Tuesday, January 28, 2025 |
School of Theatre Arts Community,
We want to be upfront with you: we are devastated by how this morning’s registration process for 2025 Summer Camp transpired. We realize this was a disappointment for you, too, and it is important to us that we remain transparent with our community and keep you informed on how we will move forward.
Despite weeks of diligent preparation, our team was shocked to see servers crash in-house and within Easy-Ware moments after registration opened. It is our understanding that the enormous influx in traffic (over 50,000 refresh hits at 10am!) prompted Microsoft to block users from access; according to our external webmaster, the traffic was perceived as an attack on our servers. This was obviously not the case, and we share your frustration with this. Additionally, the server crash internally shut down our phone lines and no calls were able to be made.
We’ve received feedback and assistance and have discussed our next steps thoroughly. Registration will go live on the following dates and times:
WEDNESDAY:
Early Explorers Registration: Wednesday, January 29th at 10am
Camp in Concert Registration: Wednesday, January 29th at 2pm
Production Track Registration: Wednesday, January 29th at 2pm
THURSDAY:
Creative Quest Registration: Thursday, January 30th at 10am
Dramatic Discovery Registration: Thursday, January 30th at 2pm
We’ve received your emails, phone calls and messages and are giving them all equal attention in the order they were received, but we are not holding/saving spaces. Due to the nature of the crash, we will be starting the registration process completely fresh at the times listed above. We’ve been assured that splitting the traffic flow up in this way will allow the software to run successfully. Note that any waitlist submissions are voided as we re-open registration over the next two days. Please continue to reach out to us directly at grctschool@grct.org and let us know if you have any concerns that we can address.
The School of Theatre Arts is committed to providing world-class theatrical experiences, but most importantly, we are committed to our community and relationships. Grand Rapids Civic Theatre exists because of YOU – and our team is thankful for you every day. We wanted to share a few of our words of thanks and appreciation with you:
“I want each of these families to know how sincerely, deeply thankful we are for them. Theatre changed my life and I strive to make impactful theatre experiences for all of these kiddos.” -Josh
“I am absolutely devastated by what happened with summer camp registration this morning. Taking care of our students and families is always our top priority and when something does not go as planned, we know it impacts everything we do and every relationship we have. We are so thankful for their understanding and compassion as we work through this as quickly as possible.” -Deb
“We continue to be humbled by the enormous interest in our programming, but especially by the kindness and compassion of our Civic families. We appreciate each and every one of you immensely, and we are putting every effort into fixing this as soon as possible.” -Jenna
We appreciate your patience and feel grateful to have you in our community. We can’t wait to see you soon.
-Grand Rapids Civic Theatre School of Theatre Arts Team
Jenna Betka-Pope, Director of Education and Outreach
Deb Wright, Administrator
Josh Kurchinski, Education Coordinator
Jared Graybiel, Outreach Manager