For an evening packed with musical treats, Bashaw Community Theatre presents the ‘Live Music Nightclub’ on March 28th.
Showtime is 7 p.m. at the Majestic Theatre, and tickets are $25 (which includes one free drink).
Tickets are available at the Bashaw Neighbourhood Place or online at bashawcommunitytheatre.com. This performance is described as being for adults only due to some language and mature content.
The evening will feature the very talented Andrea Benoit, Holly Chappell Benoit and Anna Kochendorfer along with guest musician Mark Isleifson.
“Like most little girls, I was put into dance lessons when I four. And I hated it,” recalled Andrea with a laugh. “I was horrible at it and I didn’t have any fun, so after one year of that I told my mom I didn’t want to be in dance anymore and that I wanted to be a singer. She was very happy about that because singing lessons were much less expensive than dance!”
At around five years of age, she dove into singing lessons with Stettler’s Rhonda Sylvester. She also sang with local choir the Gracenotes as well.
She eventually studied at Augustana University where she earned her bachelor of music degree.
Andrea noted that for the Live Music Nightclub, the focus is on kicking back and having fun with a bevy of musical theatre numbers. “This is our fun, creative, not-being-so-serious kind of music we are going to be doing,” she added. “This is a night of fun. We are hoping that it’s just going to be all goofiness and hilarity - not anything too serious or too formal. It’s going to be more what Holly and I would call a cabaret style, too - food, drink and music,” she explained.
“We will also do costume changes that kind of fit the theme of a particular set.”
For Holly, a love of music surfaced early on as well.
”I come from a very musical family,” she explained of her roots. “I also did choir all the way through elementary and high school, but I didn’t take any formal voice lessons until I was in university,” she said, adding that it was at Augustana that she and Andrea met. “We were both in the choir there, and we both took lessons.”
As mentioned, Anna Kochendorfer along with guest musician Mark Isleifson will be joining the show, too. Both are tremendously talented in their own right, said Andrea.
“Mark is just a really fun guy. He loves to be challenged, so when he found out we were doing our own little night of music, he asked if he could be involved and we were very excited that he offered his skills because he’s a great guitar player, too.”
In terms of hitting the stage, both women find the process - and the presentation - exhilarating.
“There’s a fulfillment in working really hard and then performing the pieces and having people enjoy them,” said Holly. “It’s also about spending time together and challenging ourselves musically. Some musical theatre songs have a lot of fun challenges.”
Andrea agreed. “
“Holly and I perform well together - we are really good friends, and we are sisters-in-law now. So just the chance to get together with people you love and people you love spending time with and working really hard on something together - it feels really good. And it almost gives you an excuse to spend time together!
“And like Holly said, there is this huge sense of accomplishment when you are able to climb a mountain or pass a hurdle with what you want to say - there’s also a rush when you get in front of an audience. The anxiety leading up to it makes you question why on earth you would do this to yourself, and then you get up there and that feeling of success makes it all worth it for sure.”