Hannah Myers performs Opening Up from Waitress the Musical. (screengrab)

By Chris Brown

Past and current MHCBE students

Friends of McCoy’s path to a school theatre starts with online concert

Apr 21, 2021 | 4:09 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Countless talented performers have passed through the arts programs at Medicine Hat Catholic schools and now they’re making the future brighter for the next generations.

The Friends of McCoy Society has organized a virtual concert to kick off its campaign to build a new theatre and sports performance space at the school.

Hannah Myers, a 2011 McCoy grad who is performing in the virtual concert, says teachers there inspired her to pursue a career in the arts.

She says the new theatre will be groundbreaking for the school and students.

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“I think with McCoy it’s going to allow them to put the funding usually used in renting the college for example and put it towards getting the rights for better newer shows, more exciting things better costumes, better lighting, just an overall better fun experience,” she says. “Because then the kids can also learn how to do tech and they can learn how to do stage management and stuff like that. I think it would be a wonderful experience for them.”

Myers’ local credits include Beauty and the Beast, Shrek The Musical, The Sound of Music, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and Footloose.

She’s currently based in Vancouver, where she was recently in the award-winning short film Revenge of the Supermom. Next up she’ll be in the virtual Great Dionysia Festival based in New York City.

Myers adds she remembers that when she was at McCoy she would often wish they had a better space. She says being able to perform in this fundraising concert is like retroactively giving back to herself.

Helen Snortland is the co-ordinator of the virtual concert.

McCoy is the only high school in the city that doesn’t have its own theatre and so for decades been paying rent to put productions on around the community, says Snortland.

“The theatre space is very small. It’s a flat stage, basically an extended classroom with a little bit of lighting and sound,” she says. “It’s time to have something that matches the abilities of the students in the division.”

She says the new space will be a 280-seat theatre within a performance/athletics centre. It will be called the Sisters of Charity of St. Louis Centre and “will have everything that’s needed to put on productions from green room to dressing rooms to staging and lighting.”

They’ve been working with a theatre consultant to get the best possible venue for the performers and the audience.

The concert next weekend is a soft launch for fundraising. The main fundraising campaigns will start in October to coincide with celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the opening of Monsignor McCoy High School.

Alumni from the Catholic school division and current students will perform in the concert, which will be available at the McCoy High School and Catholic school division websites from 7 p.m. on April 30 to midnight on May 2.

Snortland says there will be singers, instrumentalists, bands, classrooms and choirs and 38 performances in all.

The concert is free to watch, but donations to the building of the theatre are appreciated.