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New theatre company delves into 'deep' play

It's not easy to teach six days a week and audition for musical theatre shows at the same time.

It's not easy to teach six days a week and audition for musical theatre shows at the same time.

So, last year, Gleneagle secondary graduate Kim Bunka took her career by the horns and founded a theatre company, based in Port Moody, to tailor around her busy schedule.

And tomorrow night (Thursday), Undiscovered Theatre will launch its first show at the Inlet Theatre, called John and Jen, a musical production that Bunka calls "a different kind of musical genre because of its subject matter: It's very truthful, it's very real."

Many musicals tend to have fluffy, feel-good plots, she said; John and Jen, however, is the story of a brother and sister and, later, a mother and son, in the United States between 1950 and 1990, and touches on heavy topics like the Vietnam War, single parenting and domestic abuse.

It will be the third time the musical has been shown in Metro Vancouver, said Bunka, who met with the playwright and composer Andrew Lippa in 2004 (John and Jen was also written by Tom Greenwald).

For the Tri-City production, Bunka said it was important for her to hone local and "undiscovered" talent.

She cast herself in the lead role of Jen while Joel Ballard, a Riverside secondary graduate, will portray John. Fellow Gleanagle grads Mark Turpin - also a Lindbjerg Academy teacher with Bunka - was tapped to direct and Andrew Persoon is in the three-piece band, on percussion. Riverside grads Christina Andreola is the stage manager while Clare Wyatt is the pianist and musical director; Sarah Him, a Heritage Woods grad, is on cello.

All have been in rehearsal since late June for the show, which Bunka is funding herself.

Bunka's resume is full of musical theatre experience, having studied theatre arts at Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton and performed with Coquitlam's Lindbjerg Academy, Theatre Under The Stars, Down Stage Right Productions, James Productions and Footlight Theatre, where she earned a Community Theatre Coalition award of merit for her portrayal of Anne in Anne of Green Gables.

In her spare time, Bunka also teaches music and dance privately to young students.

As for her company's next performance, Bunka said she plans to keep the workload light, perhaps staging a musical every summer rather than every season.

Undiscovered Theatre's John and Jen runs Thursday to Sunday (Aug. 4 to 7) at Inlet Theatre (100 Newport Dr., Port Moody) at 8 p.m., with 2 p.m. matinees on Saturday and Sunday. Tickets at $20 are available through www.undiscoveredtheatre.com or at the door on the night of the show.