Little Revolt Year in Review

Today Little Revolt is taking a look back at the past year. We are proud of our work in 2018, but we know great things happen only with the support of our friends. Below is the Little Revolt year in review. Thank you to everyone who joined us, and we apologize if we forgot someone below.

Journey to the Center of the Earth

We started the year off with an original play, Journey to the Center of the Earth, based on the classic Jules Verne novel. Among other things, the show featured fighting dinosaurs, mastodons, and lots of laughs. In addition, we modernized our Journey somewhat by creating prominent, stronger roles for our female actors.

Journey performed at three venues:

• Firstly, for families at the Curtiss Mansion in Miami Springs
• Secondly, for the wonderful folks at the Camillus House homeless shelter
• And thirdly, two shows for the youth at His House Children’s Home (our first bilingual performance!).

We are so happy to have shared classical literature and laughs with so many people. Our cast included Andrew Garcia, Max Scaglione, Kim Calil, Laurel Welch, Dario Lamas, Jorge Calil, and yours truly.

We had fantastic support from costumer Dee Piquette, as well as Jeanne Dautermann, Cari Martinez, the Miami Springs HS Math Club, Margot Acosta, Lily Calzadilla, Birgit Scaglione, Sophia de la Grana, Tyler Reed, Ralph Wakefield, the Pelican Playhouse, Melinda Jester, the Curtiss Mansion, Wally Clark, Chris Jerauld, Eddie Rojas, and others. We also thank Bob Nathanson and Puppets To Go for making the Curtiss Mansion event a double feature (with their Little Red Riding Hood show).

The Comedy of Errors (aka Food Fight!)

On the heels of Journey to the Center of the Earth, we undertook another adventure – classical theater with seventh and eighth graders. We offered students at All Angels Academy located in Miami Springs a choice. They could perform Roald Dahl’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox or William Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors. Guess which play they selected? Shakespeare won by a landslide. There’s a lesson: Never underestimate young people. The Comedy of Errors was a riot, with twins, mistaken identities, flying fish, and a crazy audience participation food fight. Above all, we are proud of the students who took ownership of the play and made it so much fun.

Thank you to Terry Alexander, Joy Diaz, All Angels Academy, Juliana Arias for choreography, Dee Piquette for costumes, Carrie Segal for her generous support, Margot Acosta, Birgit Scaglione, Danny Febres, Tyler Reed, Ralph Wakefield, the Pelican Playhouse, Wally Clark, and others for your support.

Inspire305 Recognition

Little Revolt was selected as one of 7 finalists in the Inspire305 program, which recognizes innovative young nonprofits in Miami. We were honored and humbled to be in the group of nominees, including: Exchange for Change, LEAPlete Foundation, The Mission Continues Service Platoon, South Florida Center for Percussive Arts, Mind & Melody, and Code/Art. We did not win the final award. However, we received a generous $5000 contribution from an anonymous donor who was inspired by all of the nominees. Thank you to Inspire305 and the United Way of Miami-Dade County for this honor. Congratulations to all of the nonprofits.

Midsummer Family Shakes Festival

At Little Revolt we don’t do pretentious theater. Our motto is theater for the people, of the people, and by the people. We pursue programs which educate, inspire, and involve “regular folks” in the process of creating quality theater and art. Our annual Shakespeare festival perfectly supports this mission. In 2018 our free Midsummer Family Shakes Fest was once again held at the Curtiss Mansion in Miami Springs. Hundreds attended Shakes Fest and introduced Shakespeare to families and children of all ages. Programming included:

• The Hamlet Dumb Dumb Show starring (among others) 7-year old Raul Fernandez-Calienes as Hamlet and 8-year old Emma Calil as Ophelia.
• Shakes Scenes performed by actors from the Miami Springs Senior Center and directed by Mary Reed.
• Wonderful art activities orchestrated by Birgit Scaglione (Elizabethan ruffs, Shakespeare emojis, colored fairy coloring sheets, stencil art, and more).
• A Midsummer Fairy Garden and scavenger hunt designed by Marjuree Larin.
• Storytelling by Mr. Ralph (Wakefield) featuring A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
• Old English dance lessons by Juliana Arias.
• Stage combat lessons by Sergio Luis Yanes.
• Coconut Nerf archery-golf, a bear toss game, the Sonneteers wandering troupe of actors.
• And a costume trunk for dress-up and selfies, and more.

An army of volunteers and actors supported Shakes Fest, too many to name. But thank you to Dee Piquette, Mary Reed, Birgit Scaglione, Max Scaglione, Margot Acosta, Marjuree Larin, Chris Jerauld, Michael Scaglione, Juliana Arias, Rick Reed, Robin Reed, Anchor / Pilot Club, Melinda Jester, the Curtiss Mansion, Ralph Wakefield, the Pelican Playhouse, Karen Rosson, Miami Springs Senior Center, Jorge and Kim Calil, Wally Clark, and others.

Our sponsors for this event included: Miami-Dade Department of Cultural Affairs, Assure-A-Smile family holistic dentistry, Doral Lincoln, Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza of Doral, and Leonard Real Estate Group.

Children’s Trust Family Expo

Little Revolt spent a day at the Children’s Trust Family Expo, and it was great fun. Our booth was very popular due primarily to the efforts and talents of Birgit Scaglione, who designed our art activities. As a result, hundreds of kids visited and created Shakespeare stencil art, colored Midsummer fairies, and tried on costumes.

Lotus House Theater Camp

Little Revolt made friends with the wonderful folks at Monat Global (premium hair care products) and Monat Gratitude in 2018. Monat asked us to jointly create a 5-week theater camp with the youth at Lotus House, a Miami shelter for women and children.

The Lotus House theater camp participants were slightly younger than our typical actors. But the program was incredible. Kids learned to speak poems and riddles, performed in various scenes, and danced up a tiny storm. Moreover, the experience reminded us that there are people in our community who don’t have a home or who live in dangerous situations. Luckily, Lotus House does great work helping women and children get back on their feet. We are happy to have had the opportunity to create a little joy (and education) for the wonderful kids at Lotus House.

Thank you to Monat Global, Lotus House, Lu Urdaneta, Mary Ensor, Isabella Dell’Oca, Margo Hannah, Dee Piquette, Juliana Arias and especially Karla Colmenares Vargas for helping to make this program a success.

Thank You!

Now that 2018 is a wrap, we thank everyone who has supported Little Revolt in the past. To view more photos from all of our events, visit our photo page. We look forward to making more great theater and art. As a reminder, Little Revolt is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. If you like what we do, consider making a contribution. You can make donations online from our home page.