NEW HAMBURG — It requires a lot of talent and chutzpah for any community theatre group to stage a big musical such as Fiddler on the Roof, and luckily, The Community Players of New Hamburg have plenty of both.

The amateur company, simply known as The Community Players, has been putting on major productions for nearly 30 years, spending their early years in a wee community room over the New Hamburg arena hockey rink. As audience enthusiasm grew, the company moved downstairs to the arena itself, where broken teeth, hockey pucks and screaming fans are the norm. Transforming that hard-knock space into Trinity Theatre required imagination and a lot of cutting and sawing and sewing and sweat, but the results are quite astonishing.

Over the years, the company has produced several big productions, from Aida to The Music Man and you can’t do that successfully without a lot of talent, which they seem to have in abundance, drawing from across Waterloo Region and Stratford.

Fiddler is not faultless as a production. The dancing is a bit weak, with the exception of a few girls who obviously have had dance training, but the choreography is simple enough and the company fully redeems itself with the vocals, particularly Kirk Lackenbauer as a robust and very likable Tevye.

Lackenbauer works by day as a technical sales rep as well as singing professionally with several vocal ensembles, including the Menno Singers. In this role, which he has played in the past, Lackenbauer becomes Tevye. He has the mannerism, comic timing, the depth and stunning vocals to carry the part and he doesn’t overdo the accent. There is just enough lilt to make him believable.

Sally Bryant, as his wife Golde, is equally generous of voice, though according to her bio, she has only done amateur productions and this is her Players’ debut. Rob Grundy, who plays Tevye’s son-in-law Perchik, has been a company member since 2002 and sings with a beautiful, clear tenor.

Fiddler was a 1964 Broadway musical set in the small Jewish community of Anatevka, in 1905 czarist Russia, where people’s lives are steeped in religious traditions. But this is the eve of the Russian Revolution, and everything is about to change. Tevye is the father of five strong-willed daughters who have different ideas about arranged marriages and openly defy their soft-hearted father. He gives in to two, but not the third, Chava, who runs off to marry a Christian. This is a sin Tevye cannot forgive.

His struggles with his daughters are exacerbated when Russian soldiers are sent into the countryside to rid communities of their Jewish citizens. Everything he has held dear begins to slip away.

Fiddler is a deeply moving story and the music, by Jerry Bock, is unforgettable, with tunes that are so familiar and singable. Then there are the humorous one-sided conversations Tevye has with God. As his world falls apart, he complains that yes, the Jews are the chosen people, but couldn’t God just this once, choose someone else?

With 55 cast members, at least 50 backstage, Fiddler is a big production, performed on an enormous and extremely well-designed stage backed by a full orchestra, all neatly tucked behind the scenes. The 20 musicians, including conductor Laurence Gauci, are themselves an eclectic group. Several have performed with the company on other shows, a couple are new and some play together in other ensembles such as the Stratford Concert Band. Ages range from high school students to retirees and their sound is very polished, nice and tight.

When the curtain rises this weekend for its six-show run, Fiddler will become a showcase for what a group of volunteers can accomplish with hard work and ingenuity and when it’s all over, the stage will be folded and tucked away, the curtains packed up and Trinity Theatre will vanish.

Fiddler on the Roof

May 9 to 12, 8 p.m., with 2 p.m. matinees on Saturday and Sunday.

Trinity Theatre (New Hamburg Arena), 251 Jacob St., New Hamburg

Tickets are $29 for adults and $22 for children.

1-800-827-7524 or visit www.thecommunityplayers.com.

View the article at TheRecord.com: http://www.therecord.com/whatson/artsentertainment/article/931537–new-hamburg-s-fiddler-on-the-roof-is-masterful

Performances run from Thursday to Sunday afternoon and some seats remain for each show! Don’t miss the excitement, sadness, laughter and tears of this powerful story.

Click here to purchase tickets.

You’ll be seeing us again this fall on our brand new stage named the Studio Theatre. Different from our larger musical stage in the Trinity Theatre, the Studio Theatre will be an intimate 150 seat performance space for non musical works, specially created for the community hall within the New Hamburg Community Centre.

