Theatrix Youtheatre Society will be holding their first program in Langley-Aldergrove this spring.
In partnership with the Langley Arts Council, Theatrix will be running a production program out of the Kinsmen Aldergrove Centre on Saturday mornings.
Incoming artistic director of Theatrix, Lauren Hillman, said participation is for kids age six to 11 and they’ll be creating an original play from scratch.
“The play is currently, and temporarily, titled The Happiness Play and it will focus on themes of mental health, happiness, and the correlation between music and mood,” Hillman said. “We felt this was an important subject since it’s something everyone is struggling with after a year of isolation and lockdowns.”
Langley students will work with director Lauren Trotzuk each week, doing acting games that double as mental health activities like improvisations, journaling, mediation, visualization, and yoga.
The collaborative process and repeated improvisation will go into creating an original play that revolves around a child named Sam, who’s normally a cheerful child but today needs some serious cheering up.
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“Thankfully, Sam’s friends arrive and they know how to make her smile. As the students develop their story I expect they will rename the title of the play,” Hillman said.
The students will perform their one-act play on the last day of the program in Langley, but they will also join the tri-city cast, as well as the cast of Theatrix’s fall production of Human Like Me, in a performance part of a mini theatre festival called KidSpeak.
The plan for this event is currently June 19 at the Evergreen Cultural Centre in Coquitlam.
All performances are subject to possible changes due to COVID, but if live performances are not an option in June, the students will perform for a virtual audience who can live-stream from home.
“We expect that even if we can have an audience, the numbers will have to remain quite small so we will be live streaming the performance regardless, in order to bring the performance to as many people as possible,” Hillman explained. “Then a recording of the performance will also be made available afterward, for anyone who couldn’t see it live.”
The program is ten weeks long, two hours per week, and the fee is $275 – subsidies are available upon request.
People can find more information and register at theatrixyoutheatre.com/productions/the-happiness-play-langley.
“Our hope is that this program will be the beginning of a long relationship with the Langley Arts Council and that in future we’ll be able to offer various performing arts classes in Langley in addition to a production program,” Hillman said.
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