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Photo by Burnside High School

Beauty and the Beast

Annika and Will —

For over a hundred dedicated performing arts students, Beauty & the Beast was both extremely gruelling as well as being exceedingly rewarding. 

Several phenomenal evening and matinee performances were delivered early Term 3, and were received by an incredibly positive audience of all ages, bringing a community of the arts together in joy and delightful amusement.

The show received an absolutely stunning review by accomplished musician and critique, Patrick Shepherd in The Press, who was in awe at what he described as a ‘visual and musical feast’, and particularly charmed by the depth of range and exceptionally convincing character embodiment displayed by the characters. This encompassed the superb performances from the Beast (Sam Burt), Belle (Sophie Gilmore), Gaston (Rory Humm), Lumiere (Ben Johnson) and the wickedly talented supporting cast, crew and live orchestra!

The rehearsal process was intense and diverse. Choreography, vocals, and staging were all being worked and reworked at the same time. Finding balance and managing to pull all these aspects together was definitely at times, challenging. These rehearsals ran through Term 2 and into the Term 2 break, followed closely by the season opening during the last week of the Term break and into the first week of Term 3. The end product, however, was extremely rewarding, the cast, crew and creative team glowing after a spectacular opening night. The costuming was definitely a feature of this huge performance, Be Our Guest being a testiment to the extravagance of the production. Assorted cutlery, teacups, a jug, all squeezing through the Green Room door was certainly a sight to behold. The stunning array of human-sized knives, forks, a candle, a clock, a broom and many other large objects standing outside the Aurora Centre during a false fire-alarm was another experience one would not forget in a hurry.

Altogether, Beauty and the Beast was unlike any previous production Burnside has ever performed and certainly showcased their astounding talent and will be remembered for years to come.

Annika & Will