Who better to teach a masterclass in singing than someone who has just finished performing in the extended run of the award-winning global sensation Come From Away in Toronto?
Lisa Horner will be coming to Peterborough in June to lead a masterclass in musical theatre that will guide adults and youth aged 12 and up in singing their favourite songs while showing that theatre and song can be for everybody.
“I think performing, theatre, and entertainment of any kind is a really good connector where you can create a type of community that involves everyone,” Horner says. “In these classes, we really lean into it with laughter and fun and joy.”
Running through Linda Kash’s Peterborough Academy of Performing Arts (PAPA) for $240, Horner’s masterclass will run in three-hour sessions on four Sundays throughout June. The location will be announced upon registration, which can be done by emailing Kash at lindakash11@gmail.com.
A Toronto-based performer, Horner has 35 years of stage and screen experience and has performed at theatres across the country, including multiple seasons with the Shaw Festival and the Stratford Festival.
Despite that, she is most recognizable to the general public as the woman who screams “Start the car!” in IKEA Canada’s 2004 “It’s Not a Mistake” commercial, which is recognized as one of the best Canadian ads of the 21st century and won Horner a Bessie award (IKEA resurrected the ad in 2024).
VIDEO: IKEA’s 2004 “Start the Car” commercial (2024 version)
After first connecting while performing in Delia and Nora Ephron’s Love, Loss, and What I Wore in Toronto 15 years ago, Horner and Kash recently connected while both were filming recurring roles for season two of the Crave dark comedy SisterS and decided to team up to bring Horner’s expertise to PAPA.
During the masterclass, Horner will be inviting participants to bring a song they are most interested in performing. While it can be anything from a musical theatre number to Taylor Swift to Elvis Presley, Horner’s only recommendation is for the performer to bring a song that has elevated lyrics or tells a story, and is one they are passionate about.
“It’s really important that people sing something they like,” Horner says. “I want to start by taking a song right from the beginning and talking about why you like it, why you want to sing it, what about the words really touches you, and what about the music you like. Then I break it down as a monologue, because it really is a monologue to music.”
From there, through group and one-on-one teaching, Horner will continue to break down elements of the song each week, with movements, activities, and games to help participants get to know each other and ultimately feel comfortable and confident on stage, and to create what Horner calls a “cheerleading section.”
“We’re in this together, so everybody gets up and sings,” she explains. “I’ll get up and sing and I’m going to make mistakes. I’m not going to sound the way I want to sound. But there’s nothing serious in this room.”
“You can achieve things without feeling the pressure. It can be a wonderful experience and really that’s all I want people to get out of it. It’s just three hours of feeling like they can express themselves and breathe easily and just have some fun.”
Horner assures there is no professional experience required and the whole class offers “no pressure and no stress.”
“It’s about connecting to your inside when you’re feeling stressed about something that’s just not important in the larger scheme of things,” she says. “It’s about finding resilience through humour and laughter.”
Even though she has been on stages around the country and is even the first actor to have performed on all four Ed Mirvish Theatre stages, Horner maintains that directing and teaching, which she has been doing for 15 years, are her “favourite things in the world to do.”
“I just get beautiful energy from working with people,” Horner says. “I just know that every time I’m in front of a classroom, I’m like a little kid again — full of energy — and really love and enjoy it. I just find it to be the happiest place to be.”
Horner is also available for one-hour private lessons on Saturdays throughout June for $75. To sign up for private lessons or for the masterclass, email Linda Kash at lindakash11@gmail.com.
For more information about PAPA and other upcoming classes for youth and adults, visit www.lindakash.ca/linda-classes-and-camps.
