YMT TRIVIA
Repeats - only three productions - “”The Sound Of Music”, Oliver!” and "Grease!" have been produced by Yale Musical Theatre more than once. There were two different versions of "The Wizard Of Oz" (The “Muny” version and the “RSC” version)
Record Attendance - "Grease" (1997) is the only production that sold 100% of all tickets available (4206 of 4206 tickets were sold) - there was even a waiting list for returned tickets! "Peter Pan" sold 98% of all tickets available. Other big sellers were "Grease" (2007) and "Disney's Beauty and The Beast"
Record Number of acting appearances - Sarah Ivany still holds the record for the most appearances by one student in Yale productions. Sarah appeared in 10 shows - starting when she was in Elementary School. Jadene Soon appeared in 9 productions.
Sibling Actors - there have been numerous brothers and sisters who have acted with the group but the Milettes (Laura, Lisa, Danielle, and Joel in "Fiddler On the Roof") and the Hillmans (Brooklyn, Arielle, Corbin, and Kayleigh in "The Wizard Of Oz") hold the record for the most siblings acting in one cast - with four siblings in the same production.
The Yale "Family" - several productions have involved the full scope of the Yale 'family' - students, students from our neighbouring Elementary and Middle Schools, Yale Theatre alumni, teaching staff, administration, secretarial staff, custodial staff, library technician, parents and community members. Three Yale Principals - George Peary, Tony de Wit, and Bruce Nicholson have acted in productions. Over 2000 students have been involved in Yale's productions.
Flying - two productions - "Peter Pan" and "The Wizard Of Oz" have involved flying illusions. ZFX Illusions (Las Vegas) provided the flying equipment and training. In other productions, various objects including "cows" and "bats" have flown over the audience (courtesy of our Props Dept.).
Still in theatre! - several of our performers have continued their involvement in theatre after their days at Yale were finished. Andrew Long, Aaron Nicholson, Nicole Braber, Martin Happer, and Peter Jahutka became professional performers. A number of others became involved in "community theatre" - both as actors and in various "backstage" capacities. There are currently four students pursuing acting studies at university or college. Staff members Ms. Hayhoe, Mr. Dencer, Mr. Taylor, and Mr. Reynolds have all recently performed with local community theatre groups.
Props!!!!! - The pirate ship used in "Peter Pan" was actually electric - it was an adapted scissor lift! Some of the prop/costumes used in "Disney's Beauty and The Beast" were made by a lady, Susie Francis, who also makes mascots for various sports franchises. She also constructed the "stunt double" dog for "Toto" in "The Wizard Of Oz" (2004) - the stunt double dog was a replica of Maggie, the real dog used in the show. The car used in "Grease" (1997) was sculpted out of styrofoam blocks - it still had working lights. Revolving stages have been used four times in various shows - Yale owns a revolving stage - it was built by Mr. Dave Swansborough, a teacher at Yale. The swords used in "Peter Pan" and other shows were metal - we wanted the real "clinking sound". The car used in "Grease" (2007) was a model that was never sold in Canada. The guns used in "Annie Get Your Gun" were authentic stage adapted weapons - the guns were maintained and supervised by a representative of the suppliers, IMS. During the two productions of "Oliver!, the "workhouse children" were required to "eat" bowls of gruel....to get the necessary "reaction" from the children, different ingredients were added to the gruel each performance...no wonder their faces looked the way they did!
Reprise - Ms. Hayhoe and Mr. Dencer portrayed the same characters in each of the two productions of "Grease" - eleven years apart. Student actress, Jaymie Kopelow, played the same role ("Marty" in "Grease") at both Yale and Robert Bateman Secondary School. Sarah Ivany was a member of the "workhouse children" chorus in the first "Oliver!" (1993) - she later played the lead role of Nancy in the second "Oliver!" (2002). Naomi (Larsen) May featured in the chorus of the 1994 "The Sound Of Music" production. During one rehearsal, Naomi filled in for an absent "Mother Abbess". Fifteen years later, she returned as a guest alumni performer as Mother Abbess in the 2009 version of the same show. A reprise of a different sort took place in 2007 - Lindsay Bleackley who had played the role of Sandy in "Grease!" (1994) returned to choreograph three of the numbers in the 2007 version of the same show.
