Theatre Unmade sparks opportunities for Guelph youth

A new theatre company is setting the stage in Guelph with it's youth created production.

Fin Janleigh and Nina De Vuono-Fraser have known each other for six years and met through the Guelph theatre scene.

They graduated last year from Guelph CVI. While in Grade 10 the pair were enrolled in the school’s MADE Urban Arts program. It's a program for artistically-inclined students to exercise their skills in a non-traditional school environment through acting, music, producing and more.

“Most of the people who were instrumental to creating it, and are currently running this show are alumni of that program. And I think that program definitely shaped a lot of the sort of theatre understanding and theatre principles and approach that we've sort of taken to build this company,” sand Janleigh.

Janleigh and De Vuono-Fraser have taken a gap year and Theatre Unmade is their project for the year. “We had kind of a running joke that if we were ever going to make a movie, or a production company it would be called Unmade Productions and that's where we stole the name from,” said De Vuono-Fraser.

A $500 grant from the Guelph Arts Council helped kick-start it. The arts council has provided rehearsal space free of charge. The cost alone for rehearsal space would have been over $1,000 and without the space Janleigh said the production may have not been possible.

Theatre Unmade’s purpose is to provide theatre opportunities for youth aged 16 to 25. There aren’t a lot of acting and crew opportunities for this age range in Guelph, said Janleigh. 

Working with young people brings new perspectives for a show that needs outside of the box thinking, said De Vuono-Fraser.

The first show the company will run is Incredibly Amateur Dracula. It is entirely written, directed and produced by Janleigh and De Vuono-Fraser. It's a slapstick comedy about an amateur theatre group attempting to put on a production of Dracula. "It's very meta. Very theatrically meta. Except that in their production, everything goes horribly wrong," said Janleigh.

Incredibly Amateur Dracula will run Aug. 23 to 25 at the Guelph Little Theatre. Tickets can be purchased online.

Starting a theatre company from scratch is no easy feat. There isn’t a fan base, social media following or financial backing yet. “We don't have any of that because we've never done anything before. So finding ways to not let that stop us and to work around that sort of thing has been a challenge. And I think we've thus far done a pretty good job of it, but it's been a ton of work,” said Janleigh.

To make the show as good as it can be a stuntman, clown and other mentors have been brought in for the cast and crew to learn from.

Theatre Unmade has a partnership with the Guelph Little Theatre where the production company is independent and operates at the theatre. It works closely with people at the Guelph Little Theatre and they have been a valuable resource for the company.

“Our plan is to not just have a wonderful one hit wonder, we will have a fantastic show and I'm super excited but we're also really excited to be able to do more next year,” said Janleigh.

She wants to keep building the company by providing more opportunities and supporting the arts in Guelph.

“The sky’s the limit,” said Janleigh.