Lord Byng Theatre Company
Teachers

Amy Hughes
Teacher / Director / Producer

Amy Hughes

Amy first came to TheaCo in 1980 and is a TheaCo Grad of 1982. She came back as a Drama/English teacher (1990-96), leaving theatre and going into full time English and then returning to TheaCo as one of its teachers in 2014. Hughes & McLean produced and directed Unity: 1918, Young Frankenstein: The Musical, and Curtains: The Musical. In 2018-2019, she and her new TheaCo teaching partner, Matthew Thiessen, co-produced and directed their first show together: Moby Dick: The Musical followed by 2019-2020’s The Doctor in Wonderland, which cemented their working partnership. In 2020-2021 Hughes and Thiessen and the company were hard at work on their production of We Will Rock You – The Musical by Queen when Covid -19 hit. Like so many other theatre companies and actors around the world, they were faced by the heartbreaking reality that the show could not go on.


This year, Theatre Company vowed not to let the pandemic win; our actors would ‘hit the boards,’ even if it could only be done digitally! So, we made a movie and voilà, SHELTER IN PLACE: A LOCKDOWN MUSICAL REVUE was born!


This year’s production would not have been possible without the dedication and hard work of our amazing volunteers and mentors: Production Designer, Darren Hales (Head Electrician at the Arts Club Theatre, Granville Island), our Assistant Technical Director and builder, Logan Herbert, and our head cinematographer and TheaCo Grad, Ethan Cook.


Congrats to all the TheaCo actors and techs for their hard work in bringing to life our awesome new show, SHELTER IN PLACE: A LOCKDOWN MUSICAL REVUE.

Matthew Thiessen
Teacher / Director / Producer

Matthew Thiessen

This is Mr. Thiessen’s fourth foray into the magic that is Theatre Company. He still practices musical theatre with his five-year old daughter while singing Peppa Pig tunes. In 2018-2019, Matthew Thiessen joined TheaCo and he and Hughes co-produced and directed their first show together: Moby Dick: The Musical followed by 2019-2020’s The Doctor in Wonderland. The Global Pandemic cut short the 2020-2021 production of We Will Rock You – The Musical by Queen, but this year he is thrilled to say that the creation of SHELTER IN PLACE: A LOCKDOWN MUSICAL REVUE has proved that ‘there’s no business, like show business!’


Thiessen has had a great time working with these talented actors and crew, and thanks them for their hard work and professionalism. A big THANK YOU to Amy Hughes and Darren Hales for their…everything! And of course, his super-duper wife Petra. And the techs whose fantastic editing on this show exceeded his expectations in quality and speed. Yay You!