A Cast Party for OCCP's The Secret Garden

What’s a show without a Cast Party? For the cast and crew of OCCP’s The Secret Garden, the Cast Party was a celebration of weeks of hard work.

The cast party was held after the last performance in what is referred to as the “Studio” at Bridge View Center and was decorated by a group of volunteers with a garden theme.

The food was catered by Bridge View as well as each parent bringing a food item to share. There was plenty of food and it was yummy!

Another parent made this terrific cake—it looked like the secret garden! On one side, the names of all the kids in the show were written in icing.

A D.J. was on hand to provide music for dancing. Kids of all ages shared the dance floor!



Then, it was time for Karaoke-- a new featured added for this cast party. OK, you have a bunch of kids who are into theater and performing. What do you think is going to happen when you add a microphone and music into the mix? Yep, that is exactly what happened!

The boy wanted to go first, but he hesitated as he hadn’t experienced Karaoke before, so another cast member took the reigns and performed the first song. What was neat about this was that many of the other kids gathered around to watch and see how it all worked. They formed a semi-circle around the performer with tall ones in the back and small ones in the front—no need for direction giving needed, they did it automatically and made sure that everyone who wanted to see could.

So the boy went 2nd and it wasn’t too long before he was adding his own vocal stylings during the musical interludes.



There were others who came next. Then, something happened, that made me question whether I was dealing with an 8 year old or had fast forwarded in time 10 or so years. The boy came back to where we were seated and asked for a pen. I dug through my bag and found one. He then began writing his song request for Karaoke on a napkin—including his name and the title of the song. With the pen returned, he gave his song request to the D.J. and within a few minutes he had the microphone in his hand again!

Fun was had by all and the cast members left, after saying good-bye, with a token from the show, which was also garden themed. What’s a show without a Cast Party!