Bear Grease arrives to the Magnus Theatre Stage

Bear Grease arrives to the Magnus Theatre Stage

The play places an Indigenous twist on a beloved movie and theatre typical.

THUNDER BAY — A touring musical hit centered on a beloved film and theatre vintage has come to the Magnus Theatre stage.

Bear Grease, by Lightning Clouds, is an Indigenous twist on the musical Grease that fuses doo wop, hip hop, powwow tunes, Indigenous society, language and comedy.

Directed by RedCloud and Crystle Lightning and choreographed by Sabrina Pipestem, the display also functions an all-Indigenous forged such as Crystle Lightning, MC RedCloud, Joel Oulette, Melody McArthur, Tammy Rae, Artson, Teneil Whiskeyjack, Rodney McLeod, Bryce Morin, Robert Mesa and Nipîy Iskwew.

Lightning stated that it was critical to have an all-Indigenous forged for the reason that of the absence of illustration in film and theatre in the previous.

“The importance is we we by no means experienced that in the 50s or 60s, that illustration was not present since we were being heading as a result of other matters in that time, residential educational facilities and a bunch of other stuff,” she explained. 

“So we, my partner and I — RedCloud — the other writer, we had been sitting on the sofa a single night and Grease arrived on and we imagined, Oh my gosh, wouldn’t it be amazing if there was a indigenous Grease? And so that’s how the seed was planted.” 

Magnus Theatre inventive director Thom Curie said he attempted to discover a way to schedule Bear Grease into the theatre’s routine in the course of its 2022 tour but was not able, and he was enthusiastic to be capable to match it in this yr. 

“We sadly had to terminate another creation, the spring of an adaptation of Tartuffe by Herbie Barnes, which was a entirely Indigenous adaptation of a vintage Molière enjoy and in replacing that I was like, nicely, what if I went back to Bear Grease?,” he mentioned. 

“What if I went again to these fellas and mentioned, seem, you are a totally Indigenous adaptation of a classic enjoy, do you have it in your plan to arrive to Thunder Bay? And luckily they ended up offered.” 

Magnus Theatre is also providing a comfortable performance on April 19 at 7:30 p.m., which capabilities a calm attitude to noise and movement inside of the auditorium, and some minimal creation alterations may be manufactured to minimize the depth of light, audio, and other most likely startling effects.

A reduced-sensory area will be available if the overall performance results in being frustrating. Babes in arms and support animals are also welcome to the peaceful functionality.

Anybody who would not take pleasure in this peaceful viewers surroundings are invited to show up at any other performances above the class of the run.

Bear Grease operates from Thursday by means of April 23. There will be a shell out-what-you-can matinee general performance on Sunday at 2 p.m.