Olga Steblyk / Sputnik Photography
The Laurier Brantford Theatre Club’s cast and crew.
Wilfrid Laurier University’s Brantford campus has many clubs and associations; one of them is Laurier’s Theatre Club.
The club is student-run and putting on a production of The Outsiders. Originally, The Outsiders is a book written by S.E. Hinton, which was later turned into a movie. The show will take place on Saturday, March 23 in the Research and Academic Centre West, room RCW002. The show begins at 7 p.m. and the doors open at 6 p.m. This student production is “pay what you can”, meaning it is free admission, but the club will be accepting donations.
“Everyone is really dedicated,” said Sophia Soares, a second-year forensic psychology student and the club’s co-president. “It is nice to have something that is not tied to academic.”
The process of putting on a show like this began with choosing which show the club would be preforming this year back in August. Then, there were auditions to fill the cast. Of course, no show can work without a crew behind the scenes. Crew members are always needed to help with tech and sets.
The Theatre Club in Brantford has been around for a few years now. Due to COVID they weren’t able to put on any shows. This year’s show will be the second since the pandemic.
What the co-presidents of the club want is for everyone to feel welcome. Soares said the environment in the club feels more like a family than anything else.
“We have a really solid community,” said Anna Pieczula, a third-year law and society student and the other co-president.
It may be too late to join the cast, but the club is always looking for people to help with tech or building sets. There is a place for everyone. What the club is looking for is to create a community, a place for people to enjoy and participate in the arts together.
“We have a really good space for people to express themselves through art,” said Pieczula.
The sets are handmade by the members of the club, the costumes are thrifted or also handmade. The club is the embodiment of the phrase, “use what is available to you”. The reason behind this phrase is because of the limited budget available to the club.
Pieczula encourages Laurier Brantford students to “come and enjoy the show.”
This article was originally published in print Volume 23, Issue 7 on Thursday, March 7.
