CELEBRATE THE SEASON
SaskExpress rolls out original holiday musical
It’s a special Christmas season for Danny Balkwill and SaskExpress.
Balkwill, the artistic director and CEO of SaskExpress, will mark his first year at the helm of the organization with All I Want For Christmas Is You, a musical which opened on Dec. 6.
The musical, an original story relating the trials and celebrations of the holiday season, is the first for Balkwill who replaced Carol Gay Bell, the group’s co-founder, earlier this year.
“Her last show as the artistic director was the summer show, so this is actually my debut as the artistic director … this coming up winter show,” Balkwill said in a recent interview.
Born and raised in Regina and a product of SaskExpress, Balkwill went on to participate in major musical productions outside Saskatchewan.
“I’ve done tons of different shows as a performer, music director and director as well,” he said. “In work, I’ve been doing a lot of musical theatre ... it’s really about telling a story and using whatever music to tell that story.”
And that’s the recipe Balkwill is using in this inaugural piece.
“It’s a full-length original musical that I wrote the script for … it uses a collection of (34) alreadypopular songs.”
Patrons will hear an “eclectic mix” of musical genres including hip hop, classical, jazz and traditional holiday tunes. The cast is comprised of Chloe Brule-Head, Jarret Curtis Cody, Shelby Glaze, Aerhyn Lau and Jacob Sawatzky of Regina, Miranda Sheepwash of Moose Jaw, Nilsen Tiefenbach of Edenwold and Gabby Dumonceaux, Tyler Taylor and Jillana Woloschuk of Saskatoon.
Also incorporated into the show is a four-member band — Craig Salkeld (keyboards and trumpet), Ken Burton (guitar), Danny Jones (bass) and Sawatzky (trombone). Salkeld is in charge of the musical arrangements while Matt Alfano, a SaskExpress alum and Broadway performer, is the choreographer.
“There’s so much energy that comes from having live musicians onstage — it just enhances the show.”
All I Want for Christmas Is You presents an opportunity for Glaze, a longtime SaskExpress participant, who has been on stage with the troupe for a couple of years and before that studied in its studio.
Glaze said her role in this show is “a strong, important business lady who is just looking for somebody to love.”
Because Balkwill uses a scripted story rather than a musical revue to present the talents of SaskExpress performers, it allows her to work on her acting skills while creating the details of a character, Glaze said.
And doing double-duty as both an actor and musician for this production is Sawatzky. He’s in the onstage band and portraying several supporting characters.
“This is my first step into real professional work,” Sawatzky said, adding he enjoys the hours and hours of rehearsals.
He described the challenge as “being able to switch between characters and give them an entirely different aspect. There’s an emphasis on creating easily distinct characters who can be easily recognizable based on their actions, not their appearance.”
The musical runs until Dec. 16 in Regina with touring performances in Moose Jaw (Dec. 17), Saskatoon (Dec. 18) and Weyburn (Dec. 19).
Tickets for the Regina performances are available online at saskatchewanexpress.com or by calling 306-522-3406.
There’s so much energy that comes from having live musicians onstage.