Page 11 - APAP - Inside Arts - Summer 2020

JOYFUL (ILLI)NOISE
What to do when you’re stuck inside for months on end? Sing! In April, the Krannert Center
at the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign and community partners organized a sing-along to lift spirits and celebrate resiliency. “The CU Sing-along’s goal is to raise our voices in order to raise spirits,” says Abby Crull, a music teacher at Westview Elementary in Champaign and one of the event’s organizers. Organizers chose the classic Sesame Street tune Sing!, often referred to as Sing a Song, for the event. The event was inspired by an effort in Chicago, where more than 1,000 people belted out Jon Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer outside their windows on a Saturday
COME TO THE
E-CABARET
All the world’s a stage. Or at the very least, all of Minnesota. GREAT Theatre at Paramount Center for the Arts challenged its patrons to record their favorite Broadway show tune. Groups of three or more—exercising social
night in March. Families were encouraged to tune into the event online and sing along as loud as they could from their sidewalks, driveways, windows, or balconies. Families were also encouraged to submit their own videos from the
distance, of course—were encouraged to submit three- minute clips to be included in a virtual cabaret, which made its debut in mid-May. The effort was part of the theater’s Virtual Lab series, which airs weekly interactive “Live from the Lab” events on its YouTube channel. Other highlights of the series
sing-along on Facebook. Music educators distributed lyrics and music through their remote learning efforts to ensure that families in those districts had access to the song in advance.
include videos of past productions such as The Brothers Grimm: A Musical Adventure and Peter Pan; Techside Chats with members of the production team; and a Disney Spectacular featuring submissions from youth and a singalong. Learn more at www. greattheatre.org/virtual-lab.
SUMMER 2020 INSIDE ARTS 9