Ovation Theater Company to perform Mamma Mia! at Londonderry Town Common

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The Ovation Theatre Company cast of “Mamma Mia!” courtesy photo.

LONDONDERRY, NHOvation Theater Company, a new Londonderry-based youth theater company that teaches various elements of theater at drama camps and produces plays and musicals each year will be putting on its first-ever performance of Mamma Mia! this weekend at the Londonderry Town Common.

Meg Gore, the owner and artistic director of Ovation Theater Company, said the company, which she founded with her husband Dan Gore in January 2019, just wrapped its “innOvation” summer camp schedule held at their recently renovated headquarters at 61 Harvey Road the couple bought in early 2020.

The camps are structured into small groups of kids ages 7 to 14 (flexible for siblings) and they followed COVID safety guidelines that were in force the previous year to keep the groups small and separate. 

The cast of their shows usually have older youths, including some camp counselors, in the cast. Mamma Mia! has a cast of 30 actors ages 14 to 23. She said the cast is “phenomenal” and has been working very hard.

“It’s one of my favorites,” Gore said of Mamma Mia! “The kids love it. A lot of dancing and music that people will recognize. It’s a jukebox musical so that story is kinda loosely woven through the songs, but it’s a lot of fun.”

The show will run on Friday, Saturday and Sunday with performances at 7 p.m. Admission is $15 per person, and tickets are available online or at the gate. Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more if you reach out to the company.

Gore directed the musical, her daughter Katy is the choreographer, son Tim is stage manager and Kevin Fisher is the music director.

“The response for buying tickets has been really good. I think people are really excited about seeing live theater again,” Gore said.

And she said the young cast has been itching to get out and do theater again.

Gore said the Londonderry United Methodist Church is letting the troupe use the church facility to store costumes, meet to do warmups and rehearse.

Over the past year, the company continued to produce shows such as A Chorus Line outside in the Londonderry Middle School parking lot last summer. In January and February this year, they did a few virtual shows over Zoom: 10 Ways to Survive Life In Quarantine by playwright Don Zolidis, and The Audition by the same writer.

At the end of June they performed Snow Angel at the Matthew Thornton Elementary School gymnasium in Londonderry.

Coming up, Ovation will have a new camp course offering in the fall plus an all-ages cabaret. In December, they’ll perform Elf Jr. and a musical called Thirteen is scheduled for January.

Camps range $225 for one week to $435 for two weeks.


 

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Ryan Lessard

Ryan Lessard is a freelance reporter.