The inaugural production will be Reginald Rose’s classic jury room drama, 12 Angry Men, directed by TCP Alumni Lance Green.

12 Angry Men, presented in the Studio Theatre at the New Hamburg Community Centre runs November 7, 8 and 9, 2013, with auditions scheduled for June 8 and 9^th, 2013. Full show and audition details can be found in the coming weeks at thecommunityplayers.com.

And now, back to Fiddler on the Roof. The stage is set, the orchestra poised to play and the lights fading to black, The Community Players invite you to the little village of Anatevka, on the eve of the Russian Revolution and to one of our favourite traditions.

Fiddler on the Roof  is now onstage. Great seats remain for all performances. See you at the show!

By: Scott Cressman
New Hamburg Independent staff

Local actors and volunteers are setting the stage for another grand musical in New Hamburg this spring.

The Community Players will reveal their version of the classic Fiddler on the Roof from May 9 to May 12. The 50-member cast is working hard to ready their performances, and 150 other volunteers are eagerly looking forward to bringing this year’s TCP show to life over the course of six shows.

This is the third time in its 29-year history that Wilmot’s acclaimed amateur theatre troupe has produced Fiddler on the Roof.

“Fiddler’s a show that you hold very close,” said Brent Roth, TCP’s artistic director. “People love to be in it, people love to watch it. It’s got all the good stuff in it; it’s got humour, it’s got sadness, it’s got amazing music and great characters.”

This year, first-time director Danielle Guistini-Crouse is looking to make her mark on the popular musical. She’s a TCP veteran making her directorial debut after many other roles, both on- and off-stage.

Fiddler on the Roof is a familiar story for Guistini-Crouse; it’s the same play that provided her first role with The Community Players back in 2002.

“I have such a fondness for this show and such fondness for The Community Players,” she said. “It was such a great experience that to come back and do this is awesome to me.”

“It’s really quite remarkable,” agreed Brent Roth, TCP’s artistic director. “Now she’s coming full circle.”

As the hand guiding this year’s TCP show, Guistini-Crouse is seeing the show evolve from the rough beginnings to a polished product. Rehearsals are following a tight schedule to have every line, every dance, and every scene change down pat for opening night.

“It’s so exciting… seeing how some actors are changing from the very first readings to where they are now,” she said. “They’ve really come a long way.”

“I can’t express how talented they are,” she added. “And how excited they are about what they’re doing and that just spills over.”

Some of that excitement comes from the source material. Kirk Lackenbauer is playing the lead role of Tevye for the fourth time in his acting career. But each version of the show is made fresh by a new director’s vision, he said.

Playing a part in the classic Fiddler on the Roof has long been one of her goals as an actor, said Sally Bryant, an actor from Stratford in her first TCP show. The amateur actors are there because they love putting a show together, she said.

“You still put all that hard work into it that professionals would…but we still come back to do it, for the thrill of it,” Bryant said.

Next week, TCP’s volunteers will begin to reshape the old New Hamburg arena into an elaborate set. The Community Players take pride in their creative, immersive sets, and Roth said this year’s should again impress audiences.

“It’s a big job,” said the artistic director. “It’s one of the magical things we do, to transform the arena into the Trinity Theatre.”

Fiddler on the Roof’s story begins in a Jewish community in Tsarist Russia of 1905, where the Jews face an increasingly hostile climate. The story follows Tevye, his wife Golde, and their daughters, who all must balance the family’s faithful traditions against the risks of a changing modern world.

Dark themes of discrimination and anti-Semitism stir up the characters’ lives. The story also leaves space for laughter and joy, but TCP won’t shy away from the ugly moments, Guistini-Crouse said.

“This show runs the gamut of wonderful, humourous moments and beautiful, warm, touching moments and these very dark moments too,” she said. “We’re trying to show the whole array of emotions.”

“It’s happy and it’s horrific at the same time,” Roth agreed, adding that the story’s struggles of faith, family and politics are still mirrored in today’s culture.

“It’s very real,” he said. “But it’s delivered in a way that makes you laugh, too.”

