M’CHIGEENG—There are many facets to a successful mounting of a musical production, many of which take place out of sight of the audience. The group of eclectic Island musicians who provided the music for this year’s Manitoulin Secondary School theatre production ‘Something Rotten’ provides a singular case in point.
“It is very unusual for a school production to have live music,” said MSS artistic director Michael Zegil. “Usually, student productions would be using recorded music.”
Three Manitoulin Secondary School alumni returned to their alma mater as volunteer musicians in Ye Olde Renaissance Orchestra, joining six other Island volunteers in providing live musical accompaniment for ‘Something Rotten,’ this year’s student theatrical production. Cheyanne Barnes (flute), Ethan Theijsmeijer (guitar) and Jolene Debassige (drums) were once all MSS students. The rest of the orchestra was made up of Sonya Mulder (violin), Mat Fowler (guitar/bass), Alex Baran (keyboard 1, piano), Michael McCormick (keyboard 2, synthesizer/woodwinds/percussion/cowbell), Arik Theijsmeijer (keyboard 3, strings) and conductor Chris Theijsmeijer (keyboard 4, brass).
“The book for this production is actually written for four keyboards,” noted Mr. Theijsmeijer, who, it turns out, played an even larger part than musician and conductor—he re-wrote the middle of one of the songs to reflect the history of MSS musicals.
During one of the songs references are made to several popular Broadway musicals, but not the ones that had been performed at MSS. The conductor estimated that crafting the new lyrics took him around 20 hours. This on top of the weekly Sunday rehearsals the musicians committed to for months in order to perfect the 21 songs being sung on stage.
The flawless execution of the music during the production reflected that immense dedication and commitment.
Mr. Theijsmeijer, who, as a teacher at MSS and like the rest of the orchestra has many other commitments to juggle, explained the motivation behind the musician’s efforts. “It’s something we really enjoyed doing,” he said.
That enjoyment was shared by the audiences who filled the MSS auditorium and benefited from their efforts over the course of the three performances.
