M’CHIGEENG—Get ready for some fine family entertainment this coming Family Day as the students of Manitoulin Secondary School and friends will be launching the Disney musical ‘Beauty and the Beast’ with two sets of performances, an evening show on the Friday and a matinee on the Saturday. If you can’t make those performances, you are still in luck.
“For the first time, we will be having shows over two weekends,” said teacher Yana Bauer. The first performance is slated for 7 pm on Friday, February 16, the second performance will be a matinee on the following Saturday at 2 pm, and the third performance takes place on the following Friday, February 23 at 7 pm, with a corresponding Saturday matinee at 2 pm.
Currently, there is a lull in rehearsals for exam week, but once the priorities are out of the way, the cast and crew plan to buckle down to a regular schedule.
This will be a significant production, with 23 cast members lined up, including a couple of elementary students.
Ms. Bauer explained that the school looks to engage and train young talent even before they are enrolled in the high school. “It really provides continuity for those students,” she said, noting those elementary students then come into the high school with a ready-made set of connections and mentors. “Dillan is in Grade 8 and Grace is also in elementary school,” she said. “Performing in front of a live audience helps to build confidence.”
While the musical the students will be performing is based on the 1756 fairy tale of the same name by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, with some additional material from a 1940s Jean Couteau film of the same name, it is the Disney version made famous by an animated film that forms the basis of the play. The play is licenced through Music Theatre International.
The music in the show was composed by Alan Menken along with lyricist Howard Ashman, also of Little Mermaid fame. Although the musical team backing a MSS production usually includes students or alumni performing, this year the pit will consist of a group of “high quality” adult volunteers, noted Ms. Bauer. “We have a number of students in the music program who we hope will be there for future productions,” she said. “Right now, we are building capacity.”
Stay tuned for further details on admission tickets and progress in the MSS production of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ in upcoming editions of The Expositor.
