Let local theatre move your soul

There aren’t a lot of people out there who like to get into conflict, but some students at New West Secondary School (NWSS) are using it to teach a lesson.

While the conflict is fictional, and done with music and performance in the backdrop, Centre Stage—which will be showing on Thursday, June 1 and Friday, June 2—promises to entertain and move the audience, while reminding people of their self worth.

Music for this revue will come from well-known performances including The Greatest Showman, Newsies, and High School Musical.  

This is a student-led production, and is part of the NWSS Music Theatre Foundations class. Students are in Grades 9 to 12, and are able to not only act, but also participate in the orchestra, as make-up artists and hair dressers, and even direct.

“It’s been really interesting to be able to work on this production; it’s the first production I’ve been able to direct. I’ve dabbled in script writing before, but only in short scenes,” says Scarlett Nilson, a student writer and director. Nilson was part of the ensemble in Shrek. “It’s been cool to sort of see how different the process is during a production than it is to direct scenes.”

Alix Sabinin says they are up for the challenge as a technical student. “I’m the only full-on tech student, so I’ve been able to learn much about all the aspects of tech like sound, and lighting. And I’m going to be calling the show,” explains Sabinin, referring to the duty of managing cues—verbally noting everything from warnings, standby's, and go's, even the light cues.

For Faith Villareal, it’s the opportunity to work with people who come from a variety of experiences and backgrounds in acting. “I think it’s cool working with a variety of ranges and performers, since the class is from Grade 9 to 12, and it’s not [done via] audition. There are people who were in our large performance of Shrek, and there are people here who have never performed before.” Villareal will be serving as a vocal captain for some of the songs, something she says she’d never thought about doing until this production.

Lynda Machado is excited to continue flexing her acting muscles. “I’ve always loved musical theatre, and…for this show, specifically, I’ve been cast in a role that I, I’m not usually in this sort of role, so it’s really fun to grow as an actor in that way,” she explains, noting that there are some atypical challenges in the instance of this performance.

“Because it’s a class, we also have other segments and assignments we have to accomplish before we start our show work, and obviously the assignments are extremely important, but that means we don’t have the full semester to work on a show of this scale,” though Machado adds that the pressure has allowed them to really hit the ground running, working twice as hard to ensure people will enjoy their show.

And that’s what Nilson hopes people will do: that they’ll come on down to NWSS and enjoy their performance. “I think we’ve all worked really hard on it, and it shows on the stage all the hours we put into it. It’s a collection of everyone’s ideas: the students are directing, the teachers are helping…it’s like a huge family sort of, putting it on, and I think that’s special.”

Tickets to the performance are $10, and can be purchased through School Cash Online. There will be limited tickets at the door; those are cash only.