St. Louis Teen Talent Competition at the Fabulous Fox Theatre

I'm just so thankful for this experience and for the Fox Teen Talent Show. It's truly made my year, especially in a pandemic, a very memorable and amazing one. So I'm just so thankful for this experience.

Welcome to St. Louis In Tune, where we size up current and historic events involving people, places, and things in areas such as the arts, crime, education, employment, faith, finance, food history, housing, humor, justice, and sports. Our weekly podcast gives you the edge to live a more informed life. We discuss more than just St. Louis as we connect the Gateway City to our country's current cultural fabric and lives. We have a couple of guests that we're going to be talking to in a brief moment. This is something that we've advertised for them because it's a great opportunity for teens in the St. Louis metropolitan area to get some recognition and to get some support and encouragement. It's an organization called the Fox performing arts charitable foundation, and their mission is fostering promoting and encouraging young people in the St. Louis region to discover and participate in the joy and wonder of live performances. One of the things that they do is they hold an annual St. Louis Teen Talent Competition. Joanne Serenko, who won that a couple of years back was also on The Voice, was a finalist in The Voice; we had her on I believe it was last year and we've really tried to get the word out about this. Lucy Shenee, who is the 2021 St. Louis Teen Talent Competition finalist from Kirkwood High School and Judy Cullen who's the Executive Director of the Fox Performing Arts Charitable Foundation are on the line. Ladies, welcome to St. Louis In Tune.

Thank you.

I'm going to start with Lucy first; Lucy how long have you been involved with this teen talent competition and what are you going to be doing at the finals?

This is actually my first year being involved, but I've always wanted to be a part of this organization. This year I finally had the opportunity to give it a go. And I'm so thankful that I did. On May 24th, I will be singing Even Though from the musical I Love You Because.

All right, that's May 24th, 7:00 PM and can be seen on nine PBS and will have some encores on the 29th and the 30th. Have you been singing for a long time, Lucy?

Yes. I've been singing pretty much my whole life. My parents are really into theater and really showed me music and musical theater at a young age. And I've always just had such a passion for it.

You also have a passion for doing some things in the courtroom, too, right? You and a bunch of your colleagues at Kirkwood High School recently won an award. Tell us about that.

Yes. The mock trial team for Kirkwood High School, we won state and so we have nationals actually next weekend.

Wow.

Where are nationals going to be held or is that all remote?

They're held on Zoom, but the case is held in Indiana. So it's a really incredible experience.

Can you tell us what the case is?

Yes, it's actually about jug fishing and it's a negligence case. There was a murder on the Ohio River, death on the Ohio River. And they're trying to decipher whether the captain who was driving the boat that killed the the deceased was being negligent or whether it was an accident. So are you going to use any of your musical theater to help convince the jury or the judges in that particular case?

Sing her closing statement.

That's the hope I always try to be pretty dramatic. So, I hope it works.

Yeah, that's right. Judy, you've just taken over this. How long have you been Executive Director now?

I joined in 2019 and my degree is in legal studies too. So there's definitely a coalition court. It's funny how many lawyers are also performers. It's a very interesting thing that happens.

You said that exactly right, lawyers are performers, especially if they are in the courtroom. That's exactly right now, you have a really interesting background also. You've worked out at Westport Playhouse as executive director, you managed at Stages and The New Theater. You toured nationally with Cats and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Fantastics and The Odd Couple. What was your initial entry into the theater.

I grew up in the St. Louis area. I was born and raised in St. Charles and started dancing school when I was three and performed at the Muny and Powell Hall and with the St. Louis Civic Ballet. I'm a homegrown theater artist taking advantage of all the programs for youth, including I was in the Gila dancer at the J the Jewish Community Center. There's so much available to the youth in our area, and it's so wonderful and rich which is so great that you guys highlights all these local programs because there's so much out there for teens to do. I'm just so happy that my career circled back to now that I can give back to the people who gave to me when I started.

I think that's great too, and tell us a little bit about the teen talent competition for those people who may not know a lot about that.

It's open to everyone and there's no cost involved. It's for teenagers in grades nine through 12, and they can do any kind of artistic performance that they would like. So we have people that do singing and dancing and acting and circus acts and pretty much anything that's allowed on the Fox stage for the finale of the final round of competition is allowed. It's wonderful how creative and original the acts can be. We do ask that the team either do a solo or small groups up to six, so we can see as many people as possible. And we have three rounds. We do a preliminary round where they come and do their first act and they get feedback from our judges after they perform. Then we do a cut and then we bring the second group back for a semi-final round. Based on on the judges scores, then we pick the top 12 to 14 to appear on the Fox stage and performed to the audience. Another way we give back is, everyone is allowed to come and watch, once the theaters are open after COVID and it's free to the public. So if someone has never been at the Fox this is a wonderful opportunity for them to see not only things, wonderful teams on stage, but also to see the beautiful Fox Theater live. So it's a wonderful event and it's just a treasure to see people like Lucy really work hard and show off their skills.

