Yale Secondary School
Musical Theatre & The Theatre of Laughter
The "Yale Years" began with only "in-class" productions with performances performed by class members from the Drama Classes I taught as part of my regular teaching assignment. Attempts to do a "school musical" in 1989 were not a success despite the interest of a number of students. However, we were able to begin what was to become an outstanding series of successful full-length musicals performed in the community theatre - The Abbey Arts Centre the following year.
My productions began with the newly formed Yale Secondary School Musical Theatre program in 1990-91 with a production of “The King and I”. What was turned out to be my final production at Yale was to have been “All Shook Up” (2010-11) but illness prevented me from completing this show. A total of 21 productions - all performed at the Abbey Arts Centre gave me the opportunity to utilize a wide range of theatre equipment...it was like being the proverbial “kid in a candy shop”. Supported by some wonderful colleagues, parent and community volunteers as well as, of course, the talented students, we mounted some elaborate productions with some incredible scenery, costumes, props, lighting, and sound to support the acting, dancing and musical talents of our performers. I even got to do an “Alfred Hitchcock” style series of cameos, making “appearances”, under the stage name of Yar Recned, in several productions (for example, I appeared as a nun in “South Pacific”, a priest in “Fiddler On The Roof”, and Gus in “Cats”). We established the Musical Theatre course with its “approved” curriculum at 4 levels (Grades 9-12) in 1992...Hard work but I had a great time. To add to the Musical Theatre productions, we did a few “review” type shows and I co-directed a number of British Farces. Nothing like theatre to keep one’s mind “occupied”. However, all good things must come to an end and in March, 2011, I was informed that my Musical Theatre teaching contract would not be renewed for 2011-12. Thus, my 21 years at Yale Secondary School had come to an end.
…………. Fast forward 6 years to 2017, ..... I returned to Yale Musical Theatre! This time I volunteered to work on Yale’s production of “The Music Man” I started as Lighting Director and Props “Master” ... working mainly with the tech group - although I did also "contribute" a few "staging" ideas. In these later years, I was Lighting and Technical Director and Production Consultant.
The productions were as follows:
MUSICAL THEATRE
1990-91 The King and I
1991-92 My Fair Lady
1992-93 Oliver!
1993-94 The Sound of Music
1994-95 Annie
1995-96 The Wizard of Oz
1996-97 Grease!; Motown Madness - a review
1997-98 Carousel; Rock ‘n’ Roll Is Here To Stay - a review
1998-99 Show Boat; Cabaret Night ‘99 - a review
1999-00 Fiddler On The Roof; Cabaret Night ‘00 - Passion, Poison and Petrifaction
2000-01 Peter Pan; See How They Run
2001-02 Oliver! ; Who Goes Bare?
2002-03 South Pacific
2003-04 The Wizard of Oz (RSC version); Post Horn Gallop
2004-05 Disney’s Beauty and The Beast; Bang Bang Beirut!
2005-06 West Side Story; Uproar In The House
2006-07 Annie Get Your Gun; Chase Me Comrade
2007-08 Grease; Noises Off
2008-09 The Sound Of Music; Wild Goose Chase
2009-10 Cats
2010-11 All Shook Up*
2017-18 The Music Man
2018-19 Peter Pan (Styles & Drewe)
2019-20 Annie
2021-22 Frozen Jr.
IF YOU HAVE MEMORIES OF YALE MUSICAL THEATRE THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE ON THIS WEBSITE, PLEASE EMAIL ME (rdencer@shaw.ca) -
Please Note: Some of the material used in this portion of the “Broken-Pencils.ca” website has been adapted from the original Yale Secondary School Musical Theatre website that I created and maintained for a number of years. The original Yale Secondary Musical Theatre website was used as a “teaching device” as well as for information and “souvenir” purposes. My original Yale Musical Theatre website has been withdrawn from the server as it was no longer going to be maintained as the “official” Yale Musical Theatre website. The material included on the original website would no longer necessarily be relevant to the Musical Theatre program in the school as it currently exists.
“Broken-Pencils.ca” is NOT affiliated in any way to the Yale Secondary School Musical Theatre program and should not be construed as currently representative of that program. For information on the current Yale Secondary School Musical Theatre program, please contact the school.
