre Education from Emerson College in Boston.
Elise has served as a performer/director/educator in the theatre community for the last twenty years. In 2013, Elise established the John F Kennedy School Drama Club in Somerville, MA, which is still running today. For the last eight years, Elise has served as Artistic and Education Director of BG OnStage, creating various programming and directing all of the theatrical productions. She has also aided students in achieving their goals of attending GSA and musical theatre/drama college programs, past students have been accepted at The New York Film Academy, University of Cincinnati College- Conservatory of Music, Northern Kentucky University, Southern Illinois University, Austin Peay State University, Louisville University, and Western Kentucky University. As Education Director, Elise is very excited to be a part of the SKyPAC family and to continue bringing quality theatre education and theatre opportunities to the community!
Lea Schenk
Léa Schenk is a current BFA Theatre student at WKU where she most recently played the lead role of Jo March in Little Women The Broadway Musical. She is a trained Mezzo-Soprano who has studied with teachers across multiple continents, notably at Antibes Conservatoire de Music et d’Arts Dramatique in France, and more locally with renowned opera singers Elizabeth Batton and Grammy winner, Garrett Sorenson. Léa is a Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts 2019 Vocal Music Alum, and Student Ambassador for GSA. She graduated from the Youth Performing Arts High School in 2020 majoring in Orchestra (viola) and Design & Production where she was heavily involved as a Stage Manager and many more positions in the theatre department. She was a part of the inaugural season of the Youth Opera Program at Kentucky Opera in Louisville. She is currently working on her solo music project Resident Alien an indie folk album that she has been working on since 2017 which she has been readapting for the stage as a Solo Performance. She is also in the process of composing and writing a musical, Ashes, that is set to be proposed as a studio show at WKU in Spring 2023.
Her love for the arts is what brought her into the world of theatre, and more recently musical theatre. She has spent her whole life rounding herself into a jack-of-all-trades and has wound up finding her place in the theatre, both behind the table as a part of the production team and as a performer. She is currently working behind the table on BG Onstage’s The Addams Family as their Stage Manager.
Her training uses classical techniques to support modern musical styles, so to marry the modern sound with healthy and sustainable breathing and singing techniques. Though she was trained classically, she started her singing career like everyone else, with the help of modern pop and of course, The Phantom of the Opera, which she calls the gateway to classical singing.