A production of The Lorax brings a Surrey school community together<\/p>\n
Published 12:45 pm Sunday, July 5, 2026<\/p>\n
Crescent Park Elementary performs its first large-scale musical in years.<\/p>\n
Students, teachers, parents and volunteers came together to celebrate the arts as Crescent Park Elementary in South Surrey staged a production of The Lorax on June 18.<\/p>\n
Crescent Park transformed Dr. Seuss\u2019 classic environmental story into a community effort featuring handmade costumes, volunteer-build sets and classic rock and pop songs rewritten for the stages.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very inspiring,\u201d said principal Jolene Elder. \u201cWe wanna do it again next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
The production was led by Grade 7 teacher Lana Fransen, Grade 3 and 4 teacher Valerie Dhanai and music and French prep teacher Dan Montgomery, with support from professional actress Sara Erikson.<\/p>\n
Erikson shared that Montgomery initially invited her to help students during rehearsals, but what started as a one-time visit soon became a regular commitment.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing a part of this for me actually filled my cup creatively as well because it was so much fun seeing the kids come alive,\u201d shared Erikson.<\/p>\n
She said watching the student grow over the rehearsal period was one of the most rewarding parts of the experience. \u201cFrom beginning to end, I saw their confidence grow. I saw their enthusiasm. They had great ideas and could implement those great ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Montgomery noted that there wasn\u2019t much of a budget for this production but families and other staff members really came together to bring the show to life.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything came together so symbiotically, from the parents making costumes to grandparents colouring the backdrop and other parents building giant set pieces,\u201d said Erikson. \u201cThis really was a community collaboration that turned into a magical experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Montgomery also gave the production a unique soundtrack by rewriting the lyrics to familiar songs. \u201cI always try to think who\u2019s coming to watch? It\u2019s the kids\u2019 parents and the kids\u2019 grandparents, so I tried to pick things that were well known and could be appreciated by multiple generations,\u201d he shared.<\/p>\n
Although preparing the production was nerve-racking, Montgomery said seeing it all come together made the work worthwhile. \u201cUltimately I was happy to see it all come together and what we were able to do for our school\u2019s first time trying it.\u201d<\/p>\n
For many of the students in the production, the experience sparked a new appreciation and love for the theatre.<\/p>\n
Grade 6 student Gen\u00e8ve Smith, who played Thing 2, said rehearsing after school was one of her favourite parts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really fun and I liked that we all got to meet up after school and practice and stuff,\u201d she said. \u201cI would definitely do it again. I\u2019ve always wanted to do something with acting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ella Magnus, a Grade 6 student who played Thing 1, said performing had been a dream since she was young.\u201dI always wanted to be in a show since I was little,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Magnus noted that she believed the production\u2019s greatest strength was how everyone worked together.\u201dI liked how the cast and crew came together like a community. It was really amazing to just see how people could come together like that and just make an amazing show.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grade 6 student Azaad Sidhu, who played Father in the production, said the encouragement from fellow cast members made the experience memorable. \u201cI like how everyone was so encouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n
Erikson shared that she hopes the production gave students confidence to express themselves creatively while reinforcing The Lorax\u2019s message about caring for the environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that not only the kids performing but the kids watching kind of felt something stir in themselves that would motivate them to just take care of our beautiful planet and love it a little more and realize that these stories are also messages of deep love and connection for all things, people and planet and everything,\u201d shared Erikson who continuously highlighted how magical this whole experience felt.<\/p>\n
Following the success of this year\u2019s production, Elder said the school hopes to make theatre an annual tradition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A production of The Lorax brings a Surrey school community together Published 12:45 pm Sunday, July 5, 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":783366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-783365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}