THUNDER BAY — Many students in remote Northwestern Ontario communities have never seen live theatre before, and Magnus Theatre intends to change that.
Magnus Theatre is beginning this year’s edition of its Theatre for Young Audiences Tour, which features three shows - each about 45 to 50 minutes and include actors Jack Kotanen, Emma Vickers and Ryan Horton.
The three touring shows include Head à Tête by David S Craig and Robert Morgan, for Kindergarten to Grade 3, Land of Trash by Ian Tamblyn, for Grades 4 to 8, and The Code by Rachel Aberle, for Grades 9 to 12.
“We're going farther, we're reaching more students, more remote communities, and really trying to bring the magic of live theatre to as many people as possible,” said Jordan Blaxill, theatre and education director at Magnus Theatre.
Stage manager Elizabeth Schieman will be travelling with the three actors, and ensuring smooth performances at every stop.
“We're doing three shows, each for different age ranges. Three very impactful stories dealing with lots of really current issues,” Blaxill said.
“The opportunity to take those out into the region, and connect with young people about these issues, I just think it's super important,” he added.
Blaxill said it means a lot to be able to put the tour on.
“We're going to places where the students there will have never seen any live theatre before. We're bringing that to them and hopefully inspiring the next generation of young theatre makers, young directors, young actors, to take up theatre and try and explore a career in the arts and also just to enjoy the stories that we're telling.”
There will be 47 different performances at 26 schools across five weeks, Blaxill said.
“We're also going as far west as Kenora. We're going as far east as Wawa. We're also going to the fly-in community of Marten Falls, which is the first time we've done something like that for a long time.
“We're travelling hundreds of kilometres east, west and north.”
Thinking small is helpful when embarking on something like this, Blaxill said.
“We have three actors and a stage manager. The three actors perform the three shows that we're doing in what's called reps, so they each play different characters in each of the different plays.
“We're keeping it small on a cast perspective, but also making sure that everything that we have, all the set props, costumes can basically fit down and condense into the back of a van. We just load up the van, make sure everything fits in nice and smoothly, and then hit the road,” he said.
Magnus Theatre will also present the shows in Thunder Bay on May 8 and 9.
Tickets are $10 each and available online.
