Yellow Door presents You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown

If 15-year-old Eden High School student Avery Kasper has any qualms about playing the iconic title character in Yellow Door Theatre Project’s production of You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown, he’s not showing it. 

After all, following his first appearance in a YDTP production last year as another iconic character, playing Jesus in Godspell, it’s probably a piece of cake. 

Yellow Door kicks off March Break with four presentations of the well-known musical based on the beloved Charles Schultz Peanuts comic strips, March 11 and 12 at both 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. each day. It features a cast of local teens as the main characters as well an ensemble of intermediate-aged youth. 

“I’ve always loved it,” says YDTP’s founder and artistic producer Andorlie Hillstrom about the musical. “The music is fun, upbeat and clever. Because it’s a series of vignettes, as if you’re reading the actual comic strip, it’s simply a set-up for one joke after another after another. And that’s great training for these kids, learning how to deliver a joke.”

Schultz’ work on paper was adapted for the theatre in 1967 by American composer, songwriter, author and actor Clark Gesner.

“He took his material directly from the comic strips,” Hillstrom explains. “I found some of them, and it’s fascinating. It’s as if you’re watching a comic come to life. I’m directing the kids so there’s more of a feeling of flatness to it, like there is when you are reading a comic. I’ve been sending them some of that stuff so they get that feel.”

Catherine Dubois, a Laura Secord Secondary School student who lives in Niagara-on-the-Lake, plays Lucy in the YDTP production. 

“I knew the musical,” Dubois says. “A couple of years ago I did a song from it, My New Philosophy, for my audition here. Then through that one song that Sally sings, I did some research, and I remembered seeing the TV specials. But I didn’t really know the comics.”

Dubois says Hillstrom encouraged the young teen cast to look more to the comics in preparation for the upcoming show than to the musical or even the much-loved TV shows. 

“The way Andorlie is staging it is a lot like the comics,” adds Dubois. “When we do the show we work a lot with us front-facing one way, then another way, so it looks kind of like how it was drawn. It’s cool to take it directly from the comic strip and into our show.”

She’s having a lot of fun playing Lucy, the acerbic dark-haired foil to Charlie Brown’s potential happiness. 

“She has some strange traits,” she laughs, “like just punching people all the time. Her anger is definitely there. She has her ups and downs, but she’s funny, she knows what she wants. Like Schroeder, she really likes him. Even though he could care less about her, she knows what she wants and she sticks to that.”

The musical explores life through Charlie Brown’s eyes, as he and his friends play baseball, send valentines, sing songs and share friendships. Fans of the comic strip will recognize some well-known situations, such as Lucy operating her psychiatric booth, Schroeder playing the piano, Linus spouting wisdom while clutching his blanket and Snoopy fantasizing while sitting atop his doghouse.

Kasper sees a lot of facets to his character that many might not realize are there. 

“I really had to delve into those layers,” Kasper explains. “And when I found it, I connected with him a lot. He has this weird relationship with Lucy, and I didn’t get it at first. But after experiencing it with Catherine, it’s a real back-and-forth relationship. In the end, I think we do get that closure. She turns out to be a great friend.”

Despite the pathos inherent in the hapless boy at the centre of the musical, Kasper sees his character as an optimist.

“He’s very hopeful, and he always has the mentality that it’s a new day with new obstacles, and he’s going to overcome them,” says Kasper. “It’s fun to play such a hopeful character, and sometimes it’s challenging to sell the hurt he feels, but as I’ve been connecting with the character more, it’s coming out more naturally.”

The musical will be performed in the Yellow Door studio in Virgil, with the cast surrounded on three sides by the audience in a thrust stage layout. 

“It’s really good training for them,” says Hillstrom. “There’s an intimate nature to it, sitting right beside the performers. There are people literally inches behind the performers. They have to focus when they are surrounded on all sides, and hold that focus.”

You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown follows the YDTP tradition of presenting musicals with a smaller cast in the early spring. Hillstrom is planning ahead for the non-profit youth theatre group’s summer program, when they will be presenting Mary Poppins. And she’s just booked the Robertson Theatre at the Performing Arts Centre in St. Catharines for Dec. 6 through 9 to present the musical Newsies. 

Since founding YDTP in 2015 and assembling her staff, Hillstrom has worked with dozens of young aspiring actors and built relationships with many supportive businesses in the community. 

And she’s proud to have seen many of her students win roles in productions at the Shaw Festival. Dubois herself appeared in White Christmas in 2022. And when Gypsy takes to the floorboards at the Festival Theatre this season, Yellow Door students Wren Evans, Hannah Otta and Sofia Otta will be part of the production. 

While continuing to rehearse for the March 11 and 12 performances, Dubois and Kasper are also involved in theatre projects at school. Dubois is in the ensemble for Laura Secord’s upcoming production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, while Kasper plays crazy director Gene Culpepper in Eden’s presentation of Murder’s in the Heir, an interactive murder mystery. 

But the busy schedule isn’t too much of a challenge for either of the young actors, who are simply getting a chance to do what they love, performing with their friends in front of a supportive audience. 

Tickets for You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown are $15 and can be purchased in advance via tinyurl.com/cykh8wx2 or bought at the door the day of the show, at the Yellow Door Theatre Project Studio at 504 Line 2 in NOTL.