The Grand Theatre High School Project
DISNEY'S

Newsies
The Musical

Music by Alan Menken
Lyrics by Jack Feldman
Book by Harvey Fierstein
Based on the Disney Film written by Bob Tzudiker and Noni White
Originally produced on Broadway by Disney Theatrical Productions

September 17 to September 27, 2025

Opening Night: Friday, September 19

Spriet Stage

Jump to: Tickets & Story | Videos & Gallery | Cast & Creative Team

Running Time: 2h 25m, including one intermission.

Age Recommendation: 8+

Audience Advisory: Mild language and violence.

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Upcoming Shows & Tickets

September 17, 2025 | 7:30pm Get Tickets

September 18, 2025 | 7:30pm Get Tickets

September 19, 2025 | 8:00pm Get Tickets

September 20, 2025 | 2:00pm Get Tickets

September 20, 2025 | 8:00pm Get Tickets

September 21, 2025 | 2:00pm Get Tickets

September 23, 2025 | 7:30pm Get Tickets

September 24, 2025 | 7:30pm Get Tickets

September 25, 2025 | 7:30pm Get Tickets

September 26, 2025 | 8:00pm Get Tickets

September 27, 2025 | 2:00pm Get Tickets

September 27, 2025 | 8:00pm Get Tickets

Full Calendar & Tickets

Jack leads a group of young newsies in a strike that makes the history books - and the headlines. Built and performed by the Grand Theatre High School Project students!

17 & Under pricing available! Explore tickets now.

Step into turn-of-the-century New York City, a time of skyscrapers and money makers, with Disney’s Newsies. This year's Grand Theatre High School Project production tells the story of charismatic Jack Kelly and his gritty band of newsies, united in the fight against greedy newspaper giants.

But when greedy publishing giants decide to raise distribution prices at the newsies’ expense, it’s up to Jack and his pals to be stronger together and fight for what’s right!

Famed for its imaginative and iconic dance sequences, this vibrant musical spectacular is based on the 1992 Disney motion picture, inspired by a true story, and features a Tony Award-winning score that includes songs such as “Carrying the Banner,” “Seize the Day,” and “King of New York.”

Pictured: Keirah Buckley, Trent Robichaud, & Paxton Nair. Costume Design by Lisa Wright. Mai Tilson Photography.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE High School Project

