Beauty and the Beast production drama teachers final bow

BEDFORD
By Yvette d'Entremont - The Weekly News
After 27 years of directing Charles P. Allen High School's annual drama production, Kim Dompierre will be taking her final bow this April.
"This will be my last. I'm hanging it up," Dompierre confirmed last week. "I think it has been developed as a very well-oiled machine."
The Bedford high school's annual production is eagerly anticipated and well-attended, and Dompierre said she's thrilled that so many staff members are now actively volunteering their time.
"It has certainly become an event in the building that everyone is involved in," she said.
This year's large scale production of Beauty and the Beast will include lavish costumes being rented from a New York-based company and described by Dompierre as "spectacular."
"We try each year to emphasize a different aspect in our productions. It's dance one year, costumes another year," Dompierre said.
The show will be the school's (and Dompierre's) 18th musical. It joins a roster of well-known productions that include Grease, Kiss Me Kate, My Fair Lady, Fiddler on the Roof and Les Miserables.
The show runs April 1, 2 and 3 but rehearsals are already well underway for the cast of 67 students. More than 120 young people will participate in the overall production, taking on jobs ranging from acting to backstage and pit crews.
"This is a huge commitment on everybody's part. These students will be rehearsing three to four days per week," Dompierre said.
Directing and producing the musical is also a massive undertaking for Dompierre, who puts in about 10 to 15 hours per week over and above rehearsal times. The Beauty and the Beast production is being choreographed by Jodi Bucci, with Nathan Beeler taking on the role of music director.
"There's also huge cost to this production. The total cost is around $27,000 to put this on and to stage it with all the rights and costumes and sets and everything," said Dompierre, who supports the Cobequid Cultural Centre of the Arts Society and their efforts to establish a venue to serve communities in and around Bedford and Sackville.
"A lot of that cost is incurred because we don't have a facility (in our region) so we have to transform a gym into a theatre. We have to do that each and every year and that wouldn't happen if we had a proper facility for the area."
Despite the lack of a locally established venue, Dompierre said they were determined to make the event more comfortable for this year's audience. Instead of sitting on the customary gymnasium bleachers for more than two hours, spectators will enjoy padded seats.
"It limited seating to 400, but the seating will be much more improved, more comfortable to sit in," she said. "That's important because we get a lot of grandparents and people who find it difficult to sit on hard bleachers for so long."
Tickets won't go on sale until March 1. Ticket information will be available on the Charles P. Allen High School website or by calling 832-8964.
ydentremont@hfxnews.ca