From soup to Peanuts: MTYP season has it all

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This article was published 01/06/2022 (1567 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For the first time since before the pandemic began, the Manitoba Theatre for Young People has announced a full seven-show season, set to carry the local institution from 2022 into 2023.

Artistic director Pablo Felices-Luna could hardly contain his excitement, given the difficult circumstances the past two years have presented to the theatre world. Over that stretch, the company trepidatiously announced a few shows here and there, facing unrelenting uncertainty. Now, a whole season of planned programming, announced all at once.

The season kicks off in October with an adaptation of Margery Williams’ classic story The Velveteen Rabbit, written by Purni Morell with music by Jason Carr. Felices-Luna calls it a magical tale of friendship, playfulness and imagination.

An annual highlight for the theatre is the holiday show, which this year will be a revival of a past favourite, A Charlie Brown Double Bill, featuring excerpts from the hit shows You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown and A Charlie Brown Christmas; nobody is allergic to Peanuts when served up by Charles M. Schulz.

It’s Okay to Be Different, produced by Windsor, N.S., company Mermaid Theatre, uses innovative puppetry to tell writer Todd Parr’s stories of self-confidence, mindfulness, and commitment to the planet. The Mermaid Theatre’s productions of children’s classics such as Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle have been performed in front of more than six million people.

Other productions include The Gruffalo, adapted from the children’s picture book about the terrifying and wonderful creatures in an enchanted wood, and Zooom, produced by Adelaide, Australia’s Patch Theatre. Felices-Luna says the show has nothing to do with virtual meetings; it’s inspired by the classic book Harold and the Purple Crayon, and uses original music, lights, lasers and projections to tell a story of technology, creation and imagination.

Cranked: The Remix is a show for teen audiences about a rising hip-hop MC who struggles with substance abuse. Written by Michael P. Northey, the show debuts in November.

Frozen River — produced and written by Michaela Washburn, Joelle Peters and Carrie Costello — tells the story of two 11-year-olds who meet in a forest, and the children’s descendents, who meet in present-day Manitoba. That show, which debuted at MTYP earlier this year after a pandemic delay, will be reprised in February 2023, followed by a provincial and national elementary school tour.

“That is such an amazing thing, especially considering the last few years we’ve had,” said Felices-Luna.

ben.waldman@winnipegfreepress.com