Local’s voice golden at arts comp

KATHRYN

While most kids are in summer mode and taking a break from their music lessons,

Ruby Hickman has been practicing and preparing diligently for the Canada West Performing Arts Competition, which took place in Edmonton on

July 21-22. Her dedication and hard work certainly paid off, as Hickman was awarded first place in the 13 and under Musical Theatre Class.

Hickman, a voice and musical theatre student at Center Stage Studios, has been honing her performance for close to seven months.

“I started preparing these songs in January and worked on them all through up to Canada West,” said Hickman. The class that she was competing in had very specific rules and guidelines to follow.

“Ruby’s program consisted of 4 songs from various eras of Musical Theatre,“ explains Kathryn Edwards, Hickman’s voice teacher.

“There is a 15-minute maximum time limit, which included things like costume changes and introducing your program. If you went over this time limit you were disqualified,” said Edwards.

Hickman first performed her songs in the Kiwanis Lloydminster and District Music Festival, receiving first

“Just writing every day whether you feel like it or not, it can’t help but make you better. And reading. So I always tell kids that … if they have an aspiration to become a writer—it sounds simple, but it’s very true. It works.” place and a qualifying mark to advance to the Saskatchewan Provincial Music Festival in Regina.

From there, she again was awarded first place in the same class.

The top three competitors from Saskatchewan then advanced to the Canada West Per -

Row Toews also works as an educational assistant at a local elementary school, which is a great fit, since she can pass on her expertise to children who are just learning to read and write.

“That’s my favourite part of the job, is helping kids with their forming Arts Competition, competing with kids from Alberta and British Columbia.

“This prestigious competition featured the cream of the crop from each provinceeach child performing various musical theatre songs,” said Edwards.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 17 writing,” said Row Toews.

“Kids will say ‘well, what am I supposed to write about?’ I say, well you’ve got to tap into your imagination. There’s all sorts of ideas out there!”

To purchase Row Toews’ books head to helentoews.com.

Thursday, August 31, 2023

MERIDIAN SOURCE