Brown Stub Productions Presents Musical Short Film BEFORE THEY WERE THEM

'BEFORE THEY WERE THEM' might only have a four-minute running time, but the project has been a labour-of-love years in the making. The Canadian Music Theatre Project launched at Sheridan College in 2011. Working together that year in the original workshop cast of 'Come From Away' were the now producing-and-directing duo Curtis Brown and Jake Foy. In July of 2015, the CMTP hosted students from the Shanghai Theatre Academy as part of its fostering of Canada's impact on the global music theatre landscape. That summer, the original song "Before They Were Them" with music and lyrics by Kevin Wong was recorded for the first time with vocals by the soon-to-be Dora-Nominated, Arinea Hermans.

Watch the musical short below!

Between Brown's mainstage engagements with Royal Caribbean and Foy's appearances on film and television, the friends-from-college kept correspondence over the years. In the spring of 2018, Foy was hired to direct a production of a 1980s Broadway comedy for the Highlands Summer Festival, wherein Brown was hired to be featured as an actor. While in rehearsals for the show, the young men found themselves brainstorming ways to bring their love of cinema and music theatre to new heights in a way that was uniquely their own. The question was: where to begin? Months passed and new contracts delayed their efforts. Material seemed impossible to find, until Brown wrote to Foy from the middle of the Caribbean. "I said it has to be the right thing - and I think this is it. Let me know what you think?" Enclosed with that message would be Wong's recording of Hermans' stunning vocal. The same voice that now soars throughout Brown Stub's inaugural production.

Helmed by executive producer Curtis Brown, and established in 2019, Brown Stub Productions is committed to developing captivating musical works for the stage and screen. The first of which being 'BEFORE THEY WERE THEM: a musical short film.' The story is adapted for the screen by its director and brought to life with stunning cinematography by Director of Photography and fellow Sheridan College graduate, Adam Griffiths. The production was supported by associate and line producers Nicolas La Traverse and Alison Almeida. Key special thanks in production include producing heavy-hitters Michael Rubinoff and Anne-Marie La Traverse among others. Full cast and creative information is available via IMDb and the film itself can be viewed in full cinematic 4K via YouTube! With over three-thousand views within a week of its release, the movie-musical has a bright future in the hands of this proudly Canadian pair.

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