Tag Archives: Susan Henley

News Flash

Lucas Gets Gilbert Role

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Festival Casting: Connor Lucas To Play Gilbert Blythe

Shawn Wright & Susan Henley to reprise roles in Anne of Green Gables—The Musical™ alongside Emma Rudy & Lucas

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Artistic Director Adam Brazier has announced select casting for the 55th consecutive season ofAnne of Green Gables—The Musical™.

Connor Lucas will return to The Charlottetown Festival this summer, making his debut as Anne’s academic rival and would-be beau, ‘Gilbert Blythe’. Lucas and his ‘Anne Shirley’ counterpart, Emma Rudy will also both appear in the Festival’s productions of Kronborg—The Hamlet Rock Musical and Mamma Mia! this summer.

Hailing from Comox Valley B.C. Lucas first debuted at the Festival as part of the TD Confederation Centre Young Company. In 2017 he made the jump to the mainstage as ‘Moody’ in Anne™ as well as originating the role of ‘Ivan’ in the world premiere of A Misfortune at The Mack.

For his part, the Sheridan College grad can’t wait to return to P.E.I. “Having the opportunity to play Gilbert has been a dream of mine ever since first performing in the Young Company five years ago. I am so grateful to now have the chance to explore the role as part of such a fabulous company, in a terrific show, on a beautiful Island.”

Also returning to Avonlea under Brazier’s direction will be Shawn Wright and Susan Henley, who drew accolades last summer for their portrayals of Anne’s guardians, ‘Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert’. Wright also turned heads with the 2018 Festival staging of his award-winning one-man show Ghost Light. For her part, Henley will carry leading roles on opposite ends of the theatre spectrum, returning for her third season as Marilla, and also taking it up the octave as ‘Rosie’ in Mamma Mia!

Sponsored by CAA, Anne™ previews in the Homburg Theatre on June 24 and 25, opening June 29 and playing through September 28, 2019. With a company of 28 amazing Canadian talents and a 14-member live orchestra, this treasured Canadian musical is a humorous, touching, and truly athletic experience that will inspire and mesmerize patrons of all ages with both graceful and exhilarating song and dance.

This 2019 staging is led by Brazier, Music Director Bob Foster; Choreographer Robin Calvert; Associate Music Director David Theriault; Costume & Scenic Designer Cory Sincennes; Lighting Designer Michael Walton; Sound Designer Peter McBoyle; and Conductor Craig Fair.

Confederation Centre wishes to acknowledge the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Government of P.E.I., and the City of Charlottetown for their continued support.  The title sponsor of The Charlottetown Festival is CIBC.

PEI Professional Theatre Network

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PEI Theatre is the Guild, Harbourfront Theatre,
Confederation Centre for the Arts,
Watermark Theatre, and the Victoria Playhouse
News Flash

The New Anne Cast on Board the New Anne

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Festival Casting: Full Company announced for 2017 Anne™ Revival
George Masswohl to play Matthew, Susan Henley as Marilla; Josée Boudreau as Miss Stacey
 
Complete casting has been announced for Anne of Green Gables—The Musical™ at The Charlottetown Festival. The Adam Brazier-directed production is undergoing a major three-year revival, with new sets, costumes, sound design, even a new Green Gables house, and many more surprises to be unveiled over the next three summers. 
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The 2017 cast is anchored by AJ Bridel as Anne Shirley, with PEI’s Aaron Hastelow as her foil and sometimes love interest, Gilbert Blythe. Joining them as Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert are George Masswohl and Susan Henley. Other leads include Josée Boudreau as Miss Stacey, Marlane O’Brien as Rachel Lynde, Katie Kerr as Diana Barry, and newcomer to the Festival, Kelsey Falconer as Josie Pye. 
 
Sponsored by RE/MAX Charlottetown, the internationally acclaimed musical opens its 53rd season on June 26 in the Homburg Theatre. The Charlottetown Festival is sponsored by CIBC.
 
Masswohl is a five-time Dora Award nominee and a regular at Stratford and Shaw Festivals. He has performed across Canada with his baritone trio, BRAVŪRA, and returns to Charlottetown after performing in Johnny Belinda in 1998. “I am very happy to be returning. I can’t wait to walk the same streets and tread the same boards as the many great actors who have played Matthew before me,” he remarks. 
 
“P.E.I. carries great significance in my life,” he continues. “My mother – another Anne with an E – as a girl, was so transported by L.M. Montgomery’s work that she took her first opportunity to emigrate from Scotland to Canada. She wouldn’t set foot on the island of her dreams until that summer I was at the Festival. I’m hoping she’ll be able to make the trip this season. It would be a great honour to bring Matthew to life in her presence.”
 
Henley returns to the Festival following turns in Spoon River, Evangeline, Canada ROCKS! and as Mrs. Lynde inAnne of Green Gables—The Musical™. The Saskatchewan native has performed in all major theatres across Canada and the United States, including three seasons at Stratford.
 
