{"id":43325,"date":"2017-02-01T17:35:39","date_gmt":"2017-02-01T21:35:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=43325"},"modified":"2017-02-02T10:11:51","modified_gmt":"2017-02-02T14:11:51","slug":"students-bringing-rock-opera-tommy-to-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2017\/02\/students-bringing-rock-opera-tommy-to-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Students bringing rock opera Tommy to life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brock Musical Theatre is ready to rock.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The latest production by the student-run group pays tribute to the 1969 rock opera <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tommy<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by English rockers The Who. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tommy<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> tells the story of a young man\u2019s quest to become the world\u2019s greatest pinball wizard.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Set during the Second World War and post-war England, the play follows Tommy as he grows up deaf and blind after witnessing his father commit murder.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The play chronicles his journey to connect and form deep relationships with other people, despite his limitations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe play touches on everyday struggles,\u201d said Dani Viola, third-year Concurrent Education student and BMT production director.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cTommy\u2019s journey really highlights that even though we\u2019re all different, we will go through the same struggles and we will overcome them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over the last five months, BMT has been working nearly every weekend to produce the musical. Working hard since September, the cast is eager for the show\u2019s debut at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre on Thursday, Feb. 2.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 20-person cast includes students across different disciplines, as well as a five-person youth ensemble featuring Niagara children from four to 10 years old.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This was the first time BMT put out an open call for local youth to be in a show.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cSince we\u2019re used to an all-adult cast, it was very interesting to interact and work with these kids,\u201d Viola said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThey have this great energy among them. Their local schools will be attending opening night, so there\u2019s a lot of excitement going around.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From Feb. 2 to 5, Brock Musical Theatre will put on five performances.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Students, staff and faculty, as well as the community at large, can purchase tickets\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.firstontariopac.ca\/Online\/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=EventArticle_16R59_The_Whos_Tommy&amp;BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::context_id=\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">online<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre box office. General admission tickets are $15.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Showtimes:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thursday, Feb. 2, 7:30 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Friday, Feb. 3, 7:30 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Saturday, Feb. 4, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sunday, Feb. 5, 2 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brock Musical Theatre is ready to rock. The latest production by the student-run group pays tribute to the 1969 rock opera Tommy by English rockers The Who. Tommy tells the story of a young man\u2019s quest to become the world\u2019s greatest pinball wizard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":43326,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,4],"tags":[4871,2909,4869,4870],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43325"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43325"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43332,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43325\/revisions\/43332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}