For the 50th anniversary show from Peacock Collegiate's musical theatre program, students are excited to present the classic stage musical Mary Poppins, but with a new twist on opening weekend.
Due to the ongoing public health restrictions, this year’s show will be debuting online by video, which means audiences will be tuning in from home rather than from their seats in the Centennial Auditorium to watch a filmed performance.
“We thought that (Mary Poppins) fit our cast,” said musical director Cameron Church. “We felt it really matched the people we thought would be around to do the show and that it would be a great way to celebrate 50 years of musicals.”
Mary Poppins will premiere on Feb. 12 at 12:45 p.m., before returning for repeat performances on Feb. 15 and Feb. 20 at 7 p.m. Tickets — or rather, direct links to the online stream — to the show are entirely free this year, in celebration of the program’s 50th anniversary.
Church was joined by director Ray Deans, choreographer Jennifer Temple and producer Dustin Swanson to make the show happen this year, as the filming process presented a whole new experience for the theatre program.
Adjusting to the process of filming a live performance was a big challenge for the students, but one they were happy to take on in order to put on the annual show. (supplied)Students have been hard at work throughout the fall, said Church, taking extra care to adhere to the public health restrictions in order to keep the production process as safe as possible. All of their preparations and rehearsals took place during in-class hours rather than as an after-school program, or even at home. Limits on how many people can be on stage, mandatory mask requirements and a crash course in filming live theatre also offered some big challenges.
“None of us have ever made a movie before (but) we have done lots of musicals,” said Church.
The show was filmed scene by scene, said Church, and cast members even pre-recorded the vocals for their musical numbers this year, to minimize the risks of performing onstage — which he felt was an interesting experience that may make its way into future years of the program.
Overall, it was an interesting process to make the switch from live theatre to filmed theatre, said Church, but there were a few benefits to the new format.
“In many regards, it's actually very similar [to a live show]. The students are on stage and they’re in a nice wide shot like you would see sitting in the auditorium, but the opportunity with more cameras and being able to zoom in is that now you get to really see the expression on the kids’ faces, in the eyes,” said Church. “And that’s the life of the character, is in the eyes, when you see that sparkle of joy moment or the pain and frustration or sadness, whatever the emotion is — now, you can see that nice and close.”
Despite the unusual process this year, Church said the cast is very excited to be able to put on a show — especially for the 50th anniversary of the program.
“It's really important for these kids who identify as artists (to be able to) release some of their creative energies, and so we wanted to do something,” said Church. “This was a pretty monster idea, a huge task, and we’re so thankful for our music parents and administrators who were so supportive and helped us navigate those problems.”
To watch any of the upcoming showings of Peacock’s Mary Poppins, audiences need to head online to ShowTix4U.com, select their preferred show date in advance and submit a ticket request to receive the show’s streaming link.
