Naomi Tan’s month is very much filled with The Sound of Music on a big stage in Vancouver.
The Surrey nine-year-old plays one of the seven von Trapp kids in an Arts Club Theatre Company production of the popular musical
Naomi has been doing eight shows a week since Nov. 7, with many more planned until Jan. 5 at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage on Granville Street.
“They announced an additional show, so it’s 70 shows in total,” said Naomi’s proud mom, April Tan.
“It’s been crazy, exhausting, but she’s loving every minute of it.”
In her first professional-theatre gig, Naomi plays Gretl von Trapp in the set-in-Austria musical, which features “Do-Re-Mi,” “My Favorite Things” and “Edelweiss” and other memorable songs.
“She plays the youngest character but she’s not the youngest cast member in the show,” noted April, whose family lives in the Tynehead area. “She is representing Surrey well.”
Earlier this year, Naomi played Molly in Align Entertainment’s version of Annie staged at Burnaby’s Michael J. Fox Theatre.
“That was her first real theatre experience on stage, and now she’s moved up to the Arts Club stage,” April said. “She has no formal training at all – no theatre or dance classes, nothing.
“She’s been doing film and TV since age three, and a handful of commercials. I know she loves to sing and dance and act, so I take her to auditions all the time” – including one for The Sound of Music last summer.
• RELATED STORY, from February: Surrey stage for ‘Kim’s Convenience’ and two other Arts Club theatre shows in 2019-20 season.
Sing-along performances of the show are planned on Dec 26. at 7:30 p.m. and Jan. 4 at 2 p.m. More details are posted to artsclub.com, or call 604-687-1644.
The production, which stars Synthia Yusuf as governess Maria and Jonathan Winsby as widower Captain von Trapp, is directed by the Arts Club’s artistic director, Ashlie Corcoran, who was raised in White Rock.
“This is the first time that the Arts Club has ever put on The Sound of Music, and I’m looking forward to directing such an iconic piece of musical theatre,” Corcoran said in a media release prior to the show’s debut. “It has been a lifelong favourite of mine, and I can’t wait to share our production with our audiences.”
• READ MORE: Star time for Surrey actor in ‘Snow White’ panto play.
tom.zillich@surreynowleader.com
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