GUELPH/ERAMOSA – Young, local talent will be featured in an upcoming performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s award winning musical School of Rock.
The show is produced by Royal City Musical Productions Inc. (RCMPI) and will be on stage at the River Run Centre in Guelph from Nov. 19 to 23.
Based on the movie, the play follows Dewey Finn, a wannabe rock star who poses as a substitute teacher at a prestigious prep school.
“There he turns a class of straight-A students into a guitar shredding, bass-slapping, mind-blowing rock band – sensationally performed live by the production’s young actors every night with roof-raising energy,” RCMPI officials state.
The cast, which includes youth and adults, rehearses at Lakeside Church in Guelph/Eramosa three times a week.
Music director Ana Maria Rajcan said “the talent in this show is truly amazing” including some “real prodigies,” such as Fergus teen Chiara Pavone.
Pavone will demonstrate her new bass playing skills, singing, dancing and acting on stage as she performs as Katie Travis in the musical.
The Grade 10 Centre Wellington District High School student learned bass for the role, though she’s no stranger to music, with a background including singing, guitar and piano.
Pavone said it was thanks to support from her dad, Mike Pavone, that she was able to quickly learn bass before auditioning for the musical.
Pavone said RCMPI provided all the music for the show before rehearsals began, so she began practicing at home all the time. As an unplugged bass is quiet, she could practice even when her younger sisters were sleeping.
Pavone said while she’s “a singer first and foremost,” she’s practiced enough now that she’s able to play bass. Her next goal is to be able to play with enough comfort to add in some flair – like a hair flip here and there or dancing around the stage.
Pavone is excited about her character’s sassy energy – “because that’s me,” she told the Advertiser as she sat outside the rehearsal room in the church on a snowy Sunday afternoon.
She said the character has a lot of stage time but not a lot of lines, so she wanted to go “big” with the lines she does have.
Her favourite line comes when Dewey is trying to encourage the students to release some of their anger by yelling something out that frustrates them – so they can harness that rage during their performance of the song Stick it to the Man.
The students are unsure and hesitate, until Pavone’s character yells out “being overscheduled!”
Pavone’s favourite song to perform is If Only You Would Listen, a soft rock ballad that comes just after the students realize Dewy is not a real teacher.
Pavone said there’s good energy and camaraderie during the rehearsals, with lots of giggling and building rapport between the actors.
Rajcan added the show provides a good opportunity for intergenerational friendships, as there are adult actors as well as youth.
“It’s nice to have role models to put everybody else at ease,” Pavone said.
She said she loves the cast and is grateful that she has the opportunity to participate in community theatre, noting her friends in other places often say they wish they had something similar close to home.
For showtimes and tickets visit riverrun.ca/whats-on/school-of-rock-the-musical/.
