The Flin Flon Community Choir and the Flin Flon Arts Council proudly present Les Misérables this weekend, May 1, 2 and 3 at the RH Channing Auditorium, and it will be amazing!
Over 100 people are involved in this show, counting actors, chorus, backstage crew and orchestra. Thirteen-hundred-and-fifty people have bought tickets to see it over its three-day run. That means about 27.5 per cent of Flin Flonners will participate in this arts event.
That is an incredible number. If even 25 per cent of Winnipeg citizens turned out for one event, they would need four MTS Centres to hold them all. Congratulations, Flin Flon.
The quality of the production of Les Mis promises to be the very best yet. Much of the credit for that goes to Ann Hodges, the director.
Ann is a graduate of the National Theatre School in Montreal, arguably Canada’s best theatrical training ground.
This is her first time working in community theatre but not her first time working with a large, non-professional cast.
Ann directed the opening ceremony for the North American Indigenous Games in 2002, which featured 1,102 participants. She has also worked extensively in opera, which usually requires many non-professional singers to be spear-carriers (extras).
She says it feels quite familiar to work with people who have day jobs, and she loves it.
When asked if it was challenging to cast the leading actors for this production, she said, “Yes and no. I didn’t know what to expect but I was delighted by the calibre of the people we saw. You only need one right person for each role to make it good.”
Rehearsals
Ann said she usually has a 3.5-week rehearsal schedule of seven-hour work days, six days a week, and the Flin Flon show had about the same – only it was spread out over four months and the work has been done in the evening.
She often knows she has a directing job about a year in advance, so she has an extended time to plan the staging, first in her head and eventually on paper.
That was also similar in Flin Flon as she had the whole play mapped out in two huge binders, complete with multiple tabs, at every rehearsal.
Ann will only be in Flin Flon until the day after opening night. She had just finished directing The Hound of the Baskervilles at Prairie Theatre Exchange (PTE) before coming north and has found out that it will be the touring production in Manitoba next winter.
It is a reimagining of a Sherlock Holmes story with only three actors. One plays seven different roles.
Ann says it is a very funny play. Stay tuned to this space for more info, as it will be coming to Flin Flon.
Ann is returning to her position as the artistic associate at PTE but is looking forward to her first summer off in many years.
Of course “off” is a relative term as she is directing Danny King of the Basement at Manitoba Theatre for Young People in the fall and Butcher, the second production of PTE’s next season, following that. She will leave behind a new level of professionalism in Flin Flon.
Calendar
May 1, 2 and 3: Les Misérables, RH Channing Auditorium
May 7: Readings from the Writers Guild at NorVA
May 8: Photo Club at NorVA
May 25: Home Routes Classical performance, A Night in Paris, with Haley Rempel on flute and Madeleine Hildebrandt on piano; RH Channing Auditorium
May 28: Drawing Club at NorVA