The Student Company of Disney's Newsies

Cast

Marissa Allen
HANNAH / ENSEMBLE

Abena Baah-Frimpong
SEITZ/ ENSEMBLE

Hayden Baertsoen
ROMEO / ENSEMBLE

Sophia Belleth
MEDDA LARKIN / ENSEMBLE

Keirah Buckley
KATHERINE PLUMBER / ENSEMBLE

Joshua Cassar
MORRIS DELANCEY / ENSEMBLE

Leland Chafee
CRUTCHIE / ENSEMBLE

Marina Daminelli Krieck
MOTHER ABBESS / ENSEMBLE

Isaac De Melo
HENRY / ENSEMBLE

Evan Doerr
ELMER / ENSEMBLE / FIGHT CAPTAIN

Shakotshanunyatha Doxtator
OSCAR DELANCEY / ENSEMBLE

Josephine Gajasan
MS JACOBI / ENSEMBLE

Sam Harson
DARCY / ENSEMBLE

Isabelle Hiltz
JO JO / ENSEMBLE

Aya Holzberg
ALBERT / ENSEMBLE

Alexis Khanna
MUSH / ENSEMBLE

Solange Kirkwood
SPOT CONLON / ENSEMBLE

Eva Klimchuk
MIKE / ENSEMBLE

Rendall Lackenbauer
BILL / ENSEMBLE

Jack Lindsay
SPLASHER / ENSEMBLE / CO-DANCE CAPTAIN

Lara Manocchi
NUN / ENSEMBLE

Morgan McLenaghan
ROOSEVELT / ENSEMBLE

Erica Mota
EXTRA EXTRA! / ENSEMBLE

Paxton Nair
DAVEY / ENSEMBLE

Tessa Pritchett-White
LES / ENSEMBLE

Taylor Reaume-Cunning
FINCH / ENSEMBLE

Hannah Reid
IKE / ENSEMBLE

Trent Robichaud
JACK KELLY / ENSEMBLE

Sal Rogers
SHERLOCK / ENSEMBLE

Santiago Rojas
BUNSEN / ENSEMBLE

Solarah Rose
SPECS / ENSEMBLE

Olivia Schiedel
BUTTONS / ENSEMBLE / CO-DANCE CAPTAIN

Alexandra Stockford
JOSEPH PULITZER / ENSEMBLE

Navya Vaillancourt
SNYDER / ENSEMBLE

Desi vanBeek-Paterson
RACE / ENSEMBLE

Chloe Webb
WIESEL / ENSEMBLE

David Weber
TOMMY BOY / ENSEMBLE

Lyla Worrall
WATSON / ENSEMBLE

Orchestra

Cloe Royer
CLARINET

Daniel Tennant
KEYS 2, MUSIC ASSISTANT

Production

Adelaide Alcantara
LIGHTING

Reagan Berdan
WARDROBE

Zane Donohue
WARDROBE

Olivia Lee
WARDROBE

Meyer Liston
WARDROBE

Eris Marles
WARDROBE

Virginia McCallum
WARDROBE

Madelaine Prémont
WARDROBE

Jordan Porter
PHOTOGRAPHY & MARKETING

Abby Cullaton
SCENIC ART

Koda Greene-Cavanagh
SCENIC ART

Maks Garside
PROPS

Chloe Laporte
PROPS

Hazel Nicholson
PROPS

Caelin Smeenk
PROPS

Elliot Hull
SOUND

Alyssa McCulloch
SOUND

Mollie Jennings
STAGE MANAGEMENT

Quentin Vieira
STAGE MANAGEMENT

Joni Lau
STAGE CREW

Ava Lewis
CARPENTRY

Creative Team

RAY HOGG

Director

For the Grand Theatre: Controlled Damage.

Theatre Credits (Selected): Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 (Mirvish/Crow’s/Musical Stage Co); A Strange Loop (Soulpepper, Crow’s, TO Live, Musical Stage Co); Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar & Grill (Theatre Calgary); Dixon Road, Starwalker (The Musical Stage Company); Da Kink In My Hair (Arts Club Theatre Co); Cats, The Producers, Sister Act, Shrek, Little Shop of Horrors (Rainbow Stage); Five Guys Named Moe, Dreamgirls, Billy Elliot (Neptune Theatre); Indecent (Segal Centre); Mary Poppins, Love and Information, An Enemy of the People, Damn Yankees and Chicago (Sheridan College).

Other: He has held two tenures as an Artistic Director that ushered in record-breaking artistic success at Rainbow Stage (2012 - 2017) and The Musical Stage Company (2021-2025). He is the founding Artistic Director of Prime Mover Theatre Company and an Associate Artist at Neptune Theatre.

Matthew Atkins

Music Director

For the Grand Theatre: The Phantom of the Opera, Finding Black Joy, The Great Grand Road Trip, Comfort & Joy.

Theatre Credits (Selected): Legally Blonde, Urinetown, The SpongeBob Musical, Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical, Big Fish (Original Kids Theatre); Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Musical Theatre Productions).

Other: B.Mus., B.Ed., M.Mus. from Western University. Matthew is a secondary school teacher with the Thames Valley District School Board. He is also the Artistic Director of the London Gospel Collective. @matkinsmusic.

Krista Leis

Choreographer

For the Grand Theatre: Pride and Prejudice.

Theatre Credits (Selected): Choreographer: In Studio: The Words and Music of Britta Johnson (Theatre Sheridan); Snow White: The Panto (The Capitol Theatre). Associate/Assistant Choreographer: La Cage Aux Folles, Man of La Mancha, West Side Story (Stratford Festival). In The Heights (Associate Director and Choreographer, Theatre Sheridan); Jesus Christ Superstar (Broadway); 10 seasons as a performer with the Stratford Festival.

Film and TV Credits: Roxana (Bravo); The Music Man (Disney); Romeo and Juliet (Stratfest at Home).

Other: Krista is also the proud owner of The Movement Centre Pilates and Rehabilitation Studio in Stratford, ON.

Joshua Quinlan

Set Design Consultant

For the Grand Theatre: Million Dollar Quartet.

Theatre Credits (Selected): Casey And Diana, Every Little Nookie (Stratford Festival); Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, Uncle Vanya (Crow’s/Mirvish); The Master Plan (Crow’s/Soulpepper/Aquarius); Rosmersholm, Wights (Crow’s); Hamlet (Canadian Stage); Casey And Diana (Aquarius/RMTC); Hedda Gabler, Yerma (Coal Mine); The Sound of Music, The Music Man (TIP); Waitress, Little Shop of Horrors (Port Hope); The Drawer Boy, My Hero (PSFT); An Enemy of the People, Don Giovanni, Stupid F*cking Bird (OSU).

