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.
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