{"id":14279,"date":"2016-05-18T18:30:05","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T22:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=14279"},"modified":"2016-05-18T18:30:05","modified_gmt":"2016-05-18T22:30:05","slug":"youth-performers-cap-theatre-auroras-season-with-almost-maine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/youth-performers-cap-theatre-auroras-season-with-almost-maine\/","title":{"rendered":"Youth performers cap Theatre Aurora\u2019s season with Almost, Maine"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Theatre Aurora\u2019s 2015-2016 was all about \u201ccreating connections\u201d and that theme continues, with a segue into the next season, with the youth theatre group\u2019s production of Almost, Maine, which opens this week.<\/p>\n

The local theatre is working on their next season, which focuses on themes of love, and this play is a perfect bridge, according to youth theatre leader Joey Ferguson.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was looking for a show that was kind of well-known, worked with youth audiences, worked with a youth cast, but also had a lot of flexibility,\u201d says Mr. Ferguson. \u201cI find that is very key with a youth group because we want to give everyone a chance to perform.\u201d<\/p>\n

And how! Almost, Maine focuses on 19 individual characters with nine individual stories. Quite a bit of the action takes place in a local pub, which Mr. Ferguson says he imagines as very similar to Aurora\u2019s Filly & Firkin. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a big variety of different locations and it hits just about everyone you would expect to see in a small town,\u201d says Mr. Ferguson. <\/p>\n

When youth actor Maggie Street first moved to Aurora, her grandparents convinced her to sign up for the program as a good way to get to know people in her new hometown. Four years on, she is having a ball as one of the performers in this production.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is really fun,\u201d she says. \u201cEveryone\u2019s really nice and it is super chill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adds fellow youth program member \u2013 and Almost, Maine stage manager Julia Clark-Farmiloe: \u201cI just thought it would be really interesting to get more involved in the community\u2019s drama scene because I haven\u2019t done too much out of my high school. This is my first venture into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also part of the production is Laryssa Paskaruk, who is taking on four well-rounded individual characters in this production ranging, she says, from one character just sitting down to chat with her friend, to a waitress. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have characters who are similar and seem almost more suited for a small town and then there is one who definitely belongs in a small town instead of a city, but it takes them a while to realise this,\u201d she says. \u201cThe character feels really good to me. I really like performing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Almost, Maine will be Mr. Ferguson\u2019s last production as youth coordinator for the time being as he prepares to pursue a teaching opportunity in England. The theatre recently hired his successor who Mr. Ferguson says is focused on building \u201ca much larger program\u201d with more opportunities for the season ahead. But, in the meantime, Mr. Ferguson is focused on the task at hand: bringing to life a love story. Well, let him elaborate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way I see it, this play is a love story, but not really, but kind of,\u201d he says. \u201cYou can have these really great, intense, cool love stories about these really developed characters in a short period of time. There is a lot more that goes on than you kind of see with people. It really goes into what goes on with people, their relationships with each other, and how that kind of affects the Town as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

Almost, Maine opens this Friday, May 20 at Theatre Aurora, running with three performances through Saturday night. For times and ticket information, visit www.theatreaurora.com.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Theatre Aurora\u2019s 2015-2016 was all about \u201ccreating connections\u201d and that theme continues, with a segue into the next season, with the youth theatre group\u2019s production of Almost, Maine, which opens this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/2016-05-19-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-3Ij","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 22:17:29","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}