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New musical given world premiere in Pender

The Quest
The Quest
The Quest, a full-length musical by composer/lyricist, producer/director and performer Kenneth Norman Johnson, received emotional standing ovations from audiences at its June 5 and 6 world premiere performances in the Pender Harbour School of Music.

The Quest, a full-length musical by composer/lyricist, producer/director and performer Kenneth Norman Johnson, received emotional standing ovations from audiences at its June 5 and 6 world premiere performances in the Pender Harbour School of Music. Fourteen exceptional singers from the Sunshine Coast practised for months to learn the complex and vocally challenging score, which explores the moral and ethical choices presented by the modern world.

Imaginative staging transformed the Music School into a small off-Broadway theatre, and the acting was superb. Johnson hopes to take his talented cast and crew to other venues in the coming months.

Revenue from this first production of The Quest was donated to the Pender Harbour Living Heritage Society for use in projects such as the placement of heritage signage around the Harbour, restoration of Sarah Wray Hall (a one-room heritage schoolhouse in Garden Bay) and the annual April Tools festival, which nurtures interest in traditional wooden boat building.