After a lengthy hiatus due to health restrictions, students from the TNB Theatre School are back on stage at the Fredericton Playhouse with two productions this week.
We’re not through COVID just yet, but the slow return of familiar events and festivals is certainly a positive.
Since the beginning of the TNB Theatre School more than twenty years ago, students from the school’s Senior Musical Theatre program have traditionally ended their year-long study with a full-scale production at the Fredericton Playhouse. But for the past two years any plans for a similar show were on hold.
To celebrate their return to the stage, both senior classes – Senior Acting and Senior Musical Theatre – are marking the occasion with a pair of productions onstage this week. This year’s productions include Little Women (Senior Acting) and Anne & Gilbert, The Musical (Senior Musical Theatre), both directed by TNB Theatre School Director Sharisse LeBrun.
“In 2001, I saw my first live musical, Anne of Green Gables,” said LeBrun. “I snuck up to the empty front row during intermission, sat on the edge of my seat, and felt like a queen when the actor playing Anne crouched down and waved to me after her bow. Cut to years of me wearing my hair in braids, devouring L.M. Montgomery’s book series. It’s no surprise that upon finishing the book series, the next story I was guided towards was Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women.
“It has been a gift to get to watch our senior students bring two of my favourite stories to life,” she said. “Every week, I’m astounded by their hard work, unique insights, and their ability to bring their full selves into the rehearsal room each day-wherever they are at and whatever they are feeling- and allow their full selves to shape the stories they are telling.”
Little Women’s second and final performance is tonight and will be followed by Anne & Gilbert, The Musical on Friday and Saturday.
Tickets available at theplayhouse.ca
Upcoming Performances:
Little Women | April 20 | 7 p.m.
Anne & Gilbert, The Musical | April 22 | 7 p.m.
Anne & Gilbert, The Musical | April 23 | 2 and 7 p.m.
