By: Yasmin Hassan, Staff Writer
From July 5 to August 24, Theatre Under the Stars is coming back to Stanley Park’s Malkin Bowl. One of their featured productions this season is CATS, a dazzling ensemble musical of feline characters who gather for the Jellicle Ball. This ball is held ceremoniously to decide which among them will be granted a new life in a sort of rebirth. What makes this musical so special? Two of our very own SFU dance majors, Elijah Sam (pictured, far right) and Tia Gunhold (pictured, wearing white), will be performing as Coricopat and Victoria respectively! The Peak had the pleasure of speaking with them about their musical tails (and tales).
Eljiah Sam is currently a third-year dance major at SFU, performer, and instructor who works with kids. “Coming from SFU with this training and many different dance styles has helped me jump right into the work,” Sam said. He talked about how collaboration between different departments at the school, such as theatre and film, support the ability to be adaptable to new things. His experience helped him “collaborate with a wide range of different creative people,” which is needed for a show like CATS.
Tia Gunhold, a third year undergraduate student double majoring in psychology and dance, said that her “competition-heavy background” resulted in “a shift in movement styles and performing.” She also mentioned the differences in things like comfort with physical touch between dancers and non-dancers.
“Coming from SFU with this training and many different dance styles has helped me jump right into the work.” — Elijah Sam, SFU dance major
“The musical is a great musical, first of all, for dancers because it’s a dance heavy show,” Sam said when asked about his take on the show. Gunhold backed that up by mentioning how the performers “sing the entire time; there’s only one very very short monologue in the whole show, which is different from a lot of other musicals.”
Gunhold mentioned how many people may be enamoured with the singing and dancing of the show, but often don’t understand the storyline. “The storytelling and dancing go hand-in-hand,” Sam said, emphasizing how each element plays a part in telling the tale.
An aspect that I admire about the show is how it’s an ensemble, truly establishing every role whether big or small as a key part. “You need to have the whole tribe of the cats present on stage for the story to make sense,” Sam said.
Not only will the impressive set design take the stage, the modernized costumes that are detailed to suit each actor as well as their character will be certain to catch the audiences’ eyes. “The way that they orchestrated the costumes is so ingenious,” Sam told The Peak, noting how the costumes suit each cast member perfectly. As Gunhold stated, “The casting was so well done, because I feel like a lot of people, the actors/our cast are so well suited for their role.”
Support our fellow SFU stars by seeing CATS this summer! Tickets can be found at etix.com