It's great that Nine PBS also helped pick that up during the pandemic last year to broadcast that so the word could get out so people could see what was going on. I could imagine that you would have quite a few people sitting in, live if we weren't involved with the pandemic.

Absolutely. There's up to 4,000 people that come and sit at the Fox to watch this live. It's a very popular event and PBS has actually been a very good partner. Even before COVID they would come and film the show and show it on PBS, but it's a little different because of the COVID protocols that the city has put in place. We actually filmed each act separately and the MC we filmed separately and PBS edited together to make a show out of it. So it's a little different than them just filming a show that's already taken place, but this year there's some really fun things. Our MC is all over the Fox so you get to see parts of the Fox, including backstage that our normal audience members don't get to see. It's a really special treat.

I'm so excited about that. You have been backstage, I assume. I'm sure it's wonderful. Back there.

Yeah. Yeah.

All the signatures on the wall.

Gets the. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody gets to sign the wall. If you perform the Lucy got to find this year too.

It was such an incredible experience. Yes, I was. I was really fan girling, right?

There's quite a few stars with it's all stars on there backstage. Is the Yul Brynner signature still back there? It was painted on the wall, Yul Brynner a big picture of him and say there.

The Fox does not erase those so once somebody signs the wall, it's there forever. Yeah.

That was from a, I can't the King and I think, or something like that, that he, yeah, exactly.

The King and I tour was wonderful. It if you're a touring professional you were especially happy that Yul did his farewell tour because part of his contract asks that everybody has a brown and white bathroom wherever he played. That was his idea of making sure that the bathrooms were new and clean, where he toured across the country. So it's a lasting legacy that everybody laughed about it. It's oh, basically I got the brown and white bathroom.

What a spectacular painting that they did. It's not real big, but it's Yul with his arms wide open and he's back there and wow. Now I'll tell you what, if you ever come by the radio station here, we do the same thing. We have everyone that's ever been interviewed at KWRH sign our walls.

So if you guys were here, you could sign the walls here. That's right. That's right. Lucy, you've been involved at Kirkwood High School's theater productions. I'm going to presume?

I have, yes.

Now, is that just the musicals or is that just plays or both?

I've been fortunate enough to be involved in both the plays and the musicals. Yes.

And your parents, they pushed you to do that?. Did you take dance like Judy did, did you take all those kinds of things; sing in the children's choir at the muni, et cetera, et cetera?

Oh, yes. My parents have always had a passion for musical theater. I think that I got that from them. We always listen to musicals when I was a little girl and I was in dance class and I got involved in voice lessons and I was a part of the St. Louis children's choir. So I've had really incredible opportunities and I'm so thankful.

Okay. Now here's the curve ball question to both of you. What's your favorite musical? We're going to start with Judy first.

I guess my favorite musical will have to be Cats because it's not only a wonderful fun show that you can share with everyone. It's also the show where I met my husband and I have good memories because of that.

Memories. Out engineer is shaking his head.

I think he's leaving the building.

His arms up. He's running. He just ran out of the building. Lucy, how about you?

My favorite musical is Les Miserables.

Oh, that's great. Yeah. I get chills when you even say that.

I can listen to every single song for hours and never get bored. It's just such a wonderful musical.

I saw that at the Fox. That was crazy. So Lucy, what's it like to be on the big stage there at the Fox, looking out on all those seats?

It's absolutely incredible. I've grown up going to the Fox and seeing different musicals and shows there. And it's just so surreal to be on the stage and looking at the chandelier and all the seats. And it was truly one of the best experiences of my life..

It's one thing to be in the audience. but when you're on stage, looking out.

Where so many wonderful, talented people have been right on that stage.

So incredible.

Do you have an accompanist playing for you or is it going to be tape or how are you going to do that?

Yes, we did have the accompanist and originally we were doing it with a track, but we decided that it would be better with a live accompanist and he did such an incredible job.

That seems to work out really well. It makes the performance, a little more vibrant and authentic. Because you're dealing with another live performance there. So have you thought about what you're going to do after graduation? I'm not pushing you out the door at Kirkwood, but what are you thinking about after graduation next year?

I'd love to attend a college or university and specifically I'd love to major in musical theater and really learn new things and get new experiences and hopefully becoming a better performer.

Now, what has the pandemic done as it relates to your studies of furthering your career in the musical theater venue and also your activities related to what you're going to be doing the national What is it the case national case study? That's pretty cool. Yeah.

Yes.