Other: MFA Theatre – Design, The Ohio State University; BA Honours Drama, University of Windsor. Siminovitch Protégé Designer, Dora Award Winner.

Lisa Wright

Costume Designer

For the Grand Theatre: Head of Wardrobe 2008 – present. Homes: A Refugee Story, High School Projects: Matilda the Musical, The Phantom of the Opera, Into the Woods, Titanic, Prom Queen, Evita, Les Misérables School Edition, Hello, Dolly!, The Addams Family: A New Musical, Legally Blonde, My Fair Lady, Footloose, Anything Goes, Grease. Other: Art, The Mountaintop, Fly Me to the Moon, Hair. Assistant Head of Wardrobe for 7 seasons; came to the Grand Theatre as a tailor in 1989.

Theatre Credits (Selected): The Stratford Festival, Livent, Lighthouse Festival Theatre, Banff Theatre Centre.

Echo Zhou周芷會

Lighting Designer

For the Grand Theatre: Debut.

Theatre Creduts (Selected): Benevolence, A Poem for Rabia (Tarragon Theatre); Comfort Food (Crow's Theatre); Blind Dates, The Year of the Cello (Theatre Passe Muraille); Cymbeline (Stratford Festival); Rocking Horse Winner (Tapestry Opera); The Chinese Lady (Studio 180); Between a Wok and a Hotpot (Cahoots Theatre); HMS Pinafore (Vancouver Opera); Every Brilliant Thing (Thousand Island Playhouse); White Girls in Moccasins (Manidoons Collective); Mr.Shi and His Lover (Music Picnic).

Other: Echo is an award-winning, proud Chinese immigrant and Tkaronto-based scenographer. Her designs have been presented in Japan and China. Echo is a member of the Associated Designers of Canada. For Grandpa, 獻給敬愛的嗲嗲。 www.echozhoudesign.com.

Emily Porter

Sound Designer

For The Grand Theatre: The Sound of Music, Home for the Holidays, Into the Woods, Prom Queen, Titanic.

Theatre Credits (Selected): Rez Gas, Waitress, The Full Monty, A Year With Frog & Toad, The Ballad of Stompin’ Tom (The Capitol Theatre); Midsummer Night’s Deam: 1970’s Musical, The Sound Of Music (The Citadel); Jersey Boys (Charlottetown Festival); Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson Apt. 2B, This is Tom Jones! (The Human Race Theatre); Little Women, Monty Python’s SPAMALOT (Stratford Festival); Beauty & The Beast (The Globe Theatre); Mamma Mia! (Rainbow Stage, Neptune Theatre).

Other: Member of ADC659 and teaches Theatrical Sound Design and Technology at the university level.

Kristi Hansen

Disability Consultant

For the Grand Theatre: The Invisible: Agents of Ungentlemanly Warfare.

Theatre Credits (Selected): Much Ado About Nothing, Two Gentlemen of Verona (Bard on the Beach); Dance Nation (SkirtsAfire); Beautiful Scars (Theatre Aquarius); The Sound of Music (RMTC/Citadel Theatre); The Silver Arrow, Alice Through the Looking Glass (Citadel Theatre); The Bear (Caravan Farm Theatre); A Doll’s House: Part 2 (Wild Side Productions); Sweeney Todd (Plain Jane Theatre); Dear Rita (Confed Centre); Candide (Edmonton Opera); Love’s Labour’s Lost, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Comedy of Errors, King Lear, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Freewill Players).

Other: www.kristihansen.ca.

Melissa Cameron

Stage Manager

For the Grand Theatre: Waitress, The Sound of Music, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Controlled Damage, Grow, Re:Opening Festival (Seeds of Self & One Year), Chariots of Fire, Once, HSP - Anything Goes, MixTape, The Importance of Being Earnest, Much Ado About Nothing.

Theatre Credits (Selected): Jersey Boys, Maggie, Anne of Green Gables, Munschables (Charlottetown Festival); Waitress, Maggie (Theatre Aquarius); Sweeney Todd, The Gamblers, I Claudia, Offline (Talk is Free Theatre); Hurry Hard, Miracle on 34th Street (Chemainus Theatre Festival); The Last Five Years, She Loves Me, The 39 Steps (Rose Theatre); Legally Blonde (Theatre Sheridan); Gin Game, Cottagers & Indians, Crimes of the Heart, Boeing Boeing, Dial M for Murder, Barefoot in the Park (Watermark Theatre).

Kaitlyn Kaemingh

Apprentice Stage Manager