When facing a musical that has been performed countless times around the world, Guistini-Crouse decided not to watch other productions for inspiration. Instead, the young director read the story in its original form: a Yiddish book published in 1894. She also talked with people knowledgeable about Jewish culture, to help TCP get those details right.

“I just knew I didn’t want it to be like anything else. I knew I wanted it to be different,” she explained.

This musical’s rich dose of Jewish history and culture are both a challenge and a
highlight, she said.

This will be TCP’s third production of Fiddler on the Roof since the early 1990s, and the company is mindful not to repeat itself, Roth said: “One of the challenges is to bring it to life in a fresh, new and vibrant way, so it doesn’t feel like a Fiddler you’ve ever seen before.”

“I love the relationships that are involved with the characters. There are so many memorable characters…and then the music is just spectacular and gets under your skin,” Guistini-Crouse said.

Tickets are still available online at thecommunityplayers.com, or at the New Hamburg Arena on Jacob Street. The box office is open every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. until the shows begin May 9.

TCP has also used each year’s ticket revenue to give back more than $50,000 to the community, according to the group’s website. This year’s donation to the Wilmot Family Resource Centre was just under $2,000.

Read the full story and view more pictures at newhamburgindependent.ca

This amount reflects $1 from every ticket sold during the “Buy Early and Save” promotion which recently concluded. Celia Jones, TCP President presented the cheque to WFRC Executive Director Trisha Robinson and Board Chairperson Jim Miller.

TCP is pleased to be able to contribute in such a meaningful way to the community, something that has been at the heart of our organization since its inception in 1984.

TCP presents “Fiddler on the Roof” May 9 – 12 in the Trinity Theatre at the New Hamburg Arena. Tickets are available at thecommunityplayers.com

Photo Credit Scott Williams – Capturing the Light Photography.

Living up to our motto of “community theatre at its very best,“ year after year, show after show, requires excellence in every area: our creative and directing teams, our cast, our orchestra—and of course our equipment. Over the years TCP has decided to buy, rather than repeatedly rent, various pieces of equipment, such as the huge wooden blocks that make up our stage, audience risers, and, this year, high-end keyboards.

An excellent orchestra is crucial to the success of our show each year, and assembling one requires both top-notch musicians (including many professionals, who donate their time to our productions) and high-quality instruments. Most of our musicians bring their own instruments, but in the case of keyboards that’s not realistic. Until now, TCP has rented the required keyboards, amplifiers and accessories each year. Balancing excellence and financial prudence is always a challenge, and with a rehearsal schedule that begins three months before performances, renting the appropriate instruments has sometimes proved difficult, and has always been expensive.

The long-term financial savings and creative opportunities that this purchase represents will go a long way toward helping TCP continue to provide “community theatre at its very best.”

TCP’s production of Fiddler on the Roof is on stage in the Trinity Theatre at the New Hamburg Arena May 9 – 12. Tickets are now on sale at thecommunityplayers.com or through our phoneline at 1-800-827-7524. Tickets are also available for in person sales every Saturday from 10am – 1pm at the TCP Ticket Office at the New Hamburg Arena, 251 Jacob Street.

Don’t miss TCP’s fresh new retelling of everyone’s favourite musical classic, Fiddler on the Roof.

To purchase tickets online click the link below:

Tickets can also be purchased in person at the Trinity Theatre Box Office – at the New Hamburg Arena – 251 Jacob St. New Hamburg. The box office is open today until 12 noon and every Saturday until the show from 10am-1pm.

Special Ticket Promotion

From today until March 31st, TCP will be offering a special price reduction in the cost of adult tickets to $24*. Group discount does not apply. TCP has always looked for ways in which to keep community theatre affordable and this special promotion achieves this. Regular ticket prices after March 31st are $29 for adults and $22 for children 13 and under.

We’ve always said that there’s not a bad seat in the Trinity Theatre at the New Hamburg Arena. With the furthest seat being no more than 60′ from the stage, we’ve just launched an application on our website to show you exactly what we mean.

Interactive Seating Preview

TCP is pleased to launch our Trinity Theatre Seating Preview which shows images from various seating positions in the theatre and their respective view of the stage.