First of all, it's given me a lot more time to. To really study new techniques. And my voice teacher is incredible and we've done Zoom voice lessons for over a year now. And it's really given us a new way to see maybe if I have some techniques that aren't healthy for my voice. So we've been able to. Work on that, or just try new flexibility techniques. And also my drama teacher has been wonderful and has given us lots of experiences to still do theater at our school. And it's been incredible. We actually just wrapped up our musical of the Adams Family, and that was such an amazing experience. And I'm just so thankful that even in a pandemic, we had the opportunity to do that.

Did you happen to know Joanna when she was going to her. Okay. Did she encourage you or did you reach out to her and discuss this with her?

I did. Yes. Joanna has always been someone I've looked up to, even in middle school. I remember when I was in fifth grade, I watched her do the Pirates of Penzance her eighth grade year at the middle school. And I was like, Oh my goodness. She's so amazing. So when I made it to the finals, I reached out to her actually. And she gave me some tips and she's just such an incredible performer and overall such an incredible person. So Joanna actually introduced me to the Fox Teen Talent

Wow. That's great. That's great. See word of mouth Judy gets around there. So my question for you is for next year, as individuals are thinking about this, or maybe parents have a youngster that kind of fits the bill and would like to audition, what's the timeframe and when should they be pursuing this and where should they go?

We open up registration October 1st, but we've found that it's very helpful that when people watch the PBS show on May 24th, that we have a pre-registration on our website, which is fox pacf.org. And that stands for Performing Arts Charitable Foundation. So if anyone goes to Fox pacf.org, they could, pre-register starting on May 24th and they can register on October 1st and then we will have our prelim in early February and early March will be our semi-final round. And then on April 9th, we hope to be back on the stage at the Fox for the final team talent competition live again.

Is there a preliminary where they'll get together and give you. Tips and hints and things to do, or is it just you work on some things?

Absolutely. Absolutely. We offer those classes and we have lots of information online. Our website is already equipped with tapes that tell you if you want to submit tapes, how to do that. And It will have all the upcoming dates for everything you needed to know about teen challenge, competition meetings that we do so that people have questions, we can answer individual questions

Your judges are no sloughs. These folks, they really know what they're talking about. They've been in the industry in a variety of forms. Can you tell us a little bit about some of those folks who are going to be judging this finals?

Absolutely. We have Ken Page who's the voice of Oogie Boogie from The Nightmare Before Christmas. We have Taylor Louderman who's currently on the show, Kenan playing Tami. We have Denise Thimes of course that you just mentioned. Antonio Douthit-Boyd who's the co-artistic director for dance for COCA. We have Audrey Kwan who's at St. Louis Symphony and we have Carl Nappa who is the St. Louis Recording Club and engineer has worked for many years for Nelly. Those engineers really know voices and it's wonderful the feedback that they can give to our artists. Because they're active in the business, they are right on with trends and they help us raise the bar. Our preliminary rounds and semifinal rounds have many working artists here in St. Louis from Stages and the MUNY and from all kinds of universities. It's wonderful how they give back because they volunteered to do this just to help the team.

To help the teams grow in whatever their performance area is, whether it's voice or whether it's an instrument or whether it's I saw comedy. I also saw, like you said circus kinds of things, juggling dancing. It's great what this is and how it offers those individuals who are participating a lot of good feedback to improve their art. And to be able to really realize if they want to become a professional in the industry or whether they just want to continue on as an amateur as they get older. I think that's a really good thing. So final words Judy, other than I know that you're going to tell us May 24th at 7:00 PM on Nine PBS. So what are there some final encouraging words and then we'll go to Lucy for some final words.

Of course, right after the program on May 24th on Channel Nine, we're having a Facebook event on Nine PBS Facebook page from 8:00 pm to 8:10 pm where you can vote for Lucy or one of our other competitors. The audience choice awards, the person with the most votes between 8:00 pm and 8:10 pm wins a thousand dollars.

Put that towards college.

Yeah, that would be great. Lucy, final words from you.

I'm just so thankful for this experience and for the Fox Teen Talent Show. It's truly made my year, especially in a pandemic, a very memorable and amazing one. So I'm just so thankful for this experience.

Folks may wonder why we're having Lucy on and not somebody else. It's right next to Webster Groves, which is where the station's located. And so to be community oriented, even though there's a little rub between Webster and Kirkwood, we're eliminating that right.

Turkey day, ballgame that Turkey day game. What are you talking about?

Lucy Schene, 2021 St. Louis Teen Talent Competition finalist and Judy Cullen executive director at the Fox Performing Arts Charitable foundation, thank you very much for being on the show today. We appreciate it. And folks don't forget May 24th, 7:00 PM. Nine PBS.

Good luck Lucy.

Thank you.

Thank you ladies. We are glad you decided to listen to this episode of St. Louis In Tune. We know that there are hundreds of thousands of podcasts out there, and we are glad that you have chosen to listen to us. St. Louis In Tune is produced in cooperation with KWRH 92.9 FM and Motif Media Group. For St. Louis In Tune I'm Arnold Stricker.