The talent of Sheridan graduates will be in full force on stage and behind the scenes when the Stratford Festival opens its 2016 season today. Twenty-one music theatre alumni and one third-year student are part of the cast and creative teams of 10 productions slated for this year.
Among the alumni who landed roles in productions this season, a record 12 graduates plus a third-year student are performing in the Festival's headline musical, A Chorus Line. That number represents more than a third of the cast of the classic musical which opens today. Most of the alumni performers are appearing in more than one play throughout the Stratford Festival's 2016 season. In addition to their roles in A Chorus Line, alumni will perform in The Hypochondriac, A Little Night Music, As You Like It, Shakespeare in Love, and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Graduates will also act as powerhouses behind the curtain, with five alumni of Sheridan's technical production program joining the creative teams of nine plays in this season's line-up: The Aeneid, A Chorus Line, Breath of Kings: Rebellion, Bunny, A Little Night Music, As You Like It, Shakespeare in Love, and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Congratulations to the following Sheridan graduates and current student who are part of the 2016 Stratford Festival season: Kimberly Brown (2006), Colton Curtis (2015), JJ Gerber (2015), Alexandra Herzog (2010), Robin Hutton (1993), Holly Korhonen (1999), Bethany Kovarik (2010), Caitlin Luxford (2006), Ayrin Mackie (2000), Allison McCaughey (2004), Jocelyn McDowell (2013), Julia McLellan (2012), Reid McTavish (third-year student), Nicholas Nesbitt (2011), Matt Nethersole (2013), Trevor Patt (2013), Stephen Patterson (1993), Jennifer Rider-Shaw (2009), Melissa Rood (1996), Genny Sermonia (2008), Colin Simmons (2015) and Kimberley-Ann Truong (2015).
Sheridan music theatre graduates have long graced the stages at Stratford, but the 2016 season of the esteemed festival is an exceptional one, with four alumni performers having graduated from Sheridan's Bachelor of Music Theatre Performance program in 2015. The success of these recent graduates speaks to the strength of Sheridan's four-year Bachelor of Music Theatre Performance degree, the only degree in music theatre performance in Canada.
Sheridan's Music Theatre Performance Program has a forty-four year history and is Canada's leading program of its kind. Students receive theoretical and practical training in three core disciplines of acting, singing and dance. Alumni work on stages across Canada and around the world including in local productions of mega musicals, U.S. national tours, at the Stratford Festival, Shaw Festival, On Broadway and in the West End.