'Beetlejuice' musical actor visits drama students at Bowness High School

One of the actors from Beetlejuice the musical visited drama students at Bowness High School on Wednesday, sharing his experience in the theatre.

Justin Collette is a Canadian actor who plays Beetlejuice in the Broadway Across Canada musical production that's playing Jan. 7 to 12 at the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium.

He took time out of his schedule to sit on stage in the school’s theatre and answer questions from the students about his experience and give advice.

"I think I would have lost my mind when I was in high school to have somebody who is a working actor come to me in New Brunswick and tell me anything about the business," said Collette.

"(Information) that I didn't have to guess from, like, finding interviews on late-night shows if I'm not dating (myself), how hard it was for me to find stuff back then."

Collette grew up in Eastern Canada and was interested in team sports, playing both hockey and baseball. But after he was bitten by the acting bug, he set out to learn everything he could about the business from his peers with more experience.

That led to him eventually getting a role in the original Beetlejuice in the first national tour that opened in San Francisco in December of 2022.

"I can only share my experience, but I was born in a trailer park in New Brunswick to (now) living in New York," he said.

"And that path was extremely hard and along that path I've met a lot of people. None of the pieces of advice I'm giving are original, hard-fought by me, it's just people that I trust that I also took these things from."

Gillian Exley, Bowness High School drama teacher, says she was hoping for a crew member or actor to come to the school and never expected a visit from the lead actor.

She says the hour-long chat with the actor will likely have a lasting impact on the students.

"To know how you get there and what are the steps you take and that it can happen to a Canadian boy, it can happen to a Canadian girl," she said.

"It's just really important for them because often you won't have the opportunity to meet your heroes, to meet someone that you just saw on stage last night, which a couple of them had."

Grade 11 student Triasha Gandhi wants to act in films one day, and the 16-year-old learned a lot from Collette about the audition process.

"He talked about (being) comfortable and they won't send you away because you make a mistake with your lines," she said.

"That is something I often struggle with in my auditions, I have to get the lines perfect, I have to make sure my projection is perfect, and I never focus on my acting ability and how much character I could put into it, versus just like saying the lines properly, so that was definitely a really good piece of information."

Hudson Belzile, a Grade 12 student, isn't sure if he has what it takes to be a professional actor but now knows more about the work it takes to break into the business.

"Watching this guy, man, it just really gives you a perspective on how hard you have to work to get to this industry," he said.

"It's just kind of admiring, and you can learn a lot from personal experiences like this, and so I'm just super grateful that I had this experience."

Exley says everyone in the cast of Beetlejuice and its crew are supporting the school's fundraising efforts to renovate its 40-year-old theatre.

"Right now, we have raised $27,675 and our goal is $150,000," said Exley.

"Which would put in new seats, our seats are from the 80s. I've been here 16 years, and nothing here has changed, we're going to replace them and then they're also going to add to our lighting because we are trying to switch from our incandescent lighting to LED."