It's been a long time since residents sat in a theatre, and a local theatre company is preparing to welcome the community back with a new fundraising event.
All Together Now! is a music revue that features songs from some of the most popular Broadway musicals, including Les Misérables, Beauty & The Beast, Come From Away and many more. The event is being organized by Royal City Musical Productions Inc.
Created with free rights to use, the revue gives amateur theatre groups an opportunity to fundraise for themselves and financially recover from the pandemic.
Fiona Douglas, a production coordinator for the event, explains when board directors learned about the event, it was a 'no-brainer' for them to do the show.
“It’s the perfect opportunity to dip our toe back into live theatre after a hard time away from it during the pandemic,” she said.
Unlike past performances, multiple directors will be working on the show and performances will take place at the Fergus Grand Theatre from November 12 to 15.
“Our audiences don’t overlap too much,” said Douglas about the venue, “We’re excited to be in a new space.”
Currently, video auditions are taking place until September 5. Once the auditions are complete, the cast will be announced next week.
Like other events, safety measures will be implemented, including a COVID screening and vaccine mandate. There will also be no intermission during the show to minimize gathering.
“We can’t predict what will happen with government regulations,” said Douglas, “We have to be poised for anything to happen and for our plans to be uprooted.”
She mentions live theatre is one of the last things to go back to normal, so they will have to keep an open mind for any changes while keeping people safe when enjoying theatre.
“It produces a whole new set of challenges that as a producer I’ve never had to deal with before, so it’s definitely an interesting learning experience as well.”
Despite this, RCMPI is looking forward to having audiences join them later this year to help celebrate its history of being the premiere musical theatre company in Guelph for over 40 years.
“We’re excited to put this on for ourselves and the community,” said Douglas.
Right now, they are holding video auditions until September 5 and plan to announce the cast next week.
A limited number of tickets will be available for purchase at the Fergus Grand Theatre box office or online. To learn where to purchase tickets online, go to rcmpi.ca.
