A Weyburn native, born and raised here and well-known as a performer at the Weyburn Comprehensive School before she graduated, will be back in town this summer to help teach music and choreography at the drama workshop to be held at the Tommy Douglas Centre, starting on Wednesday, July 2.

Meagan Leach is a grad of 2003 from the Comp, and has since earned her Bachelor degree in Fine Arts, specifically in the field of acting, and wants to return to pass on some of her knowledge and experience to youngsters who would like to learn about performing on a theatre stage.

She will be working with John Nolan in putting together the musical, Pirates of the Living Skyes, which will be a musical production for the Wheat Festival in early August. The play will feature parts for eight men and nine women, and rehearsals for the adults and teens involved in that play will also be starting that week.

At the same time, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. each day, the drama workshop for children aged eight and up will run at the Douglas Centre; Nolan will teach the drama aspects of performing, including the basics of stage presence and how to use one's voice and perform.

Meagan will working on the singing and dancing aspect of the production as well as choreographing such scenes as sword-fights between pirates.

She explained that after her degree, she's been pursuing her craft of acting, including spending five months as an intern at the Globe Theatre in Regina, as well doing various stints as stand-ins for productions like Corner Gas, and on the Christian Slater film recently in production in Regina.

Currently, she's also preparing to mount a one-woman show which she will perform at Regina's Fringe Festival starting on July 9, which is a reworked version of the show she performed at 30 schools around Saskatchewan, including in Weyburn. She will then take her show to Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton and Vancouver Fringe festivals.

"It's been a really interesting journey. This show was first produced by me at the university, then I did 30 shows at high schools around the province, and will now tour western Canada," said Meagan, adding she's finding the way to go in the Canadian acting world is to both work with others, and to "find your own way" independently.

As far as what students can look forward to learning from Meagan, she said, "It's going to be really fun. It'll be highly theatrical, which is great for kids."

Like Nolan, she will work with the children on the use of their voice as well as movement on the stage.

Meagan said it won't matter if a student doesn't have much experience in acting or singing, and added, "I don't feel you have to have a huge amount of experience. It's for a community show. It'll be challenging and it'll be fun."

In town to see her father Dean retire from teaching at the Weyburn Junior High, she commented, "I'm glad to be home. It's going to be great to do something here for the folks."