MYTP to stage Dr. Doolittle JR. starting Thursday
Antelopes will lope, kangaroos will jump, polar bears will wear top hats, leopards with spots will wear spats and hyenas will laugh when students from Milton Youth Theatre Production present Doctor Dolittle JR. beginning Thursday.
Doctor Dolittle JR. will be on stage at the Milton Centre for the Arts’ Mattamy Theatre Thursday Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and a Saturday matinee at 2.
The cast consists of members ranging in age from 4 to 13 years, who will showcase their talents through singing, acting and dancing. Some 140 children make up four full casts this season. Most of the youth are from Milton, but some travel from Georgetown, Erin, Guelph and Oakville.
Directed by Brooke Belvedere and Katie Preisner, the play will also be presented to local school children this week.
Directors said the play features talented and enthusiastic youth.
“We cannot thank them enough for their hard work and perseverance. We can only share our ideas and love for the theatre in hopes that it will inspire the young actors to follow along bringing their own creative differences,” said Preisner and Belvedere. “As a team we are so excited to be able to share with you our production.”
The whimsical musical follows the adventures of a small-town doctor in Victorian England, who uses his special gift of being able to talk with animals to learn more about the world. Doctor Dolittle JR. is part of the Music Theatre International (MTI) Broadway Junior Collection, which is a special collection of musicals for younger performers, which includes junior titles, 60-minute musicals for performance by elementary school children.
“In this musical, Doctor Dolittle becomes the world’s greatest animal doctor by learning how to speak the thousands of different dialects of creatures,” said MTI CEO Freddie Gershon.
“This ability to connect and communicate sets him off on a fantastic life adventure. “Similarly, through the common ‘language’ of this musical theatre production, students with a wide range of interests and backgrounds are working as a team to create something together. We hope their audience outnumbers all the animals in the animal kingdom.”
Featuring a book, music and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse, Doctor Dolittle JR. is based on the Doctor Dolittle stories by Hugh Lofting and also on the Twentieth Century Fox film starring Rex Harrison, which won Academy Awards for Best Original Song and Best Visual Effects and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.
The musical follows Dr. John Dolittle, who’s loved by everyone in his western England fishing village community, Puddle-By-The-Sea. After a particularly unsuccessful appointment with a not-so-friendly General Bellowes, Dr. Dolittle realizes his calling and vows to become an animal doctor.
With the help of a wise parrot named Polynesia, Dr. Dolittle begins to learn how to speak to animals. Five years later, Dr. Dolittle has learned almost 500 animal languages, has a thriving practice and is planning a grand adventure to seek out the oldest and wisest creature ever to inhabit the Earth: the great pink sea snail.
However, through the course of fundraising, Dr. Dolittle makes good on a promise to help a seal escape the circus and reunite with her husband. This act of friendship lands Dr. Dolittle in court and eventually in an asylum. Dr. Dolittle must find a way to free himself so that he may find the great pink sea snail and gain a greater understanding of the world and its inhabitants.
Tickets cost $20 for adults, $17 for seniors and students and $15 for children under 12. Go to http://www.miltoncentreforthearts.ca.
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Detail Link :
http://www.insidehalton.com/news-story/5634414-young-milton-performers-to-bark-caw-roar-and-meow-through-production/