It’s June – and RTC doesn’t exactly operate in June, July and August. Oh, we have a few upcoming events – we have our annual Stratford field trip coming up this weekend, and we’ll have our car wash fundraiser later on this summer. Our production crews will be working hard behind the scenes, preparing for the fall. But for all intents and purposes, Season 15 is a wrap.
What a season it has been! We started the season with 60 students enrolled in the programme, and we put them on stage three times, all of which were beautiful successes!
Christmas Around the World was a beautiful show with our 17 Juniors in December. In February, we put on Anne of Green Gables with our Senior Ensemble, to record attendance. And then, last month, we finished our season with a bang, bringing Seussical to the stage with the full cast, and oh, what a success that was! We set a NEW record for attendance with this one, and the reviews were wonderful! People couldn’t say enough about how much fun it was, how slick and entertaining the kids were, and how much our set and costumes just popped on that stage!
We’re very proud of our Seussical, and more grateful than we can say to everyone who helped make it not only possible, but extraordinary.
I really want to recognise how very far we’ve come. The kids probably thought Seussical was going to be good fun, but I doubt they realised how much work was going to have to go into it – the harmonies and vocal preparation alone were quite challenging. Jeff Gartshore, our Music Director, and Meredith Garswood, our Assistant Music Director, had them working on that weekly from September to May, and the results shone! Elena Holowitz, our Director and Choreographer, was accepted to a B.C. University part way through our season, leaving at the end of March, and it is a clear testament to her organization and hard work with the students that she had the entire show blocked and choreographed before she left. Assistant Director Caroline Garswood, and our dance captains, Kaylee Cabrera (also our Cat in the Hat) and Grace Clarkson (also our Thing One) stepped in with Crystal Benn, our Stage Manager, to make sure that her vision was fully realised, and that the Juniors were nicely incorporated once they rejoined us after their winter break.
And the audiences – how they came flooding in! We’ve never seen such strong attendance as we have this season. It’s been immensely gratifying to know that the Riverfront name is getting better and better known, and that people recognise that the kids can be trusted to give them a quality evening or afternoon of entertainment. And with every production, our waiting list grows by another several names, and more and more kids turn to their parents and say, “Hey, I want to do this, too!” We’ll do everything we can to make that possible for as many kids as we can next year, but I have to admit, we have a challenge, with the numbers on the list! We’re putting together a somewhat different plan to try to facilitate that next season, and we’ll be announcing that in full detail with another blog post before the end of June ( there is lots of info to be found in our “How to Join” section that will give hints away, though!).
Stay tuned for a few updates and pieces of news throughout the summer, and then watch for us coming back strong in September with fresh energy, some new faces, some new sponsorship, hopefully, and exciting new projects!
