SAN­DRA L BLOOD

blood­l­sandy@gmail.com

John Thomas, who is known for his su­perb op­er­at­ic Broad­way mu­si­cals, will present an­oth­er of his mas­ter­pieces, ti­tled Show­time, at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s. The pro­duc­tion, which will run to­mor­row and Sun­day, promis­es to be a grand night of opera.

Au­di­ences are promised a week­end cel­e­brat­ing the pow­er of mu­sic, the­atre and artis­tic ex­cel­lence.

Thomas says it is a show like nev­er be­fore.

The ex­cite­ment of Broad­way mu­si­cal the­atre will be brought to the time­less grandeur of opera, where there will be some­thing for every mu­sic lover while show­cas­ing the re­mark­able tal­ent of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s per­form­ers.

The week­end opens with an ex­hil­a­rat­ing Broad­way re­vue that serves as the cul­mi­na­tion of an in­ten­sive youth per­form­ing arts pro­gramme. De­signed to im­merse young peo­ple in the dis­ci­plines of mu­si­cal the­atre, the pro­gramme pro­vides con­cen­trat­ed train­ing in singing, act­ing, move­ment and stage­craft un­der the guid­ance of ex­pe­ri­enced per­form­ers and artis­tic men­tors.

The fi­nal pub­lic per­for­mance of­fers these emerg­ing artists the op­por­tu­ni­ty to show­case the skills they have de­vel­oped be­fore a live au­di­ence in a ful­ly staged pro­duc­tion. More than a con­cert, Show­time re­flects a com­mit­ment to youth de­vel­op­ment, artis­tic ex­cel­lence and the con­tin­ued growth of T&T’s per­form­ing arts com­mu­ni­ty.

This year’s pro­duc­tion fea­tures un­for­get­table mu­sic from Dream­girls, Mary Pop­pins, Hamil­ton, Teen Beach, Al­addin, In­to the Woods, Once on This Is­land and Rag­time, brought to life through soar­ing vo­cals, dy­nam­ic chore­og­ra­phy and en­gag­ing the­atri­cal sto­ry­telling.

The cel­e­bra­tion con­tin­ues on Ju­ly 12 with A Grand Night of Opera—an el­e­gant evening ded­i­cat­ed to some of the world’s great­est op­er­at­ic mas­ter­pieces. Fea­tur­ing the ac­claimed Lib­er­ty Chorale, un­der the ba­ton of dis­tin­guished con­duc­tors Carl An­tho­ny Hines and Siob­han Lawrence, the con­cert show­cas­es many of T&T’s finest clas­si­cal voic­es in a pro­gramme cel­e­brat­ing the beau­ty, pas­sion and dra­ma of opera. Au­di­ences will jour­ney through cel­e­brat­ed works in­clud­ing Car­men, Di­do and Ae­neas, Madama But­ter­fly, Can­dide and Nabuc­co, ex­pe­ri­enc­ing stir­ring cho­rus­es, breath­tak­ing so­lo per­for­mances and time­less mu­sic that has cap­ti­vat­ed au­di­ences across gen­er­a­tions.

To­geth­er, these two pro­duc­tions high­light the di­ver­si­ty of T&T’s artis­tic land­scape—from nur­tur­ing young per­form­ers through mu­si­cal the­atre to cel­e­brat­ing the high­est tra­di­tions of clas­si­cal vo­cal per­for­mance.

Un­der Thomas’ artis­tic lead­er­ship, the pro­duc­tions con­tin­ue a long­stand­ing com­mit­ment to artis­tic de­vel­op­ment, per­for­mance ex­cel­lence and cre­at­ing mean­ing­ful op­por­tu­ni­ties for per­form­ers to share their tal­ents with the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty.

Whether pa­trons are cap­ti­vat­ed by the en­er­gy of Broad­way or the el­e­gance of opera, this unique week­end of­fers an un­for­get­table cel­e­bra­tion of mu­sic, sto­ry­telling and the per­form­ing arts.