AMHERST – Cumberland Performing Arts staged its first play, Annie, at the Capitol Theatre in Oxford in the Spring of 2015. Now, in 2018, they are going stronger than ever with The Little Mermaid.
“Because this is our fourth year, many of the performers have been with us for four years now and every year they get better and better because they have more experience,” said Judy Collins director and owner/operator of Cumberland Performing Arts.
Fifteen-year-old Kaden Mattinson is one of those performers who has been with the company for all four productions, Annie, Beauty and the Beast, The Wizard of Oz, and, now, plays King Triton in The Little Mermaid.
“I like the music and the acting, but the biggest thing is the group of friends you make. It’s super fun,” said Mattinson.
Collins is from Ontario and moved to Oxford with her husband, Mark, eight years ago.
“My husband grew up here. We moved back because of him,” said Collins.
“Drama was huge in Oxford when he was going to high school here. They won competitions,” added Collins. “My next thing may be to take these kids to a competitive drama competition.”
Collins also teaches piano and voice lessons in Oxford.
“When we lived in Ontario my daughter was involved in an Annie production and I was helping as a parent. I thought, ‘someday I’m going to direct one of these,’” said Collins. “I have 50 voice and piano students. There’s so much music here, and I said, ‘let’s do this.’”
Thirty-four youth perform in The Little Mermaid. They range in age from Grade 4 to 18-years-old.
Collins said all the kids are ‘right into it.’ Even the youngest ones.
“Because it’s become a tradition, the young ones, the Grade 4s, look forward to joining once they hit Grade 4,” said Collins. “All of the Grade 4s are very keen.”
There is also about 40 adults who volunteer each year to make the plays successful.
“It takes a town to make this happen. There are tons of volunteers that make it happen,” said Collins.
“We’ve always had a great team of people that do the sets, the makeup, the hair, and work backstage,” she added. “The entire crew is super-talented. I can’t draw a stick person, so the people who do all the other stuff are fantastic. It makes for a really good show.”
All the productions have sold out the past three years, and Collins believes they will sell out again this year.
This theatre holds, on the main floor, 150 people,” said Collins. “We’re doing four shows this year, so that will be 600 people. We’ve sold over 400 already.”
Last year they did six shows.
“We had 900 people. That was crazy, so we decided to go back to four shows.”
The Little Mermaid has two separate casts, Show A and Show B.
Show A performs next Thursday at 7 p.m. and next Saturday at 2 p.m.
Show B performs next Friday at 7 p.m. and next Saturday at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $10 and are available from Verna Mattinson at Ewe-nique Boutique at 9 Water Street in Oxford or by calling 902-694-3605.
Twitter: @ADNdave
