“It’s a Launching Point for So Many People”: Remira Pryce talks Blue Canoe
In the week leading up to the winter solstice, I sat down with a handful of local theatre-makers to reflect on the year, learn about people’s upcoming projects, and find out what was keeping them warm through the short, dark days of December. This interview with Remira Pryce is the seventh in a series which will appear on the Kingston Theatre Alliance’s Performance Blog in the early months of 2025.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Once upon a December—a few days before the opening of Blue Canoe Productions’ winter musical, Anastasia—I sat down with Remira Pryce to talk about community theatre and youth-led arts. It had been close to twelve months since Pryce stepped into her role as Arts Managing Director at the local youth-led theatre company, and she was eager to reflect on the past year and to chat about plans for the coming spring.
In the next two weeks, Blue Canoe is producing a variety of shows, including three musicals—Amélie (Teen Edition), Anne of Green Gables, and Winnie the Pooh—starring teens, tweens, and kids, respectively. This is all part of the 9th annual Juvenis Festival (April 24–May 4), which also features the premiere of Find Yourself by local playwright and director Shay O’Brien, a site-specific production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night directed by Felicia Holmes, as well as a youth film night, battle of the bands, art gallery, and free workshops.
This year’s festival is run by a mix of old and new Blue Canoe staff, including incoming Juvenis Managing Director Shamara Peart, Festival Coordinator Noelle Sinkic, General Manager Cam Watson, and Pryce. The team works collaboratively with volunteer Youth Project Leaders, ages 13 to 30, to bring a series of events and performances to life. “We start planning for Juvenis as early as August. So this year, now that I’m in it, I can support all of the Youth Project Leaders. I can see their full process, and they know that I know the full context of their projects. That’s been so nice, a more comforting feeling than last year, when I jumped right in, full steam ahead, in December. So now I know that nothing is slipping through the gaps. Also, I know people know me, and know what they can come to me with now. And it’s been so busy!”
As a festival staff alum, I can attest to how busy it gets, and Pryce is someone who’s always extra busy helping others. Most of the time we’ve spent together lately has been while she’s supporting one youth project or another—sitting in the Blue Canoe studio and sewing sails during rehearsals for High Society last summer, or showing up to cheer on the high school teams during the Canadian Improv Games regionals this winter. Her generous spirit and positive attitude are no coincidence—they’re central to Blue Canoe’s philosophy, which Pryce absorbed in her six years volunteering before she joined the staff. “We always want to be a place where everybody can be challenged, and sometimes the challenge is about how to work interpersonally. It’s not necessarily just growing your singing, dancing, theatre skills, but it’s those soft skills that I think make the most well-rounded performer.”
This well-roundedness is at the forefront more than ever now that Blue Canoe has moved from their old office in The Spire to a new studio space at 1296 Bath Road. The team has been slowly working toward transforming the studio into a black box theatre, where youth can learn a wider variety of theatre-related skills. “We got a donation of about a dozen or so stage lights from the Kingston Grand Theatre and the City of Kingston, which we have in the closet right now. Our hope is to get an adapter and hook a couple of them up to the grid, so that for the camps and the Launchpoint Academy showcases they can have a mini lighting grid.
“No matter how hectic it sometimes is, with the classes, rehearsals, auditions for the next set of shows, set construction, prop construction… it’s wonderful that it’s in the same building. The cast and [assistant stage managers] get to meet and work with the designers and the crew, and they’re all in the same space working towards the same thing, instead of it being disconnected little pockets of things that only come together and meet in tech week. What I’ve noticed these last several shows, since we’ve been in the studio, is that the whole team is a lot closer. There’s a lot more overlap with the cast and the [production] team, and that’s been wonderful, because then everybody gets to see the whole thing that we’re working toward.”
When the time comes for a show to go up, Pryce is always proud of the group. “It’s always an interesting feeling when it’s been, truly, five to six months of work on a show, and then we’re there for a week, and there’s five shows—it’s such a full, sudden rush of emotions for the cast and the crew and the [production] and the directors.”
Through classes, Juvenis events, and year-round shows, Pryce hopes that the collaborative atmosphere inspires young people to be thoughtful communicators. “If you want to make a good impression on somebody, yes, you need to be talented, but you also have to be kind. You have to know how to pass along your opinion in a confident way, but in a kind way, and not in a way that’s putting people down or making light of serious things—just being direct and kind. And I think that’s the best lesson that I hope a lot of the youth get out of it.”
The festival is just two weeks in Blue Canoe’s calendar, and Pryce is looking forward to an active summer at the studio. Next up, there’s a young adult production of Merrily We Roll Along in July and August, a surprise 24-hour musical intensive, as well as the usual slate of summer camps. For Pryce, it feels good to have offerings that keep young people coming back, year after year. “A lot of our Blue Canoe teens have done classes and shows with us for years, and I’ve now been able to see them from being so shy, to being in their best element. We have a young stage manager who’s 16, and she’s now interested in working professionally… I know that Blue Canoe can only take them so far, but we want to give them that foundation so that they can do whatever they would like to do. It’s a launching point for so many people.”
Remira Pryce has volunteered with Blue Canoe since 2018 and is so happy to get to support meaningful, accessible youth theatre experiences as the Arts Managing Director. She has also worked at Mulberry Waldorf School as the Music teacher since 2022. Her favourite part of Blue Canoe is that youth are supported in their skill development no matter their level or experience, and that they get to build such good connections during the projects.
The Juvenis Festival is Kingston’s youth arts festival and runs from April 24 to May 4, 2025. Tickets, workshop registration, and more information can be found here.
