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Show , ii mi mm iin .n.i n im iimii . T"n nn nnm 'Wi I . i. f' ' "i V ft' Vf'' i S 3 f f ' - if r . ' ' f H- y - - ! il I; V - ' ! - i i i rJ r-zf ( , . t.-.nnnnr,n filir.i-H,i.,-m.iiii,l Wlf 'lllllH.li u r i H n I A ."HMMtojuririS m"1""!, . ... : .aia.,,. " . ..ta- L . -..'.w .t.,Jk . - - 1 J Dancers from "Half A Sixpence are led in number from the show, Butler (second from left), currently at Pioneer Memorial Theatre, by choregrapher Rowland By NICK SNOW Chronicle Managing Editor For Trudy Howard, A Day in the ife starts early. In addition to her ousehold chores, she's faced with lie problems that come with being full-time student at the Univer-ity Univer-ity and employee of University, ress. Recently, she began giving Jtahns "Dodge Fever" for a local lealer. i Since late August, she has also teen rehearsing three hours each zht for her role in "Half A Six- The accompanist started up again and the dancers went through the segment, Butler nodding silently as he watched. The stage emptied slowly as the performers left to get some air. Some were home a half hour later, but most stayed to rehearse speaking speak-ing parts. "It was the first time most of them had done the dance," Butler later said. "More rehearsals will be required, of course." And for the "triple threats" of PMTs "Half A Sixpence," more rehearsals re-hearsals followed nightly at seven. lowed, taking her dance in stages as Butler stood by, offering suggestions. sug-gestions. Twenty minutes later, the choreographer chore-ographer called the other dancers to the stage and put them through their steps, sometimes individually. Those with less experience took pointers from the more seasoned members of the group and, inside of ten more minutes, the accompanist accom-panist was ready. "All right," Butler said, "we're taking tak-ing it from 140. Ready set kick go!" Quietly counting, the dancers moved into action while Butler offered of-fered assistance. Midway through, he stopped them and began to work with the men while Trudy practiced with the girls. As Butler turned to start the accompanist off again, she said, "We do the Susie-Q step over and this (doing a sort of pivot-shuffle) pivot-shuffle) back?" "Yes," Butler replied. "Oboy," Trudy quietly exclaimed then, turning to the other girls, said, "Okay, this means well have to add this to what we were doing." As she demonstrated, Butler joined musical director Ardean Watts working with the accompanist pence," currently finishing a nine-day nine-day run at Pioneer Memorial Theatre. The-atre. One of twenty-five "triple-threat" "triple-threat" performers starring in the musical, Trudy has five minutes to change costumes between her dance as Laura, the bar girl, and her dance with the other shopgirls. "We're really not a typical dance group," she explained a few days ago. "The dancers are all ages and, amazingly, only five have had much experience." "These people have to be 'triple-threat' 'triple-threat' performers they have to sing, dance, and act," choreographer choreograph-er Roland Butler said. "In this show, everybody must be able to do all three things. We've taken dancers and taught them how to sing and act; we've taken singers and taught them acting and dancing; danc-ing; and the actors were taught singing and dancing." The efforts of the entire troupe have been those of a team. "With this group, and in most musical comedy, most of the steps are not as hard as ballet or modern dance," Butler commented. For the barroom scene, in which the central character, Arthur Kipps (Duane Hill), and an aspiring playwright, play-wright, Chitterlow (Coleman Creel), journey to the Hope and Anchor Bar, Butler took Trudy Howard through the dance at half-tempo. Moving in unison with her, Butler worked first without musical accompaniment ac-companiment by counting out loud: "1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, ... 3 4." Trudy fol- |