You can take the boy off the farm, but you can’t take the farm out of the boy! This adage suits new Charlottetown Festival cast member Gerrad Everard to a T.
Everard grew up on his parents’ farm in Wawanesa, Manitoba. He became interested in the performing arts in high school, singing in the choir and playing drums. When he graduated in 1995, he joined Up with People, a non-political, non-profit organization that offers young adults international and intercultural experiences through the performing arts. A year-long tour took Everard and fellow performers to countries around the world, including the United States, Canada, Finland, Norway, Estonia, Sweden and Africa.
When he returned to his home province, he studied psychology and sociology for a year at Brandon University. He then planned to study drama at Ryerson University in Toronto but fate intervened. He got a gig at a theatre in Winnipeg, and, as the saying goes, the rest is history!
Everard says he did not choose a career in the performing arts. “It picked me. And I’ve never looked back.”
An actor now for over 10 years, Everard has built up an impressive array of credits in theatre, film and television, including the musicals California Dreaming, British Invasion I and II, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, New York New York and others. Film and television credits include two CBC-TV shows, Chocolate Confidential and Doodlebops, and The Roswell Project for Paramount Pictures. On May 5, he wrapped up a run with the Rocky Horror Show at CanStage in Toronto.
He is thrilled to be a member of the Charlottetown Festival cast for the first time. He will perform in The British Invasion: A Musical Revue, a production he knows well from his previous experience. Among his roles in the revue will be that of the wild and crazy Mick Jagger, of Rolling Stones fame. In a complete contrast, he has been cast as the mild-mannered Minister in Anne of Green Gables-The Musical™.
Everard is an actor but he is also a dedicated farmer, running his own 300-acre grain and beef farm close to his parents’ operation of about 1,100 acres. Before he arrived in Charlottetown to start rehearsal on May 24, he spent every moment he could, working the land and putting in his crops.
He loves both aspects of his life; he enjoys being in the limelight when he is touring, but he also loves to disappear into the farm when he returns to it. He tries to get home for the spring planting and the fall harvest. While he is away, his family looks after his farm.
“I’ve always known what I wanted to do,” he says. “I am a farmer and an actor.”
Directed by Anne Allan, Anne of Green Gables-The Musical™ and The British Invasion: A Musical Revue play on the Mainstage at the Confederation Centre on selected dates until the end of September. Donald Fraser is music director and conductor of the orchestra. For ticket reservations, contact the Confederation Centre’s box office at 1-800-565-0278 or visit www.confederationcentre.com.
The Charlottetown Festival and The British Invasion are sponsored by APM group. Media sponsors for The Festival are The Guardian, CBC-TV and CBC Radio.
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