Additional casting includes Festival returnees: Eric Dahlinger, Robbie Graham-Kuntz, Stephen Guy-McGrath, Alana Hibbert, Melissa Kramer, Connor Lucas, Julain Molnar, Jamie Murray, Melanie Phillipson, Kristen Pottle, Adam Sergison, and Alicia Toner. Newcomers to this theatre include: Evan Taylor Benyacar, Greg Gale, Matthew Lawrence, Nicole Norsworthy, and Ashley St. John.
News Flash

A Night to Remember

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You were amazed by their stellar performances this summer as actors, dancers, and musicians in Spoon River, Mamma Mia!, Anne of Green Gables–The Musical™, Glenda’s Kitchen, and the Centre’s youth troupes. Now, The Charlottetown Festival Company and Confederation Centre staff invite you for a fun-filled night of music, laughter, and fellowship — the 40th Annual Maud Whitmore Benefit Concert

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This Sunday, August 21 at 7:30 p.m. in the Homburg Theatre, the staff, cast, and crew will volunteer their talents to raise money from ticket sales for the Maud Whitmore Scholarship Fund. These scholarships assist selected performers, designers, musicians – both emerging and established – in achieving proposed professional goals, such as new artistic training or workshops.

The show will be hosted by beloved Festival veteran, Glenda Landry, who played in countless Festival productions and for many years played the role of Diana Barry. Some of the performances slated this year (no Anne™ pun intended) include P.E.I.’s Aaron Hastelow singing a medley of Fleetwood Mack tunes, Susan Henley (Spoon River) delivering her rendition of ‘Both Sides Now’ by Joni Mitchell, the Confederation Players and the Confederation Brass coming together for a short selection of Victorian standards, Mamma Mia! and Anne™ company member, Josh Doig performing his own choreography to an Alanis Morissette song, and much more.

Tickets for the 40th annual Maud Whitmore Benefit Concert cost $20 and are available at the Confederation Centre Box Office at 1(800) 565-0278 or at charlottetownfestival.com.

Last year, the Roddy Diamond Scholarship for a focus in technical theatre or stage management was awarded to Seren Lannon, company manager for the Young Company in 2015 and 2016. “Through winning the Maude Scholarship,” says Lannon, “I was able to spend a weekend in NYC receiving training from top-notch Broadway Stage Managers, and learn first-hand what it would be like to work at the Gershwin Theatre. It was an experience that was invaluable from a career perspective. Had I not won the scholarship, I would never have been able to afford to go, and I could not be more grateful.”

The concert is named after the late Maud Whitmore, a veteran Canadian actor, who endeared herself to audiences from 1965-1977 at the Festival in Anne of Green Gables–The Musical™. Her years of commanding performances inspired many to enter into careers in the musical theatre industry.

On Stage

Cast of Spoon River Surfaces

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Confederation Centre will play host to one of the most celebrated new musicals in Canada this summer. Today, the Centre announced an impressive 11-member ensemble for Spoon River, a mystical, musical celebration of life, co-produced by Soulpepper Theatre Company and The Charlottetown Festival.

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Playing The Mack cabaret theatre from July 6 to August 20, this uplifting hootenanny is composed and adapted by Charlottetown’s own Mike Ross and directed by Albert Schultz. The cast features a who’s who of Canadian musical theatre, including eight Charlottetown Festival veterans. They are:

Alana Bridgewater – Hairspray, Mirvish’s We Will Rock You, Gemini-nominated vocalist

Matt Campbell – lead in The Full Monty and Hockey Mom, Hockey Dad, Canada ROCKS!

Jonathan Ellul – Forever Plaid, King Lear and Oklahoma! at Stratford Festival

Susan Henley – ‘Rachel Lynde’ in Anne of Green Gables—The Musical, Evangeline, Hairspray! 1st U.S. National tour

Amanda LeBlanc – lead in Dear Johnny Deere, 2016 National Arts Centre Ensemble

Mary Francis Moore – co-writer of Bittergirl and Bittergirl-The Musical, lead in TPM’s The Thing Between Us

Alicia Toner – Evangeline, lead in the Centre’s Cinderella, Mirvish’s Once

Sandy Winsby – four seasons as ‘Matthew’ in Anne, Jesus Christ Superstar on Broadway, Mirvish’s Kinky Boots

The ensemble also features three Soulpepper Theatre Company regulars marking their first performances with Charlottetown:

Richard Lam – Spoon River world premiere, The Crucible and Of Human Bondage

Brendan Wall – Spoon River world premiere, War Horse for Mirvish and London’s West End,  Mirvish’s Once

Daniel Williston – Soulpepper’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Death of a Salesman, Mirvish’s Kinky Boots

Based on the seminal Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters, townsfolk of long ago are brought to life in this dream-like production whose soundtrack calls to mind the music of O Brother, Where Art Thou?. Spoon River’s residents raise their voices in song in an immersive portrait of early 20th-century rural life. The production won the 2015 Dora Award for Outstanding New Musical as well as the 2015 Toronto Theatre Critics’ Association Award for Best Musical.

Mike Ross is thrilled to bring this production to his home province. “Spoon River is a show dear to my heart, and I think that Charlottetown is the perfect place to tell these incredible stories about small town living, and love and loss,” he said. “I know this very talented cast will make the show an unforgettable musical and theatrical experience this summer.”