Dustin Kagan Fleming:
In June of 2011 I discovered that I had the chance to put up my own production. This incredible opportunity was given to me by the amazing Shift Space Inc. When I had decided to do a show the first question was which show to do. I wanted to choose something that I felt resonated strongly with me personally. The idea of The Breakfast Club came to me quickly; it had been a favourite of mine ever since I had first seen it and I knew that it was a story that everyone could relate to. I grew up in a world full of theatre, having two parents rooted so deeply in the theatre world, I feel that it has been a very large part of my upbringing. Even with a life surrounded by theatre, the idea of creating a show from scratch seemed like an almost impossible task. I decided to call upon the first two people I knew I would be able to depend on for a job this big: my long time friend Charley Hausknost who had also been brought up in the theatre world and had experience doing theatre, and my best friend Sam Cohen. I got two more actors to join the cast and with that we became the rough draft of what would be The Breakfast Club cast. Being the ones with theatre experience, Charley and I took charge of the project as co-producers. Even with all the hard work we put in, it was becoming clearer to both Charley and I that we needed to get a Director as soon as possible. In November we had two of our actors drop out of the show, saying that the project was too much to take on. So with our cast of three, Charley and I contacted Mike Payette, an incredible director and actor that we had known for years. Mike agreed to direct the show for us and I couldn’t have been happier. After we lost two actors, the show seemed like an impossibility but with Mike on board, it finally seemed like we could actually do this show and make it amazing. Shortly after Mike joined the production we started solving the problems that were stopping us from putting this show on. Thanks to Charley we managed to get two amazing actors to fill the roles of the two that we had lost. We got Sarah Krnjevic as Claire and Tiernan Cornford as Brianne. The wonderful Jo Joffre also joined us in the role of Ms. Vernon. We were a complete cast now and ready to make this show all that it could be. From that point on we started really making the show our own and crafting it into something none of us expected it to be. We were working extremely hard at every rehearsal and Charley and I were working on organizing the show itself. We grew together as a cast and as friends; each rehearsal we would find something new and exciting, making it an amazing time in my life.
