Famous PEOPLE Players is a black light theatre company. It is based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and tours worldwide. It is a non-profit organization that is known as Canada's Goodwill Ambassadors to the world. They are famous for bringing inclusion and integration for people with disabilities. Those individuals, also known as Players, share duties in dining room management, arts administration, and theatrical and visual arts performances.
Since inception, the company has paid homage to the works of famous people within its own theatrical context, hence the name Famous PEOPLE Players.
History
Inspired by her vision of social inclusion, Diane Dupuy of Hamilton, Ontario received an Opportunity For Youth (OFY) grant to start FPP. This program was created by the late P.M. Pierre Elliot Trudeau to provide meaningful work experiences for Canadian youth in the early 1970s. On June 1, 1974, Famous PEOPLE Players (FPP) was founded.
At inception, the company consisted of Dupuy, an assistant, eleven performers, and Dupuy's mother Mary Gioberti Thornton; Thornton designed and built the costumes and props.
The company's original piece was Aruba Liberace, in which a life-size character of Liberace plays the piano. It is still the company's signature performance. Liberace attended a showing of Aruba Liberace, and was so impressed he invited FPP to perform with him in Las Vegas. The company debuted in Las Vegas at Las Vegas Hilton Hotel in October 1975; over the subsequent ten years, the company performed with Liberace both in Las Vegas and internationally.
As a result of the increasing popularity of Famous PEOPLE Players, the company was featured as regulars on CBC Television's 1976–1977 variety series, The Wolfman Jack Show; the network also later produced and aired Carnival of the Animals hosted by Canadian Actor Gordon Pinsent. In 1980, FPP was featured with the Rockettes at the re-opening of Radio City Music Hall in New York, where the Sorcerer Apprentice premiered.
In 1982, Famous PEOPLE Players was invited to perform in the People's Republic of China. The company's first Broadway Show, A Little Like Magic, opened at the Lyceum Theatre in New York City and ran for 49 performances in 1986. They returned to New York in 1994 for a 4-week run, under the sponsorship of Phil Collins and actor Paul Newman, where they performed the show A Little More Magic for inner city kids to dream BIG! The production was very successful and is still occasionally performed at the company's theatre in Toronto and on tour. A sequel of sorts followed two years later, entitled Hide and Seek: A Game of Human Spirit and A.D.H.D.(Awesome Dreams with High Drama) The Musical.
{| style="padding: 0.5em; border: 1px solid #99cc99;" width="85%" align="center"
|+Famous PEOPLE Players Productions
|-
! align="left" | Name
! align="center" | First Performance
! align="right" | Last Performance
|-
|Aruba Liberace
|align="center" |1974
|align="right" |still performed
|-
|Sorcerer Apprentice
|align="center" |1980
|align="right" |1980
|-
|Scheherazade
|align="center" |1981
|align="right" |1981
|-
|A Little Like Magic
|align="center" |1985
|align="right" |still performed
|-
|Night On Bald Mountain
|align="center" |1986
|align="right" |1986
|-
|A Little More Magic
|align="center" |1994
|align="right" |2001
|-
|The Best of the Best
|align="center" |1994
|align="right" |2001
|-
|The Oldies But Goodies Show
|align="center" |1996
|align="right" |1998
|-
|A Magical Christmas
|align="center" |1997
|align="right" |2000
|-
|Leave the Porch Light On
|align="center" |1999
|align="right" |still performed
|-
|Rock Around The Clock
|align="center" |2000
|align="right" |still performed
|-
|Hide and Seek: A Game of Human Spirit
|align="center" |2001
|align="right" |2007
|-
|Jumpin' and Jiven
|align="center" |2005
|align="right" |still performed
|-
|Shake, Rattle & Roll
|align="center" |2005
|align="right" |2005
|-
|Hollywood Rocks
|align="center" |2006
|align="right" |2006
|-
|On Broadway
|align="center" |2006
|align="right" |2006
|-
|Alice in Funky Land
|align="center" |2006
|align="right" |still performed
|-
|Good Rockin
|align="center" |2007
|align="right" |still performed
|-
|Going Bananas
|align="center" |2008
|align="right" |still performed
|-
|Rock and Roll Heaven
|align="center" |2010
|align="right" |2015
|-
|A Black Light Night at the Opera
|align="center" |2012
|align="right" |2014
|-
|A.D.H.D.(Awesome Dreams with High Drama) The Musical
|align="center" |2014
|align="right" |2014
|-
|Rock & Roll Heaven
|align="center" |2015
|align="right"|2015
|-
|Under The Big Top
|align="center"|2015
|align="right"|2015
|-
|Mistletoe Magic
|align="center"|2015
|align="right"|2015
|-
|Great Balls of Fire
|align="center"|2015
|align="right"|2016
|-
|Too Darn Hot
|align="center"|2016
|align="right"|2016
|-
|TreeMendous
|align="center"|2016
|align="right"|2016
|-
|Shufflin' On Broadway
|align="center"|2017
|align="right"|still performed
|-
|Canada Stands Tall
|align="center"|2017
|align="right"|2017
|-
|Sleigh Bells Ring
|align="center"|2017
|align="right"|still performed
|-
|Rock This City
|align="center"|2017
|align="right"|2023
|-
|Made in Canada
|align="center"|2018
|align="right"|2018
|-
|A Rockin' Good Time
|align="center"|2018
|align="right"|still performed
|-
|Jingle Around the Clock!
|align="center"|2018
|align="right"|2019
|-
|Winter Wonderland
|align="center"|2019
|align="right"|2020
|-
|Flashback Fun
|align="center"|2024
|align="right"|2024
|-
|Believe in Magic
|align="center"|2024
|align="right"|2024
|-
|Deck the Halls
|align="center"|2024
|align="right"|2025
|-
|Twist & Shout
|align="center"|February 2025
|align="right"|June 2025
|-
|Changing the Label: a Musical
|align="center"|June 2025
|align="right"|June 2025
|-
|Joy to the World
|align="center"|November 2025
|align="right"|January 2026
|}
References
External links
- Famous People Players