Online intermission: Saskatchewan performers go online to sing

For once, the show really must not go on.

But as curtains closed on stages across the world for an indefinite intermission due to COVID-19, performers of all ages and abilities have turned their creative talents to the Internet.

Regina kids involved in the Do It With Class Young People’s Theatre (DIWC) were able to close their season with Matilda: The Musical, which wrapped up just before the province shut down everything.

With many of his students preparing solos for the music festival that was cancelled, DIWC director Rob Ursan started producing a Homebound Concert Series on YouTube.

Ursan said DIWC students often feel like their own little family and he thought sharing their solo videos in a combined video would be a wonderful way to keep the kids in touch with each other.

“It’s wonderful for them. It gives them an opportunity to say, ‘I am a performer in my own right and here’s my addition to the company’, which I think is really, really marvelous,” Ursan said.

So far, Ursan said, the students have been clamouring to jump on board with the worldwide trend of amateur and professional musicians performing from their own homes online.

“Those sorts of things are absolutely brilliant just to show people that the arts do fulfil us, the arts have a purpose. Especially in times like this, we can be joined together emotionally and we can be joined together just by the mere act of sharing part of ourselves with other people,” Ursan said.

The Homebound Concerts on YouTube have also offered the opportunity to invite DIWC alumni to share their own performances.

Mayson Sonntag joined in on one video; home from theatre school in New York City, he had recovered from his own fight with COVID-19.

Ursan even reached out to former DIWC student and current Broadway star Paul Nolan, who is currently quarantined with his wife on the family farm in Rouleau. Nolan said yes to tagging his own music video onto the end of the first concert.

“He spent some time online in a huge Zoom gathering where the kids from DIWC were able to talk to him and ask him questions about the business and about his training and the shows that he loves,” Ursan said.

“He is such a wonderful and incredibly sharing person and this is one of the things that I have always loved about DIWC is this feeling that people want to be able to come back and share their experiences.”

Community theatre season cancelled or postponed

When the COVID-19 outbreak first hit Saskatchewan, several community theatre groups were in the midst of rehearsals or planning auditions for spring shows.

The non-profit arts groups had to pivot quickly to end their seasons and request extensions from theatres that were already booked as well as companies that sell them the copyrights to do shows which are worth thousands of dollars.

Shanna-Marie Jones is the artistic director and founder of Sterling Productions in Regina. It chose to postpone the production of Legally Blonde: The Musical originally set to open on March 25.

Photos from Sterling Productions’ Legally Blonde: the Musical taken before the show was postponed in late March. (Darrol Hofmeister, Sharpshooter Photography/Submitted)

“It’s a lot of uncertainty unfortunately, but there is a bit of a strange solace in knowing it’s not just happening to us, it’s universal,” Jones said.

After investing money and a lot of time into costumes, props and rehearsals, Sterling was able to book the theatre for later dates in July. But Jones knows that is not a guarantee.

“Nothing is a guarantee, so we’re just kind of unfortunately waiting day by day,” Jones said. “We are still rehearsing digitally, we’re using Zoom to rehearse and keep things fresh the best that we can.

“It’s a wild, wild new time for us, but we’re doing our best and when we do get to mount (the production) I think everyone will just be really excited about it. It’s just a matter of when.”

Jones explained a major reason why Sterling decided to keep rehearsals going in an online video format was to offer performers a creative outlet during a difficult time.

“It provides people with something to focus on and that’s really what community theatre is anyways. It’s a bunch of people who are getting together and doing something that they love as an escape or an expression of the creativity that their day job doesn’t allow them to do,” Jones said.

She noted how virtual Zoom rehearsals seem to be a positive point in the week for many performers in the group to reconnect with each other, listen to and sing great music and even move their bodies.

“We literally have people pushing coffee tables and couches out of the way and they’re doing choreography with a camera so we can see and clean choreo,” Jones explained. “So it’s a whole new experience, but in a weird way they’re still getting to be close with each other.”

Regina Lyric Musical Theatre cancelled Little Women which was set for May, but has been allowed to retain the copyright with the hope of reuniting the cast for next spring.

Regina Summer Stage also cancelled The Little Mermaid set for July, but the company is planning auditions to stage that musical next summer.

So while curtains may be closed on stages for now, the Regina theatre community continues to show resilience and offer a bit of hope that the show will go on again someday.