It was a busy summer for Drury Lane Theatre. Not only were they busy preparing for their 2023-2024 season, but the company also completed a major capital upgrade project that includes LED lighting, body microphones, projection and other stagecraft to help enhance storytelling and the audience experience.
Rick MacKenzie, Director of Marketing for Drury Lane Theatre said these upgrades will help enhance storytelling in several ways. For example, the new LED lights can help to create a variety of moods, atmospheres and effects, from strong and powerful, to the softer and understated effects as well.
“If you can change the mood with colour or light and it’s so subtle that the audience doesn’t even know it’s affecting them then that’s really successful in our storytelling,” MacKenzie said.
The projector is an instrument capable of creating subtle and powerful effects, as it can project anything onto the set, and even to a specific part of the set. For example, if the director wanted to portray rain outside of a scene, they can project raindrops on a window on set. These are the kinds of details and subtle nuances with visuals this upgraded technology allows the creative team to incorporate in their musicals.
All of this, MacKenzie calls ‘stagecraft,’ a term used to describe the capabilities of this technology. These are tools in the toolbox that the directors have the option to use. “It’s about offering as many resources that allow directors' vision to come to life, so if you can offer them a tool that makes it easier or more subtly, that’s the philosophy,” he said.
Opening their new season, and the first musical that will benefit from elements of this enhanced stagecraft, is their opening production, The Sound of Music that will be followed by Aladdin: A Christmas Pantomime. MacKenzie said both shows are classics, appealing to friends and families of all ages, and a perfect way to celebrate the Holiday season, as The Sound of Music runs until the end of November.
While The Sound of Music is considered to be “the world’s most beloved musical” as it is fun and entertaining to watch, the topics covered are disconcertingly relevant for today. There are moral dilemmas faced by Maria and the VonTrapp family as the Nazi’s descend on their Austrian home, and expectations that each of us behave in a certain way, or pick a moral or political stance in today’s world, much like they had to in this musical set in 1938.
Director Lauren Shepherd says this in her director’s notes: “We find comfort in what we know. For some that is order and decorum. For others it is emotion, and freedom of expression. For still more, it’s all of it. Our characters consistently step out of "expectations" and deviate from "the norm", blurring those lines between decorum and freedom, expressing in public the thoughts and feelings they had previously kept private.”
Similarly, Aladdin, while also a fun and engaging story for kids and adults alike, presents its own moral dilemmas for our main character, as he must decide what he stands for. A poor street urchin who stumbles upon an opportunity to have everything he’s ever wanted, will he use his newfound wealth for good and for what is “right,” or will he simply enjoy his new life without a care in the world?
Aladdin: A Christmas Pantomime is presented in collaboration with the Aspects of Dance and will feature young performers from their musical theatre program. MacKenzie said this collaboration gives their adult performers a chance to perform with the talented young singers and dancers, with the result being an over-the-top performance that will be a blast for everyone.
He also said that cabaret tables in front of the stage have been replaced with mats so that toddlers and young children can sit right up front and become immersed in the experience. “It’s something that parents, grandparents and children can all go to… it is oriented to families bringing their kids, not that adults can’t enjoy it on their own, but part of the fun is bringing children to experience it with you.”
The Sound of Music runs November 3 – 26, 8 p.m. with 2 p.m. matinees on November 5, 12, 19 and 26.
Aladdin: A Christmas Pantomime runs December 8 – 17, 8 p.m., with 2p.m. matinees on December 9, 10, 16 and 17.
For more information or to purchase tickets online, visit drurylane.ca or call their box office at 905-637-3979. Visit their Facebook page to learn more!
