Fall may be in full colour but, inside a Burnaby theatre, Christmas is on the minds for the cast and crew of a Coquitlam-based entertainment company.
That includes Owen Scott, an 11-year-old Port Moody boy who stars in Align’s next production A Christmas Story: The Musical.
Scott, a Grade 6 student at Eagle Mountain middle, portrays Ralphie Parker — a nine-year-old child growing up in the 1940s in Indiana who wants a Red Ryder Carbine-Action BB for Christmas.
Scott was invited to audition for the role in early June and he beat out another young Port Moody talent for the lead.
Now, Scott’s juggling his school work, his classes at Lindbjerg Academy of Performing Arts and long-rehearsal days — three times a week — to perfect the character.
“The show has so much energy,” Scott said during a school lunch break, adding, “I really love to do musical theatre and I have really good people around me.”
Scott credited his stage parents, Stefanie Stanley and Brennan Cuff, for passing on acting and voice tips — though he’s spent more than half his short life involved in the theatre.
Two years ago, Scott played a young boy in the Royal City Musical Theatre show Fiddler on the Roof, at the Massey Theatre in New Westminster. That same year, he was in Align’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat — plus its remount in 2017 — and, over the years, several Lindbjerg shows, too.
A festival competition award winner, Scott said he’ll be in a good company for A Christmas Story as many Lindbjerg dancers are also cast.
A musical version of the 1983 film, A Christmas Story: The Musical is based on the book by Joseph Robinette, with a score by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul of La La Land and The Greatest Showman fame; it ran for a year on Broadway, in 2012-’13.
“A Christmas Story is a quirky holiday classic about a wholesome family founded on unconditional love,” said director and co-producer Chad Matchette, a Port Coquitlam resident. “Generations have been drawn to the young protagonist, Ralphie, who is at the crux of childhood. His innocence and persistence remind us of a quieter and perhaps less-complicated era.”
• Tickets for Align Entertainment’s A Christmas Story: The Musical are $29 to $42, with shows running Nov. 2 to 17 at the Michael J. Fox Theatre (7373 Macpherson Ave., Burnaby); preview pricing is $20, and $25 on Thrifty Thursdays. Visit alignentertainment.ca/tickets or vtixonline.com.
jcleugh@tricitynews.com
