Nelson actress Elizabeth Barrett just completed her second year of theatre school at Studio 58 in Vancouver, and this week she’s set to show off what she’s learned alongside Sarah Jane Hicks, Gabriel Macdonald and Quinn Barron, aka Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.
“We’ve all been talking about how nice it is to come back home to Nelson and be able to work on what we want to be working on, because it’s so hard to find this kind of work in the city,” said Barrett, who will be taking the stage on Thursday in Comedy Bouquet.
“It’s amazing for us all to be able to come back together.”
All four of the cast members have either graduated, are partway through or plan to attend post-secondary theatre school—and they’ve known each other for a decade. Hicks is at UBC, while Macdonald went to the Canadian College of the Performing Arts. Barron, meanwhile, plans to apply for theatre school in New York.
“Much like flowers, we’ve got a lot of different types of comedy. It’s a hand-picked bunch of hilarity tied up in song,” said Barrett. “I think it’s a hoot.”
Macdonald said the show is a change of pace for him.
“It’s a step out of my usual thing, which is power ballads, and much of the stuff happening here is up-tempo. It’s definitely a feel good show.”
Barrett said the intro and outro numbers are particularly bombastic, but didn’t want to give away more. The show is written by multiple playwrights and consists of scenes, monologues and songs thrown together at random—giving the quartet an opportunity to showcase their multi-faced talents.
Barron said he barely took a break between finishing Joseph at the Capitol and throwing himself into the new rehearsals.
“I avoided the low after Joseph by getting into this right show. It’s such a privilege to work with these three,” he said.
The show is directed by Richard Rowberry and will be accompanied by Karen Livingston.
The TNT Playhouse show, which is part of the Nelson Summer Theatre Festival, runs from Aug. 4 to 7 at 8 p.m.
Hicks’ dog Coco is rumoured to be making an appearance.