Coming-of-age youth production 13 to hit the stage in Invercargill
A youth theatre show highlighting the intricate and complicated lives of young people will soon have its curtain lifted in Invercargill.
Thirty-three rangatahi aged between 10 and 18 have come together under StageAntics to perform the coming-of-age musical 13 JR at Invercargill’s Civic Theatre’s Wikitoria Room this weekend.
StageAntics is an Auckland-based performing arts company designed to create opportunities to reach the stage for students of all ages across the motu.
The company’s owner, director and producer Emma Bishops, said she received yet-to-be released Broadway shows to pilot with rangatahi across Aotearoa to see how they worked.
“The junior shows are great because they’re only an hour long, so they’re great for the cast, so they can get a taste of what it’s like to be in a musical, but it’s also great for the audience because it’s not too long for children to sit down and watch.”
This season’s show 13 JR would be the second held in Invercargill after its sell-out season for Newsies JR in October 2024.
The cast had come to the southern city from Invercargill, Gore, Winton, Cromwell, Queenstown, Dunedin and Nelson to showcase what a company can do with just a few days’ worth of rehearsals to prepare.
13 JR, a version of 13: The Musical, created for young people, highlighted Evan Goldman, a 12½-year-old boy from New York who is going though major life changes.
From his parents divorcing, being forced to move to Indiana and his bar mitzvah coming up, Goldman does his best to find his footing and popularity among the students at his new school.
With a rock score from Tony Awardwinning composer Jason Robert Brown, and based on Dan Elish’s book 13, the show was poised to be an event to remember.
Bishop said four days’ worth of rehearsals wasn’t much time to pull together a sellout show, but using the Show in a Week model, casting the characters and learning the choreography, music, and staging was possible.
Throughout the week, the cast would practise in La Muse dance studio – a space gifted to the show free of charge – under Bishop, musical director Jack Barnard and choreographer Darcy Goodall who all flew into Invercargill to bring the show to life.
The cast would have one day to rehearse before lights went up this evening.
The show would run at the Wikitoria Room in the Civic Theatre from today until Sunday. Tickets were available via Ticketek for up to $21.