After hundreds of hours of practice and preparation, the Estevan Comprehensive School is ready to unveil its production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast to the public.
The first of four performances is scheduled for Thursday night at 7 p.m. The musical will also run Friday at 7 o'clock and twice on Saturday with performances set for 2 and 7 p.m.
A cast of around 35 students and a support team of roughly 100 people have been hard at work since September, rehearsing, preparing the sets and completing all the other tasks that come with a production of this magnitude.
Co-directors Alison Holzer and Kathy Brown said the students have been great to work with and they are looking forward to this week's performances.
"We were thinking that we are further along and are more prepared than we ever felt we ever have been for a musical before," said Holzer.
"We have basically been going five to six nights a week and full days on weekends," added Brown.
Due in large part to the incredible amount of time and effort that goes into a production, ECS performs a musical every other year. Their performance of Grease in 2009 was an impressive outing and it's expected that Beauty and the Beast will also be a crowd-pleaser.
"The singing is very good, we have some really talented singers," said Brown. "It's a very prepared show and the costumes and the choreography are top notch."
"It's based on Disney's Beauty and the Beast so it's great for little kids but it's for everyone. It's a good family show," noted Holzer.
Both women added that the cast for this year's musical is very solid. Jacqueline Peeace is playing the role of Belle while Andrew Le is the male lead as he tackles the role of Beast.
"Jacqueline has done a lot of singing, she won Estevan Junior Idol a couple of years ago. She is very talented and very level-headed and very coachable so she has been great to work with," said Holzer.
"Andy Le is kind of a surprise in the sense that he hasn't done much vocal work in the school. He has done acting and has been in drama classes, but we didn't know he was a singer. He was a great discovery."
"Josh Pele is Gaston and he gives it his all all the time," Brown said. "He is taking vocal lessons and has been in musicals before and is very keen."
Tickets for the event are just $10 and can be purchased in advance at Henders Drugs and the ECS office. Tickets bought in advance will have an assigned seat number. There will also be tickets available at the door for each performance.
Holzer said ticket sales have been picking up over the last few days and she is hopeful the public will turn out and support the students and all the work that has gone into the production.
"We are really excited about putting it on and we want as many people as possible to see it. It's a community event in a sense because we've so many community people helping us, like in our band. We really want to show off what our school can do."
"We know they will enjoy it and it is a top-notch performance," added Brown.
