Intensive musical theatre program performs production
KITCHENER — The Kitchener rehearsal hall was crackling with enthusiasm last week as 36 students in the Singers Theatre senior intensive program prepared for the musical “In the Heights.”
The production, directed by Gord Davis, runs Aug. 18, 19 and 20 at the Conrad Centre for the Performing Arts.
Singers Theatre operates a summer program to provide the country’s most talented young people, ages 14 to 24, with twoweeks of intensive training where they work full eight-hour days, Monday to Friday, preparing a stage production.
This program gives kids reallife experiences, mirroring what they will face in the world of musical theatre where there is no such thing as a long lead-up time to opening night. The young performers must learn their music and lines long before coming into the program and they have to be prepared to hit the stage ready to go.
The program has been so successful that in its 15-year history, several alumni have gone on to
appear on stages on Broadway, Stratford Festival, Drayton and in several big-budget Mirvish productions.
Fifteen-year-old Leah Zack from Victoria, B.C., has been using her summer to work on improving performance skills. She had just completed a musical theatre program in New York City before coming to Singers Theatre, a program she learned about through a friend, a previous student.
“I was a bit nervous, it’s the furthest away I’ve been from my family,” she said, adding the support from the other students as well as teachers has eased any anxieties she might have felt.
“I wanted to find those training opportunities,” said Zack, adding she has learned a lot more than just how to improve her vocals and acting.
“What I’ve learned here? I’ve learned to be a humble performer,” she said.
“I’ve worked in productions where the leads were divas.”
Zack has come to understand the power of working together as a cohesive group.
Out-of-town kids like Zack live together in a luxury rural property where they have a live- in dorm mother.
It’s spacious and beautiful, but there is also a whole lot of togetherness.
“I am living with six girls,” said Zack. “We live together, we eat together, we rehearse together.”
Cabe Guerra, 19, a veteran of the program, lives at home in Waterloo where he grew up surrounded by music, mostly Latin sounds. His parents immigrated to Canada from El Salvador and have always maintained their musical culture.
“I was one of the first performers in my family,” said the University of Waterloo music business major and a graduate of Eastwood Collegiate’s integrated arts program. “I know for sure I want to be involved in music.”
What has he gotten from the program? Discipline, for one thing, he said.
“I know that at the end of the two weeks, we’ve become really like a family, that’s one of the most important things,” he said.
The program also runs a junior intensive program in July for kids seven to 14, which also culminated in a public performance.
“In the Heights” was written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the author of the Broadway smash hit “Hamilton” and like that iconic production, this one is also sung and rapped.
The story is centred on a largely Hispanic immigrant neighbourhood of Washington Heights and the relationships of the people.
The show ran on Broadway from 2008 to 2011, winning multiple Tony awards.
Producer and resident music director Amanda Brunk said the 36-member class has hailed from B.C., Alberta and across Ontario. They chose to have the kids perform “In the Heights” partly because it’s a large-scale musical, with room for so many young performers to shine but also because of the timely storyline.
“The story is about integration, it’s about community,” she said. “It’s a lovely story.”