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Beauty and the Beast JR. Updates

Dear Production Families,

 

Following the extraordinary demand for tickets to Disney's Beauty and the Beast JR., we have been exploring ways to make additional tickets available to families.

Thank you to everyone who completed our recent survey. With over 180 families responding, including more than 40 families who were unable to secure any tickets, it became clear that we needed to consider additional options.

After carefully reviewing our schedule, we are pleased to share that we are planning to increase our production from two to four performances, with two shows on each of our originally scheduled performance evenings.

We recognise that adding performances is a significant change, particularly for our younger students. We have therefore reconsidered the structure of the entire production week to help make the additional performances manageable, while providing more families with the opportunity to celebrate their children's hard work.

 

What will the production week look like now?

Monday 9 and Tuesday 10 NovemberOur full-day theatre rehearsals originally scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, will move to Monday and Tuesday. The Wednesday night cast will rehearse on Monday during the day at the theatre, and our Thursday night cast will rehearse on Tuesday during the day at the theatre. This will allow our students to have dedicated rehearsal time without also needing to perform that evening. It also allows us to adapt the school program on Wednesday and Thursday to support our younger students in preparing for their performances.

Wednesday 11 November

  • 5:00pm - Performance 1
  • 7:00pm - Performance 2

Thursday 12 November

  • 5:00pm - Performance 3
  • 7:00pm - Performance 4

Currently, our run time for the show is about 70 minutes.

The 7PM performances will also be filmed, providing an opportunity to capture the students' hard work and achievements on stage.

 

What does this mean for Prep-2 students?

Importantly, your child will still only be performing on their originally allocated evening (Wednesday OR Thursday). However, they will now participate in two performances on that evening instead of one. By scheduling both performances on the same evening, we can avoid requiring our younger students and families to attend the theatre on multiple nights.

There will be a short break between performances to allow students to rest, have a snack and prepare for the second show. We recognise that two performances will make for a longer evening, particularly for our youngest students. Students will remain at the theatre between performances supervised by staff.

 

What does this mean for Grade 5/6 students?

All Grade 5/6 students involved (cast and crew) in the production will attend our daytime theatre rehearsals on Monday 9 and Tuesday 10 November. To accommodate the additional performances, both casts will now perform on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, alternating between the earlier and later shows.

Wednesday 11 November

  • 5:00pm: Original Thursday Night Cast
  • 7:00pm: Original Wednesday Night Cast

Thursday 12 November

  • 5:00pm: Original Wednesday Night Cast
  • 7:00pm: Original Thursday Night Cast

A reminder that when students are not performing in their main role, they will be part of the Grade 5/6 ensemble. This means students will be involved in both performances each evening. To make these arrangements as clear as possible, we have attached updated casting lists showing exactly which students will be performing in each role at each performance.

The crew will be required during all 4 performances.

If you have any concerns about these arrangements or your child's availability, please contact us as soon as possible.

 

Supporting Students

To support students throughout the week, we will be adapting the school program to include quieter activities and opportunities for rest, particularly on their performance day and the following day.

Where possible, we encourage families to consider collecting their child from 2:00pm onwards on their performance day, allowing them some time to rest and have something to eat before returning for the evening performances. We understand this may not be possible for all families, and students remaining at school will be supported with quieter activities.

We also recognise that students may be particularly tired following their performance evening. If your child needs a later start at school the following morning to allow for some extra rest, we completely understand and are happy to accommodate this.

We believe these adjustments will help us balance the excitement of providing more performance opportunities with the wellbeing of our students.

 

What happens next?

We will be adding the two additional performances to TryBooking, with tickets going on sale on Tuesday 27 October at 7:00pm.

To give families who missed out during the initial ticket release an opportunity to purchase tickets, we kindly ask that families who have already secured tickets wait until 7:30pm before purchasing any additional tickets.

We appreciate your cooperation in helping us make tickets available to as many families as possible.

 

Would you like to transfer your existing tickets?I

f you have already purchased tickets for one of the original performances and would now prefer to attend one of the additional earlier shows, please complete the form below to register your request. You can transfer some or all of your tickets to the earlier shows.

https://forms.gle/p2hc9WkTktbaoqbaA

We particularly encourage families with larger bookings to consider transferring to an additional performance where possible. This will help us redistribute available seating across all four performances and give more families the opportunity to attend.

Please submit any ticket transfer requests by Monday 26 October at 5:00pm, so that we can review requests before additional tickets go on sale.

 

Further information

We understand that families will have questions about the practical arrangements for the performances. Further details, including student arrival times, what to bring, food arrangements, and drop-off and pick-up procedures, will be shared in the coming weeks. For now, we wanted to focus this update on the revised production schedule and ticketing arrangements.

We have received a number of emails this week in regard to tickets. We will now have the chance to look and process these emails. We have appreciated your patience with this.

Thank you for your flexibility, understanding and continued support as we work to make this a positive experience for our students and the wider school community.

Kind regards,Tim and Kristy