Written by Kyle Stugelmayer, USA, as a behind-the-scenes look at Up With People intern projects.
As a part of every internship throughout the semester, you are asked to finish off your six week experience with a project. The projects have varied from a song and dance to leading a workshop. The project is totally up to the intern and what they have learned from the internship, which is the ultimate reason for the project. Because every intern is at a different level in the given field, the projects have varied. As the current dance intern, previous dance intern projects stood out most in my mind. Once I was announced as a the final dance intern in Kolding, Denmark, the project ideas began to flow. In the end, the production intern, Lynsie Haley (USA), and I decided to team up and create a “love medley”.
Our project is a collection of songs that will take the audience through a typical love story. Every girl knows that when she finds that one special person, it almost seems too good to be true. Our love story starts in a similar fashion with a song from the movie, Ella Enchanted. “It’s Not Just Make Believe” talks about how our Love Girl cannot believe her new found love is real.
Next our Love Girl is ready to take her relationship to the next level and hear wedding bells in the future. The next song, “A Night to Remember” from High School Musical 3, the girls are getting dressed up to make sure that the leave lasting impressions on all the guys. On the other hand, the guys are hating every moment of putting on tuxedos.
Finally the night we have all been waiting for! The girls look pretty, the guys are styling, and our love girl is anticipating the BIG question. With the song “Serious” from Legally Blonde: The Musical, our Love Girl’s poor heart is ripped apart when her Love Guy decides to do the opposite of what she was hoping for: he breaks up with her instead of getting down on one knee.
Months after going home and having plenty of time to think about the past six months, our Love Guy realizes that he made the worst mistake of his life and now he needs to win back his one true love. He entrusts the famous boy band, N*Sync to help him express his feelings with the song, “I Want You Back”.
And you’ll never guess what happens next (or maybe you already have!). Our Love Guy, after begging and pleading, decides to pop the question. Our Love Girl’s emotions are running wild and the new couple decides to hold an Up With People. While “It’s Your Wedding Day” from the broadway play, The Wedding Singer, plays in the background, our new couple is presented to their family and friends.
The final song and curtain call is “I’ll Be There For You”, the theme song from the popular television show, Friends. This song reminds me of Cast B 2009 and all of the amazing memories we have shared over the last six months.
I have had so much fun working on this intern project and it would not have been possible without
the help of many people. Our lighting intern, Aubrey (USA), created a lighting concept for my project. Niels (The Netherlands), is the video intern and helped Lynsie and I to make the songs flow together with clips of the medley cast practicing their acting skills. Michael (USA), the sound intern, uses his flawless mixing skills to make sure that the sound was perfect. Another huge thank you goes out to all of the cast members who graciously lent themselves to assist me with my project. And of course, I cannot forget to thank Paul (USA), Cast B 2009′s Dance Captain, for all of his support and guidance. Thanks everyone!
My project performs tomorrow and I know that it will be a huge success!
Remember reading about Cast B 2009′s legacy project? You can donate to the Red Rhino Orphanage by clicking the button below!
