After performing with Dianne Gryba's Christmas all-ages choir, Wintersong, this past holiday season, Matthew Armet and Gryba are teaming up once again for Timelines.
Timelines is a cabaret inspired by his journey from the Battlefords to working in theatre professionally, with songs and dance taken from Armet's repertoire, along with some extras.
"The idea of naming the concert Timelines was to go through to my childhood all the way up to now of songs that I've performed," says Armet.
"[Some] songs I've performed when I was a kid in town here, there's a bunch of songs that have personal meaning to me from different parts of my life, songs that I've performed professionally and there's songs from musicals I haven't been in but that I'd love to be a part of someday," including a section from The Book of Mormon.
While not everyone is familiar with The Book of Mormon, Armet says he hopes the show will provide an opportunity to both introduce people to music and offer a selection of well-known favourites, including a medley of songs by The Beatles and Over the Rainbow made famous by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz.
Armet, a former voice student of Gryba's, took lessons in North Battleford for eight years before heading to the Canadian College of Performing Arts in 2004 and then made his way east to join the Stratford Festival theatre company in Stratford, Ont. Since then, Armet has returned to North Battleford every year, usually around Christmas, and often finds himself performing in Gryba's shows.
For Timelines the cast is relatively small compared to other shows Armet and Gryba have done together in the past, with Tyrell Witherspoon singing and dancing and Bonnie Nicholson accompanying on piano and performing duets with Gryba.
Although his family has since moved away, Armet still considers North Battleford home and enjoys returning to perform pieces he's learned back in Stratford.
"Most of the work I've done has been so far out east and very rarely do people get to come see me out there, so it's very nice to come home and perform," says Armet.
At Stratford, Armet most recently appeared in A Chorus Line, a song of which will also be incorporated into Timelines.
聽If you haven't been able to head to Stratford Festival, your chance to see Armet perform is Saturday, Jan. 14 at 7 p.m. at the Dekker Centre. Tickets are $20, $15 for students, and are available through the Dekker Centre box office at 306-445-7700 Ext. 2.
