GANETSKY AND FROLINGER AMONG JEWISH PERFORMERS AT RAINBOW STAGE

Twelve year old Braden Ganetsky will be in Rainbow Stage’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dream Coat, which runs August 3rd-27th, 2010,

Ganetsky starred in the lead role of Willy Wonka in the Gray Academy’s version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Braden has always had a love for a variety of different music that led him to go on to win this year’s Gray Academy Yom Ha’Atzmaut song festival.

He didn’t plan to take his talents any further this summer until he heard about Rainbow Stage’s upcoming show Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dream Coat.

“I had never heard of Rainbow Stage,” he said. But musical theatre is what he has come to love. His father, Morgan Ganetsky, told me that “Braden discovered it was his thing” and his mother Tracy “hopes it’s a fun experience.”

There are approximately 50 children and 30 adults taking part in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dream Coat. Braden will be part of the children’s chorus in the production. He attended orientation for the show earlier in July. Orientation included meeting others in the cast and a tour of the dressing rooms and stage.

Braden says he is both looking forward and excited to participate in the show. According to Morgan Ganetsky, Braden, who has done piano recitals since a young age “has always enjoyed performing in front of people.”

Tracy Ganetsky said “This experience may lead to other things.” In the mean time, Braden aspires to one day be a musician or work with computers.

Another star performer from Winnipeg’s Jewish community has emerged. Alexandra Frohlinger, a recent graduate with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in musical theatre at the Boston Conservatory sees no boundaries to performing. The 21-year old daughter of Justice Heather Pullan and lawyer Tom Frolinger recently played the role of Maureen in RENT that just finished at Rainbow Stage.

“Since the age of seven. I couldn’t see myself doing anything else” Frohlinger said.

Frohlinger loves theatre because she has the freedom to express herself. She also loves the fact that she is her own boss and can choose which roles to take on. Frohlinger wants to be a performer and is driven by her passion for musical theatre.Frolin

"As a child, to boost my self esteem and to reinforce that being petitie is a good thing, my parents enrolled me in dance calsses at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School. There I studied and fell in love with all forms of dance: jazz, tap, ballet, point and especially musical theatre," she recalled.

Highlights of Frolinger's career to date have included performances in The Charlottetown Festival (Young Company) Production of Les Feux Follets; The Drowsy Chaperone at the Manitoba Theatre Centre, and as Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden produced and staged by Dry Cold Productions.

“I had the unbelievable experience of being one of the top ten finalists on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Triple Sensation, where I had the privilege of meeting and performing for Sergio Trujillo, Marvin Hamlisch, Adrian Noble, Cynthia Dale and Garth Drabinsky.“

In Boston Frolonger has performed with The Boston Pops Orchestra as a soloist in the Baseball Night Concert, and has performed several times on the main stage at the Boston Conservatory, playing the roles of Nickie in Sweet Charity and Anybody’s in West Side Story.

As the summer will come to a close, Frohlinger's dreams will hopefully just begin as she plans on moving to New York. She has an agency to help her find work as a performer and is optimistic in pursuing dreams of Broadway. The last thing Frolinger said was that she “will never forget Winnipeg. It will always be my home!”

The Winnipeg Jewish Review wishes Braden Ganetsky and Alexandra Frohlinger the best of luck on promising futures!

Gilli Braunstein is the author of Swing for the Fences,www.swingforthefences.ca.