Arlekins Theatre, a youth theatre group based in Fergus, performed its play Business on the Fourth Floor for the second time at the Grand Theatre on April 25 and 26.
The production, which first took the stage at the Grand this time last year, opened to disappointing attendance on its first run, and producers Jacob Hunter and Quynn Oates weren’t going to let that happen again.
Sitting in the Grand Theatre on April 24 after a long day of preparing for opening night, the two teens reflected on their intense journey to bring to the stage a play written, produced and directed by themselves.
“It’s hard running a show, just two teenagers,” says Oates.
“We did everything last year, but we weren’t very good at the advertising part … so a month ago, we were like, we should just do it again, get a bigger audience and advertise like crazy.”
For the 2014 re-vamp of Business, Hunter and Oates reached out to local businesses, and gave their promotional materials a new look, discovering that a little marketing strategy goes a long way.
“Our poster (this year) was completely different, which is one major thing that has made a huge difference … like cutting your hair,” Hunter quipped.
After the weekend wrapped up all their hard work seemed to pay off, with overall audience sizes surpassing those from last year. For Hunter, that’s all he wanted.
“The actors are wonderful; they’re really talented individuals, and their energy each night is so high,” Hunter said.
“There was one day (last year) where we only had 22 people in the audience, but they still had their high energy, and I thought, they don’t deserve 22 people, they deserve a full house!”
Written by Hunter, Business is a historical drama that takes place in Toronto during the 1920s. The story revolves around Lucy Martin, who moves there from Manitoba in search of a new, exciting life.
She gets exactly that when she lands a job at the prestigious Toronto Telegram Newspaper and meets all sorts of quirky and fun characters. Lucy creates relationships with her colleagues as she attempts to find a way to pay back her debt to the mobster who helped finance her journey.
“Everyone who saw it, loved it. It’s a good play because it’s funny and sad. You get both those emotions, and with our audiences you could easily tell how they were feeling – you’d hear gasps of surprise,” laughs Hunter. “It was very evident that our actors did their job.”
Hunter hopes the show’s success will convey the breadth of dramatic talent in the community. “We continue to write, produce and have students act in our plays in hopes to show the community what we young people really have to offer,” he says.
Hunter and Oates are graduating from Centre Wellington District High School this year, with plans to study at Brock University in the fall, but Hunter hopes students remaining at CWDHS will take over Arlekins Theatre and continue what he and Oates started.
“I want to keep this business, for other kids who want to do the same thing, and I’d be more than willing to produce their plays,” he says. “I just won’t have time to write or direct them.”
For the two students, finally seeing Business achieve the success they felt it deserved was an extremely rewarding end to their high school careers.
“(The) reason we did it again was because we’re leaving and we wanted it to end on a good note,” Oates says.
“With a bang!” Hunter adds. “(We wanted) a full house, happy actors, and a really happy audience. Because if they didn’t enjoy themselves, then what was the point of doing it?”
