Yes! celebrating 10 years of musical theatre in Sudbury

Yes! Theatre is celebrating 10 years of theatre in Sudbury.

It began as a dream for then-high school student Alessandro Costantini, who began the company with some friends.   

In a May interview with CBC's Morning North, Costantini said his time at St. Charles College allowed him to follow his love of musical theatre, and to pursue an interest in the production side of the business.

"Looking back,the thing that hooked me to the theatre was finding a community of people that were like minded...it was such a drug, kind of," Costantini said.

"There's something to be said about when you share a passion with other people, it's a different type of bliss."

Now, Costantini is in New York performing in "Dear Evan Hanson," while the rest of Yes! is getting ready to perform Mamma Mia at the Sudbury Theatre Centre. 

CBC's Morning North asked some people currently involved with Yes! Theatre to reflect on their time with the company.

Kelsey Tyson, development coordinator   

"Alessandro and I went to high school together. Ali had gotten wind of a musical called Hair which is not totally appropriate for a Catholic high school. But he loved it...and I remember we had a group chat with the cast of the musical that we were doing at the time, and he was like 'guys I want to do Hair' and we're like 'yeah we know, Ali, you've been talking about it for 12 years, and he was like 'No, we should start a theater company and we should do it.'

"[The idea] didn't fizzle out. But we were like 'this is a pipe dream. There's no way a bunch of 15, 16-year-old kids can do this. But Alessandro does not really take no for an answer. And he said, 'no we're going to.'" 

Janie Pinard, actor, choreographer of Mamma Mia, James and the Giant Peach

"Last summer when we did Violet, my family from out of town came and I was very excited because they'd never seen a production of Yes!. And in the middle of the show there a power outage. And we had to stop the show because the mics weren't working, we can't hear the band and we're backstage and I was freaking out. I was like 'What are we going to do? We're going to cancel the show. What about my family?' And then Ali comes backstage and says 'We're going to do it, let's get all the band down.

So the whole band came, and it was like a dream come true. I've always wanted to perform with a live band next to me. And it was one of those moments where the audience could watch the band play live, and then watch the show. There were no mics. It was unplugged. It was probably one of my favourites experiences and probably our best show."

Jake Deeth, associate artistic director, costume designer for Mamma Mia, director of James and the Giant Peach

"My number one memory was all of us doing American Idiot in the Grand Nightclub theater. And it was probably the most exciting theater experience to be in a space that has not been used as an art space for years and years. We kind of took over that entire location. Everything was always happening. It was an hour and a half of non-stop moving and it was absolutely an amazing time."

Jessica Crowe, actor

"I saw Rent and was definitely blown away. I had no idea what I was in for when I went to see it. Then [Yes!] had auditions for Jesus Christ Superstar which is my hands down favourite musical of all time, so I auditioned only because this was the company that was doing that show.

But [during auditions] I knew that there was an age cap. And so I remember purposely trying to look young, I was like 'I'm going to moisturize.' And I wrote [I was] 20-something. And then I was asked in the audition how old I was, and I said it's on my page. But my English teacher was in the room and she knew that I was over the age." 

Fiona Sauder, Director of Mamma Mia

"There's about 12 moments every day in rehearsal where you either burst into tears or bust out laughing, It's just the greatest. But when Alessandro brought me to Sudbury to check out the space, to go see the Grand... he had told me what it was like, I had seen a floor plan, I'd seen some pictures. But then when we walked in. I just burst into tears because it was so huge and there was so much history in this room, and there were so many possibilities as the director. 

To have this gift...It was like this big jungle gym and and the people in charge of the Grand said 'Do whatever you want. You know it gets torn to shreds every Saturday night anyhow, so go nuts.' "

The group is staging two musicals this summer, Mamma Mia and James and the Giant Peach. You can find out more information about Yes! Theatre by visiting their web site.