Walking into The Singer’s Theatre in Kitchener, it’s hard to believe The Boys in the Photograph cast were only two days into rehearsal.
A chorus of 31 singers echoed throughout the building as they finished blocking their scenes before lunch. It’s the 13th year for the summer intensive musical theatre workshop run, where students have 10 days to learn a full musical before putting on four performances.
Director and former EDSS drama teacher, Gord Davis says it took some time to decide on The Boys in the Photograph as this year’s show.
![Alten Wilmot, Nicki Hynes, Jasmine Thuroo, Keenan Smits, and Zola Magwood will take the stage this weekend in The Singer’s Theatre production of The Boys in the Photograph. [Whitney Neilson / The Observer]](https://www.observerxtra.com/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/post_news_theatre.jpg)
“We always like to choose something that’s really challenging for the kids,” Davis said. “We looked at several different ones, then particularly when Amanda (Brunk) listened to the music she loved the music. I saw the production of it in Toronto a couple years ago and when I saw it I thought this would be a perfect one for us to do, because of its challenge and challenging subject matter too. It’s the whole Protestant-Catholic conflict in Ireland in 1969, basically when it was at its peak.”
With music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and the book and lyrics by Ben Elton, we enter the world of a boys’ catholic soccer team who have made it to the finals. Their star player might be good enough to make a team in England and become a professional soccer player. But as luck would have it, he gets involved with the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and winds up in prison. The story follows the effects on all the people connected to him.
“Theatrically, character-wise, I think the challenge is that inbred hatred that the Irish had for the opposite religion because I think most people nowadays have grown far away from that. I think that’s kind of an eye opener for these kids, is that as soon as a child is born they’re told to hate this other group of people,” Davis said.
Davis explains there’s a line in the show that says ‘no child is born to hate,’ and that’s the message of the show, that no one is born to hate and yet the Northern Irish conflict happened.
Founder and artistic director of Singer’s Theatre Amanda Brunk says the musical challenges come in the rock style of much of the play’s music.
“It’s very ’80s in style. That’s challenging for trained singers because they’re all trained and we’ve got to kind of get them rougher, but still maintain their technique and all their healthy habits,” Brunk said.
She added, “It’s hard for the boys. The boys have to sing really high. For teenage boys that’s not easy.”
The cast is made up of motivated performers aged 14-24 from Kitchener-Waterloo, Guelph, Elmira, Woodstock, Saint John, and Vancouver Island. Two girls from Vancouver Island are back for their third year. They met Brunk when she was out West adjudicating a Kiwanis Music Festival.
“The one from New Brunswick, her parents researched youth summer theatre programs and got all sorts of information, heard things like it was the best youth theatre program in the country, that kind of thing,” Davis said.
Interested singers auditioned in the spring and had to work on learning the music before they arrived this week. He noted more singers auditioned and were chosen for roles, but decided to work summer jobs instead to pay for school.
“We have had as many as 50 for some productions. This would be a relatively smaller cast for us. And I think sometimes it depends on the production we choose. If we had chosen something more popular, maybe we would have got more,” Davis said.
They typically don’t sell out their shows. Last year’s production of Carrie went well though her said, with big audiences. One of the drawbacks of choosing The Boys in the Photograph is that people don’t come out in big numbers for a musical they aren’t familiar with.
Last year’s production supported StopaBully.ca, by collecting prom dresses for Prom Blitz, a charity that provides free prom clothes for those in need. This year they’ve joined forces with Waterloo Minor Soccer, to help bring athletes to the theatre. Davis said a donation has made it possible for a few soccer teams to attend the Saturday matinee.
Elmira’s Jasmine Thuroo is performing in The Boys in the Photograph. This is her first year with The Singer’s Theatre. She met Brunk through the Grand Philharmonic Choir, which Brunk directs.
“I was just like I’ll audition for this because she’s doing it and so that’s when I automatically was like I really love musical theatre,” Thuroo said.
She’s previously performed with Royal City Musical Productions Inc. in Guelph, in Singin’ in the Rain and Willy Wonka. She says she’s learning a lot about collaboration through The Singer’s Theatre.
“I’ve done musicals, but not for awhile. I’m learning a lot of different things, how to interact with people, and especially with tableaus it’s how to move with people, having to really act like a family right off the bat. And it’s really good because they’re all really nice.”
Thuroo notes the biggest learning curve for her is being more confident.
“It’s not a huge cast, so you’re on stage a lot. It builds your confidence. I found just from these two days I’ve been asked to do stuff I hadn’t done before, so that’s good,” Thuroo said.
Anyone interested in attending can contact Brunk at amanda@thesingerstheatre.ca.
The show runs August21-23 at the Conrad Centre for the Performing Arts in Kitchener. There are two 7:30 p.m. performances on the Friday and Saturday, and two 2 p.m. matinees the Saturday and Sunday, for four shows total. Tickets are $21 and can be purchased at www.ticketscene.ca or at the door.
