Company on cue for classics revue

August 10, 2023 BY Tim Bottams

Stage-ready: Intermediate and senior students with the Ballarat Centre of Music and the Arts prepared for the company’s upcoming production of Imagine This with a dress rehearsal on Tuesday. Photo: TIM BOTTAMS

ONE of Ballarat’s premier musical theatre companies for young people is showcasing their intermediate and senior students this weekend with a compilation of old and new works.

Hosted by members of the Ballarat Centre of Music and the Arts, the production, called Imagine This, will feature 18 songs dating between 2023 releases to as far back as the 1950s.

The show’s producer, and music and choral director Paula Heenan said it’ll be an exploration of different theatrical styles for the students.

“A lot of these kids have been in a lot of theatre productions and we wanted to explore the variety of musicals available to them,” she said.

“It’s about teaching them about old-fashioned musicals to contemporary musicals and the different styles involved in that.

“It’s also a great way to pick the best songs from every show that we’ve wanted to do.

“Some of our seniors will have done some of these songs before so it’s a loving revisit for them as well.”

The production will showcase 40 of the company’s intermediate musical theatre and musical theatre extension performers.

Peppered with brief solo monologues, the show will include classic one-offs from productions like Ride the Cyclone, A Chorus Line, Sunday in the Park with George, and The Pirates of Penzance.

Student, Isla has been with BCMA for a decade and will play Sylvia in the production’s excerpt of Finding Neverland.

She said Imagine This will be a great showcase of the students’ versatility.

“It shows lots of different aspects of theatre and lots of different songs with different emotions and stories behind it with different and unique people,” she said.

“My character has this more motherly role. She’s a very sweet character who projects a lot of love. I’ll have a solo song called All That Matters that ends act one.”

Imagine This will be held at Mount Clear College’s Gay E Gough Theatre this Saturday at 7pm followed by a matinee the following day at 2pm.

Tickets range between $10 and $30 and can be booked at bit.ly/3QuGKeO.