Amy Reitsma will play the coveted role of Anne Shirley in the PEI production of the hit musical Anne & Gilbert. The announcement was made by the Harbourfront Theatre, in Summerside, where the musical begins its sixth year of production in June.
Raised in Seabright, Nova Scotia, Reitsma says as a child she was obsessed about the Anne of Green Gables books. ” I didn’t appreciate them fully until our family went on a summer vacation to PEI when I was nine. After that, I made it my mission to read all of the Anne books.” Reitsma says she even memorized a passage of Anne of Green Gables for her professional audition when she was ten. “I didn’t get the role, but I still know the first line of the monologue.”
Reitsma says the qualities she loved in Anne were her strength, imagination and honesty. “She’s a smart, ambitious spitfire and I think many girls can relate to the insecurities and uncertainties that she fought.”
Martha Irving, director of the 2010 production, describes Reitsma as “a fabulous combination of an intelligent actor who can still draw on her innocence. She has an absolutely gorgeous soprano voice and is wonderfully nuanced as a performer. As well, she has a tremendous sense of humour. She’ll make a great Anne.”
A versatile and busy actor, the Halifax-based Reitsma recently performed as both Portia and Lucius in the DaPoPo Theatre production of Julius Caesar, co-wrote a musical, acted in a one-woman show to support cancer research and, in April, she’ll co-star in Cloudburst, a new play by Thom Fitzgerald, at the Plutonium Playhouse.
Anne & Gilbert is based on the sequel novels to Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery and reveals Anne as an independent-minded young woman about to start her first teaching job. Romantic complications unfold when childhood sweetheart Gilbert Blythe proposes marriage. Written by Jeff Hochhauser, Bob Johnston and Nancy White, the musical features fourteen cast members, a young people’s chorus and a live orchestra. The producer is Maurice Gallant.
Anne & Gilbert runs June 15 to September 26 — three shows a week — Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday (matine). For tickets contact the Harbourfront Theatre at 1-800-708-6505 or www.harbourfrontheatre.com.
