KooGle Theatre to host audition camps for Singin' in the Rain Jr.

KooGle Theatre Company is looking for actors, singers and dancers aged 10-18 to audition for their two-week intensive summer musical theatre camp, which will put on a full-scale production of Singin’ in the Rain Jr. 

Auditions will be held on April 15 and 16 and split into age groups of 10-12 and 13-18. Actors looking to audition will need to register for the camp first, says co-owner and founder of KooGle Leslie Gray.

“It’s more like a workshop, so it’s not like they have to come prepared, they just come and we learn choreography, read from the script, I’ll teach them a song from the show,” said Gray. “So they just have to show up basically, and know the show so that they’re familiar with it.”

As for what they’re looking for in performers, anyone with interest and enthusiasm is welcome. Casting for the show will be based on the workshop-style auditions.

“If they show an interest and they want to do it, they register, then I set up the time for when they come in for the auditions,” said Gray. “Basically, anyone who has an interest in it will get in.”

The camp will run from July 10-22 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The days will consist of training and preparation for the show, with the first week at KooGle Theatre Studio for rehearsals and the second at Theatre Burlington for tech, sets and costumes.

“It’s an intensive program, meaning that we’re putting together a show in two weeks,” explained Gray. “So every day we’re working on different scenes…We do classes when they’re not working on stuff. They’re still training, they’re still working on their craft, they’re still learning, but then they’re also part of the show.”

Starting out

KooGle Theatre Company was established by co-founders Leslie and Christopher Gray in 2007, who both performed professionally all over Ontario and met while doing Charlotte’s Web at Theatre Aquarius. Upon moving back to Burlington to settle down with family, they saw that there was a need for a professional theatre company in the city and started their own.

They started with outdoor performances at the Central Park Bandshell, which they put on every summer starting in 2008. Their first show, Couple of Swells, was an original work featuring music from classic movie musicals.

“We thought, ‘Let’s do our show Couple of Swells outdoors and do a pay-what-you-can and see who shows up,’” said Gray. “We rehearsed in our living room and put together our own show. We used all the Fred and Ginger-type musicals, wartime era, stuff from White Christmas; songs like that. We pieced it together and made sort of a story with it.”

The company also participated in Burlington Performing Arts Centre’s Theatre Series where they put on productions of I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change in 2015 and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee in 2016.

Their involvement with kids’ theatre training started with a co-production with Burlington Symphony Orchestra for An Afternoon with Rodgers and Hammerstein in 2015, which featured music from The Sound of Music, Oklahoma, South Pacific and The King and I. 

“Well we can’t do Sound of Music without kids, right?” recalled Gray. “So [we held] an audition, and we got quite a few kids coming out and we were able to pick some local kids to be a part of it. It was at that point where we were like, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we did our own training, that we could have our own kids we could use when we do shows?’”

They started their first two-week summer intensive program in 2017 with Annie Jr. and continued with fall programming, renting space across Burlington prior to acquiring their own studio in August 2021. 

Regular classes

KooGle now offers a variety of performing arts classes grouped by age, including musical theatre, acting, ballet and tap, as well as private vocal and acting lessons. Students have a showcase in December and return to work on their respective theatre productions and spring showcases. This year, the Intermediate Musical Theatre class will put on The Wizard of Oz Jr., while the Senior class is working on Godspell.

“We’re still a family company. All the money we make goes into the shows because we want the shows to be good for the kids,” said Gray. “We do our own costumes, we don’t charge for costumes — we do as much as we can. We know what it’s like to do theatre and we love it, so we want to pass on that sort of experience to the kids.”

Singin’ in the Rain Jr. will take place on July 21 at 7 p.m. and July 22 at 2 and 7 p.m. at Theatre Burlington. The cost for the camp is $525 and registration is through koogletheatre.com. KooGle Theatre Company is located at 1450 Headon Road and can be reached at 905-633-8788 or [email protected].