This weekend, students at Thomas A. Stewart Secondary School, under the direction of Sarah Tye, bring Elton John and Tim Rice’s Broadway musical Aida to the Peterborough stage. A bold choice for a high school production, Aida is a sophisticated but bleak love story filled with drama, anguish, and tragedy.
Based on Verdi’s opera of the same name, Aida was turned into a musical by theater mainstay Tim Rice and pop music powerhouse Elton John in 1998 and would go on to win the Tony Award for best musical in 2000.
With Ancient Egypt as the backdrop, Aida tells the story of two warring nations — Egypt and Nubia — an an unlikely love triangle between Egyptian princess Amneris (Marina Zielke), Egyptian military captain Radames (Cameron Von Criegern), and enslaved Nubian princess Aida (Hope Clarkin).
War, revolution, death and betrayal are mixed with passion, love and eternal devotion in this unusual but compelling musical.
Although Aida is filled with a vibrant cast of young actors, Marina Zielke and Hope Clarkin stand out as potential future divas of the Peterborough stage.
Both possessing huge voices and large personalities, Hope Clarkin captures the hearts of the audience as the brave and passionate Aida, and Zielke is fun and larger than life as Amneris.
This is an opportunity to get a first look at two wonderful young actresses who hopefully will return to the Peterborough stage again soon.
A first glance at the next generation of Peterborough’s theatere community, Aida runs from Thursday, June 4th to Saturday, June 6th at 7:30 p.m. in the TAS auditorium, with a matinee show at 1 p.m. on June 6th.
Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for students. For advance tickets, you can reserve them online or email sarah_tye@kprdsb.ca.
