Garnet and Gold’s latest production, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, runs Thursday through Saturday at Mount Allison University’s Convocation Hall.
Director Karen Valanne says the student society picked an ambitious production to mount in 2024, with a large cast of 45, including a youth ensemble from local schools. Altogether with crew and orchestra, there’s about 70 people involved. “Cast and crew, everybody’s been working really hard,” says Valanne. “They’re very dedicated, very talented… it’s a dream for me.”
But for Valanne’s role as director, the production is run entirely by students. “We’re only a society, but we’re one of the only ones in Atlantic Canada that do full scale productions like this,” says Henna Matharu, who is playing the role of Belle. “Ticket sales, building the set, doing the choreography, teaching music… it’s all student led, the entire thing.”
Matharu says after months of work, she’s excited to share the show with audiences. “Everyone is very fitted to their role,” says Matharu. “It’s a show that’s for the whole family that you’re not going to want to miss.”
Meg Aylward is playing Cogsworth, and says that after her experience last year with Garnet and Gold’s production of High School Musical, she couldn’t resist auditioning for Beauty and the Beast. “I had so so, so much fun and I was like you know what? I’ll go out with a bang,” says the fourth year student. “It’s become something that I really look forward to as a part of my semester… And I just don’t think my university experience would be the same without it.”
The show kicks off Thursday with a matinee for public school students and an evening performance at 7:30pm, and continues through to Saturday. Tickets are available on Eventbrite.
Hear more about this year’s production, from CHMA’s Tantramar Report:
