Carousel Players eager to get back to schools
The exhilaration for a professional theatre company comes from hearing and feeling reactions from a live audience.
Especially when performing for the youngest of audiences.
For the past two years, Carousel Players did the best it could behind a computer screen, offering summer theatre classes, workshops and school productions virtually.
Now, the company is finally back in front of audiences, touring Niagara communities (with safety protocols in place), but a large part of what Carousel Players does has remained missing — bringing sets, costumes and performers directly to the classroom.
“We haven’t been able to either perform our plays or do our performance workshops that we would normally do in classrooms, and that’s just been really depressing,” said artistic director Monica Dufault.
“That’s our mission, is to bring live theatre to young audiences and to share with them that opportunity for embodied live performance.”
Dufault said the company has adapted, doing virtual workshops and digitally touring two shows, “Meet Chloe” and “Happy Birthday to Me,” both of which remain available for school streaming performances.
But for now, it remains in a “holding pattern.”
“We don’t know yet where schools are at, as far as welcoming a touring production like Carousel Players back into the gym,” she said.
District School Board of Niagara communications officer Carolyn Loconte said schools are taking a “gradual approach” in transitioning out of health and safety protocols, slowly reintroducing school assemblies and student group activities.
“We enjoy, value and miss having third parties like Carousel Players engage students, and we are looking forward to when we can welcome back the many organizations and visitors who enhance the learning experience,” she said.
Dufault has been heartened by the success the company has seen at its community performances, including at its 50th year celebration, which she said have been well attended.
For Carousel Players, the importance of having these programs in schools, and potentially bring live theatre experiences to children who may never otherwise have that opportunity, is vital, and Dufault is “eager” to see how they respond.
“When we attend a live performance as an audience, it’s that spark that happens in the moment, those little adjustments that we all make as an audience, as an actor, in this act of creating a world,” she said. “It’s all of our imaginations working together.”
Dufault said a recent study by the New Victory Theatre shows the value of providing children with the opportunity to engage in performing arts at a young age — it not only has academic, social and emotional benefits, but helps discover and develop hope.
“If there was ever a time when we all needed hope for the future, and especially for our youngest children to have hope for their future, it’s now,” she said.
COVID-19 has been “disruptive,” not only for the children, but the artists.
Whenever they get back into auditoriums, Dufault expects people to require time to acclimatize themselves, not only to being around others, but performing in close proximity to groups of children.
At the same time, the pandemic has provided opportunities, allowing Carousel Players to take advantage of government programs to create additional arts education, which Dufault said it sent virtually to schools and families. Additionally, it hired three interns who brought the classroom to St. Catharines streets through an interactive piece called Sidewalk Stories.
Niagara Catholic District School Board communications officer Jennifer Pellegrini said the board is following provincial guidelines on school operations, and at this time, there are “no restrictions on visitors to our schools.”