HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1987-04-29, Page 31Times -Advocate, April 29, 1987 Page 15A
DRESS REHEARSAL — Rehearsing for "A Chorus Line" which will be presented at SHDHS on May 7,
8 and 9 are (back left) Scott Fields, Jay Alblas. Dwayne Butler, Deb Homuth, Vern Iskauskas, Rob Hoff-
man, Trevor Cottrell and (centre) Patti Smith, Mandi Fields, Kim Hoffman, Corey Eddy, Brenda Balsdon.
Beth Sweeney, Teresa Van Raay and (front) Barb Ballantyne, Deb 'McCann, Melanie Lovell, Gail Little,
Kerain Mehagan and Laura Browne.
Cast of hit musical drawn from
A "Chorus Line" is coming to .Ex:
eter in May. A cast of 35, drawn from
the students and staff of SHIMS and
complemented by talented adults
from the surrounding community.
will act and sing and dance their way
through one of the most popular
musicals in theatre history, which
played on Broadway for a record 11
years.
Director -producer Deb Homuth
believes the production's appeal lies
in the strong script. The main story
line. threaded throughout with a
romantic sub -plot, results in some
highly dramatic moments..
Coping with competition is a univer-
sal theme, and could be set as easily
in a business office or a school as in
a dance troupe.
"At some time in our lives- we all
have to compete - for love, for promo-
tion, for survival. What these
characters say has as much to do with
real life as with dancing", Homuth ex-
plained. "The undercurrent of the
play tells us to do what we love doing
regardless of monetary rewards.
Young people think they have forever
to be happy, but 'A Chorus Line'
says it's better to do what you enjoy
from the beginning".
Homuth, who is the enrichment. in-
dependent study and special ed
teacher at SHDHS, admits to
heightened nervousness as opening
approaches. She didn't realize what
lay ahead when the thought occurred
a year ago that the school had not had
a theatrical production in some time.
Why not a musical to include the new
musical department.
"A Chorus Line" - the Broadway
and not the movie version -, was the
final choice after a summer spei l
reading scripts.
As there was not enough expertise
within the SHDHS population to han-
dle the music score, Homuth began
calling on musicians in the surroun-
ding area. Once the orchestra had
been opened up, Homuth decided to
extend the November auditioning call
out into the community too.
The. cast has been rehearsing at
least once a week since the begining
of January.- Homuth says working
with a group whose ages range from
15 to late :30s has been a pleasure. and
a learning 'experience for both
teenagers and adults. The young peo-
ple are picking up many tips on how
to conduct themselves from the
adults, while the adults contemplate
the unending energy of the teens with
envious awe.
Ilomuth and►
ec d►rector .Glenda
Burrell, the theatre arts teacher.
have successfully meshed their many
talents. Homuth created all the
choreography and Burrell coached -
the singing. Both have. poured their
drama' training into the shared task
of directing.
"Staging a fullscale Broadway
musical is a mammoth undertaking
Homuth reflected.
As producer she has worried about
tickets. programs. lighting, costumes,
publicity and the myriad of other
details that go into.a production of this.
size. - For the last few days Ilomuth has
been dealing with couriers. paper-
work and red tape trying to get the
costumes for the grand finale through
customs.
One of her biggest worries is
money.
'`We are dealing with thousands of
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dollars", she confessed.
Buying the rights to stage "A
Chorus Line" in a school for three
nights cost a rock -bottom $870. For-
tunately, the student council donated
$800 to cover most of this.
The costumes for the final show-
stopping scene have a $1,500 price tag.
They come from New York; Homuth
found that comparable outfits would
have cost twice as much to make or
buy in Canada.
About 40 local businessmen have
prepaid for ads in the printed pro-
gram, and Homuth is very grateful
for this support.
In the only sad note, the original
15 -member orchestra has dwindled to
three adults and two students.
The 'musical will be performed in
the little gym at SHDHS on May 7, 8
and 9. There will be only one perfor-
mance each night, as the production
lasts almost two hours and has no in-
termission. Only 250 can be seated for
each performance, and seating will be
a "first come, first served" basis.
The $4.50 tickets can be obtained at
SHDHS or at The Beat on Main St.
CFPL-TV reporter Janice Zolf will
be at one of the performances, and the
London Free Press has promised a
review by either Noel Gallagher or
Doug Bales. London director Paul
Hawley is coming, and a Stratford
director who requested anonymity
will be attending to see what is hap-
pening in amateur theatre.
Staff members in the cast are Den-
nis Nielsen, Deb McCann. Carey'Ed-
dy, Barb Ballantyne and Laura
1 Browne. Deb Homuth also has a
community
small part. -
Students taking part are Kerrin
Mehaghan, Marcie and Michelle
Ellison, Beth Sweeney. Kim
Crawford, Kim Redick. Ilea,aer
Westlake, Mandy Fields, Brenda
E3alsdon, Bobbi Joe Richards, Patti
Smith, Lori McNutt. Dwayne Butler.
