By Pepper Parr
August 10th, 2016
BURLINGTON, ON
There was little doubt in Alma Sarai’s mind that the stage is where she wanted to be when she grew up.
Everything she has done since leaving elementary school has been one more step towards that realization. This evening, Alma Sarai will take to the stage as Hermia in an outdoor production of Shakespeare’s a Midsummer Night’s Dream that is being performed on a lawn at the new Rock Garden at The Royal Botanical Gardens.
The location is on York Blvd – just keep going west on Plains Road – tough to miss the sign. Parking is on the other side of York Blvd
Alma Sarai – playing Hermia in a Midsummer Night’s Dream at the RBG Rock Garden through to the 21st of August.
Alma is in the process of completing a joint dramatic arts program at both Sheridan College and the Mississauga campus of the University of Toronto. “This is really a unique opportunity for me” she said when explaining how she ended up as part of a nine player cast being directed by Trevor Copp.
Copp who is a performer in his own right, went looking for young talent that was relatively new to live theatre and joined them to the five experienced players.
A cast meeting the day before they take to stage on a lawn at the RBG Rock Garden
In casting this piece, Copp said he “searched this area’s post-secondary theatre programs for the most talented senior students/recent graduates – and offered them paid theatre work. it’s unprecedented in our area.”
Alma and Trevor had crossed each others path on a number of occasions but had not worked in a production. “I have danced with him” said Alma – “he is a wonderfully smooth dancer.”
Trevor is also a director who tends to look for the edges of whatever he is doing and then seeing how far he can push those edges. Alma describes the two act play as one that is “very physical” and it is certainly a different production.
While Copp is the director his approach is very collaborative. During a cast meeting the day before the cast performs changes were being made.
Alma, who says she “is a dork for Shakespeare” is totally stoked for the production. She has a number of costume changes; one in which she wears a white costume while rolling on green grass.
“We are expected to really put ourselves out in this production” said Alma “and that’s what makes it so very exciting”.
Copp is not a director that gets caught up in the language of a production – he is more physical person and tends to focus on body movement and interpretation of a scene through animation rather than words.
What he chooses to do and manages to do with language as rich as that given to us by Shakespeare will be interesting – expect it to be different. and expect actresses like Alma Sarai and the rest of the company to be very physical.
Alma Sarai, an Aldershot High School graduate who will be performing on the grounds of the RBG where she played in what they used to call the bowl.
This is the first summer in ten years that Alma hasn’t worked at Aquarius in Hamilton where she was both acting in productions and then teaching.
With the end of her formal education nearing – “I will always be learning” Alma isn’t sure what she will be doing when she has graduated.
She sings, dances and has a small streak of the comedian in her. “When I am not certain of what I am doing I tend to slip into being funny”
In her outline of what she has done so far Alma Sarai lists:
Midsummer ~ A Dream; Hermia
Pericles, Prince of Tyre; Thaisa & Diana
How to Make Love in a Canoe; Co-Creator with Melissa-Jane Shaw
Antigone; Chorus, UTM Drama Club
The Navigator; Guard. UTM Fundraiser
A Chorus Line; Val Clark. Theatre Aquarius
The Who’s Tommy; Sally Simpson. Theatre Aquarius
Departures & Arrivals; People Watcher. Aldershot H.S
The list goes on and on.
The Rock Garden has the place for lunch in the Cafe or dinner at the restaurant. Cafe doesn’t have its license yet.
And for Alma Sarai that list is just beginning; for the next two weeks she will be outside on a lawn at the RBG Rock Garden playing Hermia in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream; a production that will have the unique Trevor Copp touch and emerging actress Alma Sarai as part of the cast.
The location is superb, the production values will be different and you will be able to say you watched Alma Sarai when she was getting started.
Show Times:
August 10th @ 7pm
August 11th @ 7pm
August 12th @ 7pm
August 13th @ 7pm
August 14th @ 7pm
August 17th @ 7pm
August 18th @ 7pm
August 19th @ 7pm
August 20th @ 7pm
August 21st @ 7pm
