Members of the BeeKind Theater Company performed their first show, Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing,” on Aug. 10.
The area has a new theater company formed by a Mantua teen.
The BeeKind Theater Company is the brainchild of 16-year-old Hannah D’Aquila, who formed the group with her close friend, 19-year-old Chris Tighe of Woodstown. Members are like-minded people in their age group.
“Me and Chris had the idea,” recalled D’Aquila. ” … We wanted to start a theater company as friends because we both shared this passion of making art together and found a great group of people to do it with. And we’ve been having a lot of fun with it.”
“My good friend Hannah and I came home from a show,” Tighe said, “and we just kept talking all night about shows we wanted to do.”
The BeeKind Theater Company hosted its inaugural show – Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” – on the evening of Aug. 10 at the Blue Moon Theater in Woodstown. The free production featured the company’s own spin on the show, set during the 1970s with dance numbers inspired by the era.
“A lot of the people we got together through school and other theater companies,” D’Aquila noted. “We just reached out to a bunch of people to ask them to come, audition and hang out, and we ended up having enough people to do it.”
“It’s been a mix of all my worlds,” Tighe observed. “I have been doing theater since 2017, and it’s been an amalgamation of people, and it’s people I never expected to work together. But we’ve honestly come together so well and made such a good team.
“It’s been a really fun and carefree experience, but we still work very hard, and I appreciate everyone for that.”
The company also saw a visit from Mayor Robert Zimmerman on Aug. 7, as they rehearsed “Much Ado About Nothing” at Pitman’s Sunset Auditorium. The visit was the latest in a series of Zimmerman spotlighting youth entrepreneurs in the township.
“I’ve had the opportunity to meet many young, future entrepreneurs over the summer, and now Hannah, who’s a bona fide young entrepreneur in the theater world,” he said. “Parents throughout our community have been teaching their kids how to earn money and the value of having a strong work ethic.
“Hanna’s mom, Danielle D’Aquilla, is a community friend and a proven leader herself,” he added. “There’s no doubt that she’s a driving force and an inspirational role model for Hannah and her friends.”
With the show out of the way, Tighe will head to college in September, but he and D’Aquila will continue their venture in the foreseeable future.
“We want to still keep up with doing shows,” she noted. “We hope at some point we can produce a musical. But for right now, we’re trying to do this and see where it goes.”
