The children’s theatre group Carousel Players is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a touring performance of The Velveteen Rabbit all over Niagara. On April 1, they’ll be hopping over to the Port Robinson Community Centre.
“The Velveteen Rabbit is our first production since all the way back in 2019,” Mallory Daley, the troupe’s tour manager, tells ThoroldToday. “We’ve been offering some digital shows during the pandemic but we are so excited to get back on the road and be in performance venues.”
The show, aimed at children ages four and up, is based on the book by Margery Williams.
“It’s about a young character named B,” says Daley. “It’s their birthday and they receive a stuffed animal toy bunny that they’re very close with. Our adaptation includes performance, dance, and music.”
Daley says the St. Catharines-based theatre troupe is very excited about performing again.
“Just seeing [the children’s] reaction is what we’ve missed the most,” she says. “Being able to be in schools with a presence digitally is not the same as being in a room in real time and seeing their live reaction to something that’s been created just for them.”
The current tour of The Velveteen Rabbit will culminate in a three-day theatre festival on Easter weekend.
“We’re really excited to engage with the community again,” says Daley. “We’re just so pleased that as a first re-entry into the community that we were able to do so with such a large presence all over the Niagara region.”
As to what the next 50 years will hold for the troupe?
“I think we’re just going to go back to our original mandate and vision: to make our programs accessible to as many people in the region as we can,” Daley says. “Even though the shows are made for kids, the beauty is that they’re for everyone. They really bring out the child at heart.”
Head over to this website if you want to buy tickets for The Velveteen Rabbit performance on April 1 at the Port Robinson Community Centre.
To find out what the troupe will be up to during their three-day festival in April, click here.
