Local theatre instructor Bonnie Catterson Kent’s Kismet Theatre Academy will showcase its first kids show in three years after the school re-opened operations in her home-based studio this September.
Courage: A Musical Revue features performances from Kismet’s junior musical theatre class and takes place at the OV Arts Centre at 1 p.m. on Dec. 2.
Catterson Kent was a local teenage musical theatre star and dancer who attended the Canadian College of Performing Arts in Victoria after high school, and then began a film and television career in Vancouver, where she helped found the Lyric School of Acting.
By 2012, Catterson Kent felt ready to head her own academy, and opened Kismet’s doors with an eye towards fostering connections and providing a venue for both beginners just finding their voice and more serious actors seeking to fine-tune their skills.
Kismet became a hub for students of all ages, orientations and skill levels, and after years of performances and classes, Catterson Kent reluctantly shuttered Kismet’s original Victoria Road location in the summer of 2020, citing both the challenge of the pandemic and her own ongoing struggles with severe and chronic autoimmune illnesses.
“It was really hard for me those three years being dark,” says Catterson Kent. “Yes, I was extremely sick, and could not have continued Kismet the way it was before, with having a commercial lease and needing to teach five or six classes a week just to pay the bills, because I was just not well enough to do that.”
Then Miles Kehoe, who was first a teen student and has since become a collaborator and peer mentor at Kismet, suggested she open a studio in her house, and Catterson Kent says it just clicked.
“It was just like one of these big ‘aha’ moments,” Catterson Kent says with a laugh.
“She is a powerhouse and our arts and culture community deeply benefits from her additions,” says Kehoe, via text message. “When I suggested a home studio to her, we had been discussing her accessibility needs, and it seemed like the perfect fit. I’m so happy to see that with the support of her community and her partner she has built this from a dream to a reality.”
With help from her carpenter husband and sometimes-actor/set designer/musical director and all-around great guy Andrew Kent, the studio got built and this fall Kismet once again opened its doors to students.
The upcoming performance emerged organically and somewhat unexpectedly out of the students’ enthusiasm during musical theatre classes, says Catterson Kent, which she taught with vocal instructor Mary Littlejohn.
“It was [originally] just supposed to be a showcase. You know, a lot of the kids were super green, they’d never taken any kind of class before. They were very unsure. But once we had them there for a couple of weeks, they just got super into it. So we ended up creating this whole show, it’s a musical review using pop and musical theater songs. BI wrote — as I do — an original script around it based on the characters they were interested in playing, and funny little things that they would say,” she says.
Many of the young students went from being reluctant performers to ending up wanting to sing their own solos, and though the classes were only 10 weeks long, they learned their lines quickly and what started as a casual showcase for friends and family became something much more.
“I think the audience is just going to be so uplifted. It makes my heart so happy. It’s been such a dark time for everybody, and it’s just the kind of joy that we all need. I’m really, really proud of them,” says Catterson Kent.
Courage plays at the OV Arts Centre on Dec. 2 at 1 p.m. and tickets are $25 for adults and $20 for seniors and students, and can be purchased by email at bonniekismettheatrecollective@gmail.com or with cash at the door.
