The cast of the musical Sister Act is singing the praises of theatre goers after close to $9,000 was collected from their audience to help relief efforts in Ukraine.
“We were all blown away by the generosity of everyone,” said director Lucas Beaver.
The $8,780 raised will go to the United Nations Refugee Agency to aid families displaced by the Russian invasion.
Donations were collected at the end of each performance on March 30 to April 2.
The war in Ukraine hit especially close to home for the cast, said Beaver, as some members are of Ukrainian heritage and others know people affected.
“The more that we raised it the more stories that came out of that from people whose families are still over there, and they haven’t heard from them. There are colleagues of people who still have houses over there and have no idea what their properties look like,” said Beaver.
Sister Act wrapped up its run Saturday night at the Sault Community Theatre Centre. It was the West End Theatre Project's first production of the season and was met with several challenges on the way to the stage due to pandemic restrictions and mandates during prime-time rehearsal blocks.
Even when the cast was able to get back on track with the loosening of restrictions, a bout of COVID ran through nine members of the ensemble, including Beaver, just weeks prior to opening night.
Beaver said it felt great to see the show come together in front of the live audience and credits the cast with a wonderful and seamless performance.
“We were able to present the production with a shorter rehearsal schedule than any other show I’ve ever worked on,” he said.
“But everybody worked really hard to make sure they were learning their material outside of rehearsal and working on their own together to get it where it needed to be.”
Next up for the theatre group is Elf The Musical from Nov. 30 to Dec. 4.
Auditions are set to take place May 15, 16 and 17.
Beaver will be looking to fill roles for a mostly adult cast save for two child main characters and a small group of children to play elves in the ensemble.