Last week we talked about the many people who volunteer with us in-class and onstage, but today we'd love to recognize one of our most consistent and dedicated behind the scenes volunteers: Andrew Heckman! Andrew has been our dedicated cinematographer for all of our stage productions since 2012. He records our final performances, and also produces a DVD of the show for our cast.

Over the years, Andrew has taken the time to really get to know our ensemble, and he puts great heart into producing DVDs for us. He attends our tech/dress rehearsal at the theatre taking notes of entrances and exits, larger scenes and smaller more intimate scenes, and making sure he knows where the action happens onstage. On show day, he arrives early to set up (usually with enough time to wish all of our cast well before the show), and then records the whole performance start to finish. Later, he edits this footage into a DVD for our actors and teaching artists. This is such a special way for us to relive each performance with our families and friends. Our actors LOVE watching themselves perform and cheering on their friends. And for the teaching artists, the DVDs are a great way for us to see progress from one performance to the next. Andrew works hard to make these keepsakes special: he builds disc menus from our show artwork and pictures, creates chapters so our actors can skip directly to their scenes when they watch at home, and adds special feature menus including headshots & bios for the cast, press, and rehearsal footage. Did we mention he does all of this as a VOLUNTEER?! We are so lucky to have him!

To date, Andrew has created DVDs for 4 of our shows: The Wizard of Oz (2012), The Taming of the Shrew (2013), Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made On (2013), and The Tempest (2014). Right now he is putting the finishing touches on the DVD from our most recent stage production with Chicago Children's Theatre: Adventures in Wonderland! Our whole cast in chomping at the bit to get their copies when classes start, for now, we are delighted to offer a sneak peek at two of our big group numbers: