On January 20th, 2011 a new theatre group was born in Toronto in the form of Theatre 20. They are an artist led theatre company formed to present story driven musicals by developing new Canadian works and by re-imaginging existing repertoire. BWW reported earlier this week that Broadway legend Colm Wilkinson would be announced as one of the founding members, and we are pleased to confirm that Mr. Wilkinson was in fact in attendance as his colleagues were unveiled.
Theatre 20 is an exciting new venture for Toronto (and Canada), as it will be the first group of its kind dedicated exclusively to the production of musicals. This will allow our amazing Canadian talent to be showcased and hopefully also bring back some long-forgotten musical treasures.
As previously reported the first project the group will be involved in is a production of "Sisters" - a translation of the popular Montreal hit "Les Belles Soeurs". At the launch, Louise Pitre led the 15 women of "Sisters" in a live performance of one of the numbers from the show which seemed to delight the audience.
The launch ended with the introduction of the founding members by Artistic Director Adam Brazier, and culminated in a beautiful performance of Stephen Sondheim's song "Sunday" from "Sunday in the Park with George". Towards the end of the performance, the first several rows of the theatre stood up from the darkness and joined in the song. It was a beautiful moment as the founding members of Theatre 20 blended with students from The Randolph Academy for the Peforming Arts and showed just how effective our musical theatre talent is when they work together. The audience was visibly blown away by the calibre and quality of the performance.
Theatre 20 will consist of (in alphabetical order): Tamara Bernier Evans, Adam Brazier (Artistic Director), Evan Buliung, Brent Carver, Dan Chameroy, Juan Chioran, Ma Anne Dionisio, Susan Gilmour, David Keeley, Rosie Shaw (General Manager), Trish Lindstrom, Nora McLellan, Steven Sutcliffe, Louise Pitre, Colm Wilkinson, Eliza Jane Scott and Carly Street.
For more information please visit their official website at www.theatre20.com
All photos by Racheal McCaig Photography
