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Toronto's Rebecca Perry brings 'Confessions of a Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl' to Lacombe

Toronto-based Rebecca Perry brings her 'Confessions of a Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl' show to Lacombe on Feb 28.

The performance runs in the Lacombe Performing Arts Centre's Shunda Theatre, starting at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available at the Mary C. Moore Public Library, or by visiting LacombePAC.com.

Perry is indeed the quintessential artist - gifted in acting, singing, and writing her own material - as folks will experience firsthand with the extremely successful Confessions of a Redheaded Coffeeshop GIrl.

"To quote my mother, she could tell that I had a lot of extra energy as a kid, and I needed to place it somewhere," she recalled with a laugh.

"As you can imagine, I signed up for every extra-curricular activity my school had from the chess club to cross-country skiing."

But the one group where she really flourished was theatre.

Perry, who grew up near Brampton, Ontario, found a real community there. She also started dance and drama classes near home and in Toronto as well. She had absolutely found her niche.

"I really got the bug early," she said. In Grade 4, she tried out for the school musical and ended up landing the lead role - even though she was competing against kids several years older. "I was Lucy in You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown! She is way too much fun to play, so I think  this definitely solidified how much I liked theatre and singing, but also how much I loved being able to create something, and then getting to perform it."

Performing continued from there.

"I went to an arts high school, where I majored in drama." Later, she attended the Toronto-based George Brown Theatre School as well. She's a teacher there today - a fabulous opportunity to impart to budding thespians what she has learned in her own journey, she added.

Meanwhile, success has indeed found Perry, with lots of opportunities to perform and share her creative gifts.

She played lead roles in the major motion pictures Best Friend From Heaven, alongside Kris Kristofferson, and Forest Fairies, alongside Simon Callow (Amazon Prime).

She is in season five of HBO's The Handmaid's Tale, and also has a recurring role on the Netflix show Ponysitters Club and its subsequent film. She also appears in the Christmas films Baby in a Manger and Christmas with a Prince: The Royal Baby (Amazon Prime/Apple TV) among many others.

Her multiple award-winning solo show Confessions of a Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl toured to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2015, where it sold out its entire run at the Gilded Balloon Teviot.

The success at Edinburgh led to a regional tour of England in 2016, and an even larger one in fall 2018. The Canadian premiere for the show was at the Rose Theatre in Brampton in 2015.

"I've been keeping busy - I was home for maybe 40 days last year!"

As to Coffeeshop Girl, the story stems from personal experiences - likely a key reason why it has struck such a chord internationally.

"It was 2011 - I had graduated, and was living in Toronto," she said, adding she landed a job in a coffee shop in the Annex, an area in Toronto known for its creative buzz.

"I was meeting some of the most interesting people I had ever met in my life, and getting to have these little, 30-second micro-conversations whenever they came in the door," she recalled. She started writing down tidbits from some of these chats, and funny situations that occurred. In just a couple of months, she knew she had a story on her hands.

From there, she created a show that revolved around the experiences of lead character of Joanie Little, not to mention about 20 to 30 others who she encounters during the course of the show. Amazingly, Perry plays each and every role.

"Joanie is basically me," she said. "So it's about a graduate finding their voice, and pursuing her passion. I think a lot of people can relate to it, regardless of what field they may have graduated from. It's ultimately about taking those brave steps, and trying to make your mark in the world.

"It's also me running around, creating the entire scene of the coffee shop for you, while also trying to make you giggle as much as possible."

There is also a sequel, Adventures of a Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl and in 2023, she opened Christmas with a Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl - the last of Coffeeshop trilogy.

"I enjoy performing it so much. Every time I get onstage, it's not, 'Oh, here we go again'. It's 'Oh my gosh, I'm so excited that I get the chance to do this today'," she said. "I feel very grateful"

"The biggest challenge is there are some conversations where there are four or five characters, so it's really about remembering all of the choreography, and stage blocking so it's clear to the audience what is happening!"

Incredibly, she has performed the show about 500 times over the past decade or so. "I always joke to my husband that I don't think this show would leave my brain, even if I tried," she added with a laugh.

"I have so much fun doing it, and as long as the audience is having fun too, I think we are all in for a good time at the Lacombe Performing Arts Centre."

Again, tickets are available at the Mary C. Moore Public Library, or by visiting LacombePAC.com.

 

 



Mark Weber

About the Author: Mark Weber

I've been a part of the Black Press Media family for about a dozen years now, with stints at the Red Deer Express, the Stettler Independent, and now the Lacombe Express.
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