Join CMTP as we go back to where Come From Away began

Sheridan College’s Canadian Music Theatre Project (CMTP), under the leadership of Michael Rubinoff, Associate Dean of Visual and Performing Arts, is an international centre of excellence for the development of new musicals in Canada.

Media are invited to join us for a special brunch on Saturday, October 29 from 10:30 am to noon at the North Atlantic Aviation Museum, 135 TransCanada Highway, Gander, NL. 

The brunch will showcase the CMTP’s contribution to a number of new musicals in Canada, including Come From Away, which will play as a special benefit concert in Gander at 3pm and 8pm on October 29, before opening on the Mirvish stage in Toronto on November 15 and on Broadway at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on March 12, 2017. 

Three Sheridan alumni who performed in the original Sheridan production of Come From Away will be at the brunch to meet the real-life person they portrayed in the play and speak about their first-hand experience in the show’s development process.  A true “Come From Awayer” or “plane person” who is featured in the musical, Kevin Tuerff, will also attend.

Come From Away is a musical about the people of Gander and its surrounding towns, who opened their hearts and homes to host over 6,500 international passengers who were stranded for a week after their planes were diverted to Gander on September 11, 2001. The benefit concerts on October 29 are being co-produced by Michael Rubinoff, with all proceeds supporting local charities.

The show began its life and development at Sheridan’s CMTP.  CMTP is Canada’s first incubator and permanent headquarters for the development of new musical theatre works by Canadian and international composers, lyricists and book-writers.  CMTP connects creative teams with talented students who help bring new characters to life, creating an environment for material to be tested and rewritten.  Three or four projects are selected each year, with a five-week workshop period culminating in staged readings in front of a 200-person audience of industry professionals and theatre enthusiasts.

Since its inception in 2011, 15 shows have been incubated through CMTP, with four having enjoyed their professional premieres (Come From Away, The Theory of Relativity, Prom Queen and Marathon of Hope)

Pictured top right: Bachelor of Music Theatre - Performance students in the 2013 Production of Come From Away at Sheridan