October 17 will be engraved as an historical day for Tekeyan’s HAY PEM troupe.
The test was a challenging one, because it was a first for an Armenian amateur troupe to perform in Saint-Laurent, as part of this latter’s cultural programming and have the performance in French.
In front of the Mayor of Saint-Laurent, Mr Allan De Sousa, Jewish religious leaders, cultural representatives and an audience of almost all non-armenians, Hay Pem’s performance was acclaimed by a standing ovation of more than a minute.
Once again, the troupe under the leadership of Nancy Issa Torosian delivered more than what it has been expected. ’’Une bête sur la lune’’ created intense moments and brought some tears among the audience and at numerous occasions brought them moments of joy and laughter. The cast of experienced performers such as Viken Froundjian, Arden Arapian (main role of Aram) and Hasmik Gasparyan (voice), were supported by Meghedi Aghourian considered a new revelation because of her past minor roles of the past, playing the main role of Seta, a Genocide survived orphan. A new cast of children also took part in the play. They were Arax Armenian, Thomas Shahbaghyan (violin) and Agustin Apardian (one of the main roles of Vincent). They represent the future of Hay Pem and they did more than what was expected from them.
Nancy’s dream, as well as Tekeyan’s effort in presenting Kalinoski’s award winning play to an ODAR audience as part of the centennial events, had a great debut. The Armenians were almost absent, but the local non-armenian crowd more than compensated their absence. The objective to reach others and give them the story of our nation was fully achieved.
Once again, Hay Pem met the expectations. We strongly recommend to be present at the next weekend’s coming performances at le gesù (one of the most prestigious theatre venues). Saturday, 24th at 8 pm and Sunday, 25th at 7 pm. Tickets could be purchased at the door or by calling Tekeyan at (514) 747-6680
The after the show remarks as well as the comments; were numerous and loud.
Photo credit : Kevork Torosian
http://www.torosian.ca/Archive/2015/Une-b%C3%AAte-sur-la-lune-rehearsal/