"Never act with dogs" - Dogs have been used in five Yale productions. Two different dogs have been Toto in the two productions of "Wizard Of Oz". "Maggie" (2004) excited a matinee audience by leaping off the stage and into the seating area - she was chased down by her owners. "Tyler" (as Sandy in "Annie" in 1995) was afraid of the Orchestra Pit opening until his owner bribed him with M&M's. He also upended an onstage container with food in it and consumed as much of the stray food as he could. Tyler, however, got his rewards with warm ovations for doing a scene completely alone on the stage "looking for Annie". In "Oliver!" (2002), Bill Sykes's dog "Bullseye" (played by Samson) was unable to "act" in one of the performances due to injury …fortunately we were able to use an understudy that amazingly learned all stage moves and cues in a day and "played the role" that night. By the way, we've also had a budgie in the cast. In "Oliver!" (2002) - Chip, the Budgie, played Fagin's "Birdy". It learned to 'reply" to Fagin's questions!
Youngest Performer - Our youngest performer, so far, is Raychel Drader (Mr. Dencer’s granddaughter) who was 2 when she appeared as a village child in "Fiddler On The Roof".
Auditions - The largest number to audition for a role in a Yale production was for "Wizard Of Oz" (1996) - over 175 tried out.....over a hundred wanted to be Munchkins! The longest audition was for "Disney's Beauty and The Beast - the audition took two full evenings.
Scenery - The scenic backdrops are over 50 feet wide and are approximately 25 feet high. Many of our productions have had wonderful scenery mainly built by our parent and community volunteers. "Peter Pan" scenery occupied more storage space at the theatre than any other set. The boat used in "Show Boat" was a two-floor scenery piece that moved on stage on a purpose-built "trailer". A three piece "train" was built for "Annie Get Your Gun" - it was complete with bunk beds. This same production was performed under a re-created Wild West Circus tent. In the production of "Carousel", an opening scene carnival setting included a carousel with real carousel horses. The New York tenement houses in "West Side Story" were covered with a brick finish that required 7 paint applications on each and every brick. The scenic artist who painted the backdrops for "Peter Pan" actually worked all night on Christmas night to paint two of the backdrops. "Peter Pan" also included the famous "nursery" set that diappeared offstage as Peter and the Children flew off to Neverland. In a routine scenery check done before a performance of "Fiddler On The Roof", it was discovered that a wheel under the rotating house had come off. The malfunctioning wheel was repaired by moving the house over the orchestra pit and our stage construction crew fixing the problem from under the house, perched on a ladder placed down in the pit.
Choreography - the longest single choreographed musical number was "Be Our Guest" in "Disney's Beauty and The Beast". The number lasted over 7 minutes. It was choreographed by Tamara Fay and Cherice Priest. However, the production of “Cats” required more choreography than any other single production. “Cats” was choreographed by Jordan Allarie and Shelby Rurak
Is there a Doctor in the house? - in one production, with less than five minutes to go before opening curtain, a certain lead actor collapsed onstage. We were forced to ask that frequently stated but seldom used question: "is there a Doctor in the house?".......fortunately with treatment from a doctor who happened to be in the audience, the actor was able to play his role when we opened the show twenty minutes late and the Director hastily preparing to "fill in".
Call 911!!!! - During a rehearsal for "Peter Pan", the stage "fog" floated into the hallway behind the stage area and triggered the theatre smoke alarms. The arrival of fire trucks and police cars, and a mandatory evacuation of the theatre, provided the actors and tech crews with an unscheduled, but welcomed, break from rehearsal.
