Foxtravaganza

Theme: Little Stars, Big Dreams

Date: May 4, 2025 (One Show Only!!!)

Time: Curtains up at 2pm 

Venue: San Mateo Performing Arts Center (600 N Delaware St., San Mateo, CA 94401)   

Key Dates (Updated 11/13/24):

• Monday, November 4, 2024  -  Sign Ups Open - Solo/Group/Grade Act and Volunteer Recruitment

• Tuesday, November 26, 2024 - Sign Ups Close - Solo/Group/Grade Act and Grade Act Leader Recruitment

• January 15, 2025 @ 8:30am (Lower Teacher Lounge) - Grade Act Leader Meeting

• Monday, February 3, 2025 - Group Act Rehearsals start

• Week of February 17, 2025 - Winter Break, no rehearsals.

• March 11-18, 2025 - Minimum days, teacher conferences.  No rehearsals.

• Friday, March 14, 2025 @ 6pm - Solo/Group Act/MC Preview night (no Grade Acts)

• Week of April 7, 2025 - Spring Break, no rehearsals.

• Thursday, April 17, 2025 @ 6pm - Exec tech rehearsal (5th grade finale, MCs, and producer run through only) 

• Friday, April 25, 2025 @ 6pm - Tech Rehearsal (everyone except piano acts)

• Sunday, May 4, 2025 - Show day

Parent Volunteer Sign Up (including Grade Group Act leaders) here.   

Student Performer Sign Up Link here.  

** Sign Ups Close for Grade Group Act Leaders and Student Performers ARE EXTENDED TO Tuesday, 11/26/24. **

GRADE GROUP ACTS (2 minutes max): 

Practices begin the week of Feburary 3rd, 2025; no practices on Conference week minimum days, Mid-Winter Break and Spring Break.  A minimum of 2 parent leader volunteers required per grade group act.

CHORUS (80 performer max):  

1st-5th graders are eligible to participate.  Practices begin the week of Feburary 3rd, 2025 and will happen during lunch.  No practices on Conference week minimum days, Mid-Winter Break and Spring Break.  Children of Foxtravaganza parent volunteers will have priority (extra incentive to volunteer!  Must be signed up as a volunteer by Tuesday, 11/19/24 and your child is signed up for chorus).

SMALL GROUP OR SOLO ACTS (1 minute max for groups of 4 kids or less; 1 minute 30 second max for groups of 5 kids or more): 

For the 2025 show, only 4th and 5th graders are eligible for small group acts or solo acts.  Group acts are encouraged to include as many students as possible in the shorter amount of time.  Group Acts (i.e., 2 or more performers) will have priority, followed by solo acts.  Get together with your friends!  A lottery will determine which small groups/solos will perform if there are more sign ups than slots.

MC ACTS: 4th and 5th graders are eligible to audition to be an MC.  Auditions will be the week of January 15, 2025 (exact date/time TBD).   Additional executive rehearsal may be required (see Key Dates).  

MANDATORY TECH REHEARSAL: Friday, April 25th 6:00pm

SHOW TIME: Sunday, May 4th 2:00pm (with an earlier call time TBD).  There will only be 1 show for 2025.

Foxtravaganza is a group effort and takes lots of hands to make the show run smoothly.  See "Sign Up Information" for a list of volunteer positions needed. There are plenty of positions available, depending on how much you can commit to the show, but all are valuable!

Positions have instructions and documentation so you don't have to "reinvent the wheel", so come join the Foxtravaganza volunteer team to help put on a great show!   It's a great chance to meet other parents too.

GRADE GROUP ACTS:

Grade Group Acts must have a minimum of 2 parent volunteer leaders (max of 3 leaders) for a particular group to participate (e.g., Kinder girls have to have 2 parent leaders, 3rd grade boys needs 2 parent leaders, etc.).   

Leaders can have other volunteers come in to assist if they complete Level 2 Volunteer Clearance requirements.  Producers will coordinate with Grade Group Act Leaders. Grade Group Act leaders will coordinate with their volunteers.

PLEASE NOTE:  All Grade Group Act Leaders and extra volunteers need Level 2 Background Check Clearance completed before rehearsals start in February 2025.  

VOLUNTEER BACKGROUND CLEARANCE:

The link is here: https://www.brssd.org/volunteer-information.  All volunteers need to complete the Level 1 form EVERY SCHOOL YEAR.  It takes just a few minutes.   Level 2 clearance cannot be confirmed if you have not completed the Level 1 form for the 2024-25 school year.

Level 2 clearance requires fingerprinting and only needs to be done once while your child is at BRSSD.  Please allow a week for processing once you've gotten fingerprinted.   Search for Live Scan fingerprinting locations and fees here: https://oag.ca.gov/fingerprints/locations?county=San%20Mateo.

