Students bring the noise with SCHOOL OF ROCK 

It’s September and downtown London is packed with teens in vibrant, matching Grand Theatre High School Project hoodies. This year, they are School of Rock’s guitar-slinging, cymbal-crashing, bass-strumming members of the band and frontman Dewey Finn.  

In the arts, theatre sits at the creative collision point of visual art and live performance, language and music, carpentry and 3D printing, paint and projection, fashion and function. Despite being a hub of so many forms of artistry, theatre can feel like its own little bubble. What would be more rock and roll than to pop that bubble and burst into the rehearsal hall with guitars a-blazing? 

It’s not new for the Grand’s High School Project to include musicians. Year over year, student musicians often join professional artists in the orchestra pit, performing the show night after night. The program has had an onstage student band before too, in its 2009 production of Grease. A member of the Grease onstage student band, Jeff Lupker, is even back at the Grand as a professional musician in the band of this year’s High School Project. 

This year, students are taking it to another level and their musicianship will be integrated into the roles they play on stage. Isaac De Melo will play the guitar and sing while also delivering the lines – and the antics – of Dewey Finn, a character originated by Jack Black in the blockbuster 2003 movie. De Melo will rock out alongside Raya Campbell, Rilla De Souza, Emmett Franck, Sam Harson, Malaya MacDonald, Paxton Nair, Duncan Patrick, Daxton Scurr, and Junior Van Geffen will also hold actor-musician roles.  

And with actor-musicians come instruments in the rehearsal hall. Rehearsing a musical will typically mean piano or keyboard accompaniment, but not a full rock band and then some. Electric instruments – guitars, bass, even keys – can be turned down, played silently, or in-ear. Drums, however, bring the noise. It’s safe to say that the rehearsal hall is rocking, and so are the Wardrobe Department and Prop Shop which are one and two floors below. 

The Grand Theatre High School Project is performed – and built – by London’s top theatre teens. 34 students in the cast, five in Wardrobe, four in Props, three at the Scene Shop in Scenic Art and Carpentry, two in Stage Management, two in Sound, and one each in Marketing and Development.

The five students spending their summer in the Wardrobe Department are working with Costume Designer Meghan Choma who just like guitarist Jeff Lupker is returning as a professional artist and mentor to the program where she spent her summers as a student. Through the High School Project, Choma worked on three professional main stage productions at the Grand Theatre before studying Technical and then Costume Production at Fanshawe College, and has now seen her work as a designer on the Grand Theatre, Blyth Festival, and Stratford Festival stages.

At the heart of this year’s High School Project is sought-after director Lezlie Wade, known for her talent for leading both musicals and comedies – and for directing one of the Stratford Festival’s longest-running productions, Spamalot. Wade is in the rehearsal hall alongside the students, stage management, as well as Music Director Matthew Atkins and Choreographer Julius Sermonia, all rocking their way towards the Grand Theatre’s Spriet Stage.

The 2026 Grand Theatre High School Project School of Rock will run from September 22 until October 3. Tickets start at $29 and are available at www.grandtheatre.com, by phone at 519-672-8800, or at the Box Office, 471 Richmond Street. Discounted 17 & Under pricing available. A Canada Life Pay-What-You-Can performance will be presented on Sunday, September 27 at 2:00 p.m.  

For 28 years, the Grand Theatre High School Project has offered an exceptional opportunity for students to receive education and training in the working environment of a professional theatre, at no cost to the students. The Grand Theatre is grateful to Linda and Bill Ross, the Thames Valley School Board, the London District Catholic School Board, Libro Credit Union  and New Era Grafix for their support of the 2026 Grand Theatre High School Project and Youth Programming at the Grand Theatre.