A New Westminster performer is in the spotlight this week with the newest Gotta Sing! Gotta Dance! production.
The musical theatre summer camp for youth, which is now celebrating its 25th anniversary, runs every year at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver.
Addison Jones-Ramos of New Westminster is in the ranks of this year’s performers, who range in age from nine to 19.
This year, the students will be strutting their stuff in a new show, Shamilton, written by camp director Perry Ehrlich. Shamilton features more than 30 songs from Broadway and movie musicals – Waitress, Hamilton, A Star is Born, Mary Poppins Returns, Candide – and popular songs by Queen, Gloria Estefan, and Sly and the Family Stone.
The storyline centres around a contest run by a TV station that offers free tickets to Hamilton for the first 10 people who call in. The winners expect to see the popular Broadway musical Hamilton – but instead find out they’ve won a trip to Hamilton, Ont.
The performance will give the young cast a chance to show off the skills they’ve acquired under the tutelage of a raft of musical theatre professionals – musical directors Wendy Stuart and Diane Spears, choreographers Jason Franco, Anna Kuman, Meghan Anderssen and Keri Minty, director Chris McGregor, acting coach and improv specialist Amanda Testini, and set construction and production team Mariana Munoz, Charlie Beaver and Brynna Drummond.
Shamilton is onstage at the Rothstein Theatre at the Jewish Community Centre, 950 West 41st Ave., Vancouver, on Wednesday, July 24 at 7:30 p.m., and Thursday, July 25 at 1 and 7:30 p.m.
Tickets for the show are $15 each and available through www.brownpapertickets.com.
For more on the summer camp, see www.gottasinggottadance.ca.