Trevor Cottrell, John Farwell, Scott
Fields. Ron Steeper. Rob Hoffman.
Vern Iskauskas, Brent Bell and Jay-
Caers.
From the community have cane
Gail Little, Exeter: Annmarie Hoff-
man and Teresa Van Rimy,
Dashwood: Melanie Lovell. Kippen:
Liam Brennan, Grand Bend and Jay
Albas, Huron Park.
The cast includes twins, a brother
and sister and a mother and son.
.Homuth is keeping her fingers
crossed (hat all her work will come
• together perfectly once the curtain
goes"up on the actual performance.
As she scurries around tending to
final details. she has been heard mut-
tering under her breath. "Never
again. Never. never again:"
Her husband has asked her to put
that promise in writing. Ile -knows her
'well enough, to predict that when she
hears the applause acknowledging an
audience's appreciation of an ex-
cellent performance she will forget all
theworry and all the work. and start
planning the next SHDHS theatrical
production. •
7 ne cast has been asked to perform
a couple of dance numbers from "A
Chorus Line" during (he Winlario
show and draw to to held at the Huron
Country Playhouse on June 4.
Agency reviews programs begun in '86
Family and Children's Services of
Huron County, held its 76th annual
meeting on Wednesday. A new board
of directors was elected for the follow-
ing year.
They are: Jim Barnes of Morris
Township, Dorothy Coultes of
Belgrave, Roberta Kloss of
Brucefield, Graham McEwan of
Bayfield, Mike Park of Seaforth,
Peter Shephard of Goderich
Township, Carol Simons of Varna, Dr.
Art Steed of Clinton, Suzanne Symes
of Colborne.Township, Norm Tait of
Exeter, Paul Zurbrigg of Colborne
Township. -
The County representatives are
Warden Brian McBurney of Turn -
berry, Bill Mickle of Exeter, Allan
Gibson of Ashfield Township and
Doug Fraser of Morris Township.
The 1986 board president, Audrey
Royal. reminded us that as far back
as 1911 the first officer of the
Children's Aid Society said that "...
a great deal of preventive work can
be accomplished." A Community
Child Abuse position was initiated
along with the interdisciplinary child
abuse consultation team which along
with other programs will go a long
way in achieving this objective. Mrs.
Royal also reminded us that while we
have come a long way, to quote the
farsighted 1911 officer, "... there is a
great work for the society to do."
The Executive Director, John
Penn. in his report, outlined the many
changes which had taken place dur-
ing the year through both necessity
and innovation. Implementation of
the new Child and Family Services
Act, although responsible for.increas-
ed bureaucratic activity, also allow-
ed for new ways of counselling and
supporting families.
The readers write
To the editor:
I find it deplorable that our MPs are
supporting capital punishment!
Theseare the people we elected? ob-
viously this is an election ploy and a
very sick one that would feed some
people's lust for blood and that is all
, it is.
You- can sugar coat it with pious
statements about the cost of keeping
prisoners or getting revenge, but I
know that I would not give the lethal
injection or whatever means of kill-
ing them. Could you?
-Marj Hutchison
irMton
By MRS. HAROLD DAVIS
Flowers in St. Paul's Anglican
Churc i Sunday morning were placed
in loving memory of Bruce Swan of
St. Marys and Mrs. Edith Foley of
Tecumseh.' a former resident . of
Kirkton, by their families.
As a further result, 1986 saw the in-
troduction of new programs aimed at
both supporting families and preven-
ting the admission of children to care.
Included in these programs were two
training groups for parents of teens.
an after school program for
teenagers, a support group for young
mothers and their children and a
parent aide. All programs have pro-
ven quite popular, as well as suc-
cessful. He also reminded us that not
all programs are funded and Family
and Children's Services will need to
raise $52.000 to support these and
other activities.
. Judy Hiles spoke to the group pre-
sent about the S.T.E:P. (Systematic
Training for Effective Parenting(
Teen program and how informative
she found it as a parent of
adolescents.
Volunteer Elaine Osborne and
social worker Marianne Gibson talk-
ed about the Childreach program.
The highlight of the evening was a
Legion award poem on Remem-
brance Day. which won -the Legion's
Annual Literary Contest. as well as a
poem on being a foster child. Angie
Chisholm delivered her speech on
Family and Children's Services and
the value of volunteers. Miss
Chisholm is currently in first place in
the Ontario division of the Lion's
speech contest. •
The evening ended with the presen-
tation of flowers to the outgoing presi-
presentation of material by two dent by last year's vice-president.
students. Paul Speight . read=-his—Jim Barnes.
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