Q: What’s the difference between all the Foxtravaganza choices?

A:

• • Grade Group Act - all kids are eligible to participate in their grade’s act.  The number of students per act is capped to keep it reasonable for volunteer parent leaders to manage the group.  There must be a minimum of 2 parent volunteers per grade group act in order for the act to happen.  We ask for 3 parent leaders maximum to keep it manageable for the Foxtrav producers.

• • Chorus - 1st through 5th grade kids are eligible to participate.  The number of students is capped to keep it reasonable for our volunteer teacher leader to manage the chorus group.

• • MC (aka emcees) - only 4th and 5th graders are allowed to audition for MC.  MCs start and end the show.

• • Solo Act / Small Group Act - only 4th and 5th graders are allowed to submit an act for consideration.  This is a chance to highlight the amazing variety of talents of our older grade kids.

• • 5th Grade Finale - only 5th graders can participate.  This is their big hurrah before heading to middle school.

• • Backstage Crew - only 4th and 5th graders are allowed to be part of the crew.  Not all kids want to be in the spotlight and we get that.  The Backstage Crew role allows those kids a chance to be part of the experience.

• • Artwork for the Foxtravaganza program - stay tuned for opportunities for your artist (will be open to all grades).

Q: What are the Foxtravaganza 2025 goals?  How does that change things from prior years?

A:  The Foxtravaganza producers collected feedback immediately after the Foxtravaganza 2024 Show.  One comment from nearly all responses stood out.  The 2024 Show was 2 hours and 30 minutes (and no intermission) and that was MUCH TOO LONG.    

The producers began working on the 2025 show just weeks after closing the 2024 show.   In order to honor the feedback and shorten the 2025 show, we set goals for Foxtravaganza 2025:

1. Performing arts exposure 

2. Community

3. Togetherness

4. Support each other

We want an environment where kids can learn new skills and practice different skills.  With that, we’re emphasizing: 

• Foxtravaganza is a LIVE show in 2025 (i.e., bye bye Fox Clips) where kids experience the performing arts.  

• Getting as many kids on stage (or backstage) as possible.  We’re prioritizing groups, groups, groups.  Working together helps build community, togetherness, and allows kids to support each other.  Yes, we know this means parents have to put in more effort too but isn’t it worth it to help your kid build life-long skills? 

• More groups also allows those kids who can’t join after-school grade group act practices a chance to be on stage.

Q: My kid really wants to be in Foxtravaganza and you’ve made it so they can’t.

A: There are many, many opportunities to get involved.  It might not be as your child envisioned their participation but here’s a chance to practice resilience and growth mindset!  Join chorus, join your grade group act, build a small group act, etc.  

Q: Why make my kid audition for MC?

A: We are overflowing with MC interest and we decided the “first come, first served” wasn’t the best approach for this situation.  We created a selection criteria.  Interested kids will be asked to memorize 30 seconds of dialogue and recite it for the producers.  It also gives the producers (and MC parent if one is identified already) a chance to (1) see the strengths of each kid, and (2) confirm the kid can dedicate the time and have the skill to memorize dialogue.

Q: How will solo/small group acts be chosen?

A: The producers will select acts using the below criteria:

• Variety of acts (e.g., we don’t want 15 piano solos or 15 juggling acts)

• Group acts get priority.  The bigger the group, the higher the priority.  Bonus: Any groups with 5 or more participants will get 1 minute, 30 seconds max.  Everyone else gets 1 minute max.  

• The number of acts is unknown until timing/agenda is confirmed (currently anticipated to be December 2024).

• Participation on Friday, March 14, 2025 @ 6pm - Solo/Group Act/MC Preview night.  Acts unable to participate will be removed and a new act will come in.

Q: Why are MCs and Non-Grade Acts Randomly Chosen?

A;  We want to encourage kids to try.  There’s plenty of time in life to be chosen based on skill.  We want to hold Foxtravaganza as a safe space to pluck up courage and go for it.  How you do isn’t important as long as you try.

Q: Why might my kid be asked to stop participating in Foxtravaganza?

A: We want everyone to participate but we also have to respect that this is entirely put on by parent volunteers.  You kid may be asked to stop participating if:

1. Behavior issues.  A parent volunteer is not trained to deal with behavior management.  Your kid will be asked to leave if there are behavior issues, up to and including no longer participating in Foxtravaganza.

2. Late pick up.  If there are more than 2 late pick ups after practice, your kid may be asked to leave the relevant act.  Parent volunteers must stay until every kid is picked up for safety reasons and their time must be respected.  Parent volunteers are not babysitters.  

Q: My Question wasn't answered.

A: Reach out to our parent volunteer team at foxtalentshow@gmail.com.