The Lion King Jr.

Hakuna Matata. It means no worries…but apparently also “put on five shows consecutively and absolutely crush it.”

Going back to my musical theatre roots, this ridiculously talented group of young actors performed a stage adaptation of The Lion King not once, not twice, but five times. For their grand finale, we rolled in a broadcast kit and filmed the show so every child and their parents now have a high-definition, pause-and-replay-forever video to proudly (and embarrassingly) relive at every future dinner party.

As the Technical Producer on this project, I was the one babysitting the remote broadcast kit from setup to teardown. I live-switched the camera angles to be recorded like a caffeinated octopus, and coordinated audio with the venue so everything sounded crisp. In other words, I am personally responsible for the ridiculously high-quality video everyone will now be sending to relatives, group chats, and unsuspecting strangers for years to come.

As part of my Television Technical Producing class, I joined this chaos-loving crew and trekked 1.5 hours (twice!) to the venue to film both the rehearsal and the grand finale. I worked with the Producer and Director to frame the shots, and teamed up with the Art Director to create the graphics for the tape, and then sprinkled some final edits on the video to make it even more “wow, that’s crisp". I was also the designated ‘Person Who Panics Quietly When Technology Breaks in the Middle of the Show’ in the theatre.

State Academy has been around for years, consistently turning out stellar productions with ridiculously talented young actors. This show, though, wasn’t just about belting out “Circle of Life” — it doubled as a fundraiser to help launch a proper theatre program in their small hometown of Caledon, Ontario.

The performance even featured speeches from the Mayor of Caledon and the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services. Thanks to this production, they raised enough money to build a dedicated theatre and rehearsal space in a local community centre. Before this, the cast was squeezing into a tiny room to rehearse and travelling an hour away just to perform — so yes, this fundraiser literally brought theatre closer to home.