EASTERN OREGON Thursday, August 4, 2022 East Oregonian A7 Elgin Opera House artistic director spends time in New York City By TRISH YERGES For East Oregonian ELGIN 4 Terry Hale is bringing home some of Broadway9s best tools after receiving special training at the 11th annual Freddie G Fellowship in New York City. Hale, the artistic director of the Elgin Opera House, was one of six theater educa- tors chosen nationwide for the Freddie G Fellowship, sponsored by Music Theatre International, and the only one from a small, rural community. The highly-cov- eted honor recognized Hale9s work with young perform- ing artists through the Opera House Youth Actors, the Hale-Turner Theater, the Blue Mountain Commu- nity College theater, Pend- leton High School, summer youth theater camps and other community theater venues. <I9m grateful for being recognized by a group of people who really understand what it is that I do,= Hale said. Freddie and My r na Gershon founded the Freddie G Fellowship to recognize and celebrate exceptional theater educators, who are given the opportunity to live the Broadway experience and interact with qualioed profes- sionals through master work- shops taught by staf at Music Theatre International and iTheatrics at the 52nd Street Project building in New York City. <Without teachers there is no Broadway Junior,= Fred- die Gershon stated on the MTI website. He is MTI9s co-chairman and, with wife Myrna, underwriter of the Fellowship. <Myrna and I feel strongly about teachers and their Contributed Photo Six Freddie G Fellowship Honorees received special Broadway training at iTheatrics at The 52nd Street Project building in New York City. Among them are Terry Hale, from left, Chad Haney, Dana Alverez, Megan Kelly Bates, Krissy Brown and Mi- chelle Campbell. All the training took place at this location, except for one day at Music Theatre International. significant role,= he said. <This week gives us an opportunity to immerse them in experiential skills they can take home, integrate with their students and pass on to other teachers.= The recipients of the Freddie G Fellowship were announced at the iTheatrics Junior Theater Festivals in February 2020, but training was delayed until July 2022 due to the pandemic. <We learned really neat things from each other, but the most important thing was the bond that we made with the six of us together 4 so valu- able to me,= Hale said. <These are people from all over the country that are doing what I do and have similar issues and joys and problems. For us to get together and work through those things together was very valuable.= While in New York, Hale and his colleagues attended a special master class led by Tony honor-winning direc- tor and choreographer Jeff Calhoun and participated in classes covering many aspects of musical theater. Hale and the other Fellows were immersed in Broad- way, attending productions of <Between The Lines= and <Beetlejuice.= They also observed a developmental workshop performance of <Beetlejuice Junior.= There the Fellows were invited to experience Broadway as theater insiders, offering their feedback to the devel- opmental process from their perspective. Energize and inspire Music Theatre Inter- national, which sponsors the specialized training for theater teachers, is one of the top theatrical licensing companies in the world. Hale had worked with MTI many times over the years in his role as artistic director at the Elgin Opera House. <If we wanted to perform Annie on our stage, we had to go through MTI to do that,= Hale said. <More than half of the shows we do at the Elgin Opera House go through Freddie9s company. He9s been a legend in New York and is highly respected.= While in New York City, Hale said he took in three Broadway performances, one on the night of his arrival to the city and two other perfor- mances that were part of the four-day MTI sponsored training. <They basically spoiled us for a few days and gave us some extraordinary learning opportunities,= he said. The MTI master classes were designed to energize and inspire theater educators so that when they returned to their communities, they could share their enhanced skills and tools of the craft with other teachers and young performing artists. <The thing I brought home that is most important is the connections and relationships that I built while at the Fred- die G experience,= he said. <I was able to meet with these other ove Freddie G recipients and really establish a connec- tion that will be invaluable to me as I move forward.= As a recipient of the Fred- die G Fellowship, Hale also received a $5,000 grant to be utilized by Hale for the promotion of theatrical arts and education in his home community. Hale said the funds went to onish a new dance and rehearsal studio at the Hale-Turner Theater. <We call that space the Opera House Studio,= he said. <It includes space with a new noor, mirrors and air conditioning. It9s a nice little practice area we can use for the purpose of rehearsing and learning choreography.= Hale9s teaching career in Union County began at the Elgin Opera House shortly after moving to Elgin in 2006. There, he produced and directed his orst production in December 2007, and after- ward founded the Friends of the Elgin Opera House. Since then, he has taught hundreds of children on the Elgin Opera House stage. He has mentored some who wanted to learn how to direct and facilitated other theatri- cal arts training for his cast members. I n late July, Hale conducted his annual summer theater camp, this time with 95 theater students. This has been one of the largest enroll- ments of youth participants in this program to date. SPIN OUR MEGA SLOT AND WIN! 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