It’s that time of year, again.  The time when the Arkansas Repertory Theatre’s halls reverberate with the sound of song, and walls shake from dancers’ leaps in the rehearsal studio above.  The SMTI young artists have officially taken over The Rep.

Summer Musical Theater Intensive (SMTI) is The Rep’s annual training program for aspiring young artists in Arkansas.  Under the direction of Resident Director and Director of Education Nicole Capri, SMTI is an intensive, audition-based theatre training program designed exclusively for motivated young artists who are serious about the arts and musical theatre.

“The SMTI program, at its core, is a training program.  It’s a program that immerses young people, young artists, in all facets of the performing artists, in a very intensive, intensively focused, two-week summer program,” said Producing Artistic Director Robert Hupp.

The SMTI staff is comprised of professional directors, choreographers, musicians and designers. Daily rehearsals are structured similarly to a professional summer stock experience and include instruction in musical theatre techniques, multi-media, costume and stage make-up, dance and vocal coaching.

Each session – broken up into Senior Session (ages 16-23) and Junior Session (ages 13-15) – involves intensive daily rehearsals culminating in a public workshop performance of a selected musical or musical revue. The first year of SMTI, they performed Godspell.  That musical (which was dreamed up in Little Rock) is returning this summer.

You can catch Godspell on Friday, July 18 at 7pm, Saturday, July 19 at 1pm and again that night at 7pm.

To purchase a ticket to a performance of Godspell, call The Rep Box Office at (501) 378-0405.