All doesn’t end well on Avenue Q, a gritty, yet hilarious Broadway musical which Lethbridge Theatre Company Hatrix Theatree is bringing to life at the Moose Hall May 5-9 and 12-16.
While the residents of Avenue Q may look like the friendly puppets from Sesame Street, it definitely isn’t your mother’s Sesame Street and it definitely isn’t for kids.
“Don’t expect any happy endings,” said Aiden Quinn, who plays Princeton while his dad, director Brian Quinn, shepherds his talented cast through the first rehearsal of a complete run through.
Avenue Q won the hearts and minds of Broadway in 2004, beating out Wicked for the Tony Award for the year.
It is the coming of age story of Princeton, a recent English degree bearing college graduate who tries to find his purpose in the world but ends up living on Avenue Q for financial reasons.
“ Princeton is me. I’m in my mid-20s and trying to find my purpose. I’m trying to figure out what to do,” Quinn said.
“I’m not anything like Kate Monster, though I used to teach kindergarten, though I was a kindergarten teaching assistant at one time. But Kate really has a monster side,” added New West Theatre veteran Jory Kohn, who plays Kate Monster — a kindergarten teaching assistant who wants to open her own school for monsters.
Princeton meets a variety of characters on the street including the porn fiend, the Trekkie Monster, the Bad Idea Bears, Lucy the Slut and “Gary Coleman” to name just a few and in the process explores a few mature themes including homelessness, unemployment, relationships, sexuality and racism.
The Lethbridge production features a talented cast and crew including Hatrix Theatre veterans as well as familiar faces from the University of Lethbridge and Lethbridge Musical Theatre’s production of Guys and Dolls.
Kohn said working with puppets has been a unique challenge.
“ It’s not about you, it’s the puppets,” she said noting the actors must not draw the audiences attention away from the puppets.
“So you have to use your voice and body language to convey their emotions,” she added, noting she has performed in puppet based shows before.
“ It’s been a challenge,” Quinn continued,” noting he hasn’t been in a show like Avenue Q.
He noted in addition to learning puppeteering itself, the cast has had to learn how to dance and sing with a puppet on their hand.
They are excited about the show.
“I’m really excited to see what the audience will think. It really pushes the envelope. It’s not what you’d expect to see in Lethbridge,” Kohn continued.
Director Brian Quinn is also excited to see the audience reaction to Avenue Q.
“ I’m really proud of this cast. I’m really pleased with all of the work they’ve done. Puppeteering is very physically demanding,” he said comparing puppeteering to the Skittles commercial where a town of arm wrestlers all have one massive bicep and one ordinary sized one.
“ They’ve got these puppets on their hand for a two hour show. It’s tough,” he said.
He noted ticket sales are going slow with only 25 per cent of them being sold.
“We did a lot of research on the internet,” she said adding she found instructions about how to build some of them.
“For the expressions I would create the head and left them for a few days and walked by them to see if they’d work. And we’ve had to experiment with magnets so they can pick up things. And I got clothes from the thrift store for them,” she said.
“ It’s been a good experience,” she said.
While the puppets are the main characters, there are also some key human characters who are also minorities, which resulted in some casting challenges as no minorities auditioned for the show.
Monique Prusky worked hard to avoid making her Japanese character Christmas Eve a stereotype.
“ She’s very smart. She has two masters degrees. She’s also very aggressive and direct,” Prusky observed.
“ As actors, we’re always playing someone we’re not. We’ve been very careful,” she said.
Quinn also has an experienced backstage crew, set designers and musicians including Sheri-Lynn Taylor and Derrick Taylor, Brian Quinn's son Aiden Quinn, Monique Prusky and Aimée McGurk who were in Lend Me A Tenor in the Fall and Natascha Lynn-Hill who was a dancer in Spamalot as well as Jennifer Anderson and Emmitt Campbell who were in Lethbridge Musical Theatre’s production of Guys and Dolls.
The cast also included University of Lethbridge actors Courtney Montgomery, Cole Alexander Fettig and Evan Herbert. The cast also includes New West Theatre veteran Jory Kohn.
Puppet designers Ariel White, Lisa Fjoryn and Sonya Hunter had the intricately designed puppets created months in advance so the actors had time to work with them.
Derek Taylor, a Hatrix veteran who was part of Spamalot last Spring, plays one half of two of the more interesting characters— Trekkie Monster and The Bad Idea Bears.
“The Bad Idea Bears are these cute little bears who give Princeton bad ideas. I get to perform with my lovely wife Sheri,” he said.
“ The Trekkie Monster is this guy who has an affinity for the Internet,” he said.
“I’m performing with Aimée McGurk. It’s a two person puppet. So it’s challenging,” he said.
He noted he wasn’t that familiar with the show before getting involved with the production, though he’d seen clips on YouTube of one of the show’s most popular songs — “ The Internet is For Porn.”
He said the people involved with the production have been a highlight of the show.
“They are wonderful people,” he said.
“ I hope people will enjoy watching the show as much as we’ve enjoyed learning it,” he said.
Avenue Q runs at the Moose Hall May 5-9 and 12-16. Doors open at 7 p.m., the shows begin at 8 p.m. each night.
Tickets cost $25 at CASA.
