By Allan Bradbury
After months of rehearsals during lunch and recess, the students of St. Mary School will be putting on their performance of Beauty and the Beast Jr. tonight.
The cast and crew are made up of students from grades three to seven, with many older students taking lead roles.
Parker Davis is one of the grade seven performers; he takes the role of one of the narrators, which called for him to memorize several long passages of dialogue. Davis has been in several other productions, including other shows at St. Mary, playing the Cowardly Lion in St. Mary’s production of The Wizard of Oz, as well as with Row i Theatre.
Davis said he’s enjoyed his time being in different shows.
“I think it’s just a good way to make new friends and spend time together, and it’s a really fun place to be,” he said.
Teagan Sether plays the Baker and is also one of the narrators, she said she likes theatre because it lets her do different things.
“I really like getting into costume and performing, and being weird on stage,” she said.
Kara Dresen is taking part in her first production as one of the other narrators and said she’s learned a lot.
“I feel like I’ve learned a lot of stuff because this is my first ever play,” she said. “I feel like I’ve gotten closer to my friends and it’s been very fun overall.”
Taleah Mainville is one of ‘Les Filles’ and a member of the ensemble. Mainville said the show has kept her busy
“It’s been lots of hours working on this so it took up a lot of my soccer and basketball time,” she said.
She said she likes being part of the group of girls fawning over Gaston.
Logan Dallas plays The Beast in the second half of the show. He said he’s enjoyed being part of the show.
“I enjoy the show overall, it’s probably one of my favourite musicals or plays I’ve done,” he said.
Knowing it’s a big role he says hockey has helped him with the pressure.
“I was just at a hitting tournament, so I got all the anger and scaredness out,” he said. “But I wasn’t that scared going into it. I’ve done other plays that were more scary than this because I know my lines for this one.”
Beauty and the Beast marks the final school show for director Lisa Latimer, who is retiring at the end of the school year.
Latimer said she’s loved helping students fall in love with performing and the arts.
“There’s a lot to it. But I love it. It’s a passion of mine. And I love helping get these guys excited about acting and singing and musicals,” she said.
“It’s an amazing world to be a part of, and I just want them to have that opportunity to try it out for themselves and see if that’s something they’re interested in doing going forward. High school has all those opportunities, and we’ve already had so many of our students who have started to participate in high school shows, so it’s nice to see that.”
She said Beauty and the Beast was a good show for the school as it’s one that many of the kids would know going into it.
“It’s just one of those musicals or stories that most of the kids know. They recognize the songs too,” she said.
“I wanted something that everybody kind of had a good idea of what it was about already and that all the littles could kind of sing along, and knew the songs to it, and it’s funny and it’s sweet, and it’s got all the feels to it.”
She said the senior performers are really showing how they’ve grown.
“Some of them have been in these shows for several years now, and you can really see those performers who are used to getting up there, and who have done a lot of these roles before,” she said.
“They’re a little more confident and comfortable being up there, and they’re really great support for the newer ones as well. So they’re amazing as mentors. They’re amazing, you know, in actually helping me out, because I don’t have to direct them quite as much. They, they just take it and run with it. And I love that.”
As she moves into retirement and gets to spend time as a grandmother, she said she hopes the shows at St. Mary carry on with the other staff that have helped her over the years.
“I do hope that it continues next year. Who knows? Maybe I’ll come back and help out a little bit,” she said.
“Those that you know are heading on to high school, I hope that now that they’ve dipped their toes in I hope they continue on to that path and enjoy participating in whatever way works for them in those high school musicals and opportunities that are there that maybe other kids are who haven’t had this kind of exposure wouldn’t necessarily want to try. So I just want them to see that if this is something that they love or something that they want to continue with and then keep going with it as far as they can.”
Beauty and the Beast Jr. only has one open performance, tonight at the school. Doors open at 5:40 p.m. and the show begins at 6 p.m. Admission is free but goodwill offerings are accepted.
