Just over 20 years ago, Noam Tomaschoff, Ryan Peters and Russell Citron were Toronto high school friends who bonded over musical theatre.
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who → bond → theatre
Now they’re living out their dreams as their 2023 Fringe hit musical “Our Little Secret” opens this week as part of the Off-Mirvish season.
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Secret → live → season
The title refers to the secret that Tomaschoff’s parents kept — that their son was donor-conceived — until they discovered that Noam was going to do a 23AndMe genetic test and would eventually find out that the boy’s father was not his biological dad.
Shortly after Tomaschoff got the news, in 2022, he phoned his friends, including Peters, who teaches music at their alma mater, the Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto, or CHAT), and Citron, a theatre producer (who’s also a producer on the hit musical “Operation Mincemeat”).
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who → refer → hit
And soon all three were working on a musical about his experiences, which I won’t spoil since they make up the bulk of the musical.
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they → work → musical
The Star chatted with them recently via Zoom, with Tomaschoff in Edmonton for the Citadel run of the show, Peters in Toronto and Citron on a work trip to Manhattan.
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Star → chat → Manhattan
Veronica Hortigüela and Annie Lujàn’s “Monks” at Tarragon Theatre is a wacky celebration of doing nothing and also everything at the same time.
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Monks → do → time
Veronica Hortigüela and Annie Lujàn’s “Monks” at Tarragon Theatre is a wacky celebration of doing nothing and also everything at the same time.
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Monks → do → time
So how did you all meet?
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you → meet → ?
I remember seeing Noam in the audition room for a school production of “Fiddler on the Roof.”
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I → remember → Roof
Later in a stairwell, we talked about hoping to get good parts.
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we → talk → parts
I was drawn to his charisma and sense of humour.
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I → draw → humour
He rode a motorcycle to school, the kind with a sidecar.
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He → ride → sidecar
He would keep his helmet on all day, earning him the nickname “Helmet.”
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He → keep → nickname
At school we had to wear a head covering of some sort, whether it was religious, like a kippa, or a baseball hat.
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it → have → kippa
I just happened to have my helmet.
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I → happen → helmet
One of our main activities was getting together around the piano to sing through “Rent” or “Les Miserables.”
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One → get → Rent
That’s where a lot of our friendship happened.
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lot → ’ → friendship
Separately, we were also in bands and played at places like the Bip Bop, the Reverb and Holy Joe’s.
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we → play → Bop
Then we pivoted to musical theatre with a show we wrote for our Grade 11 Drama class called “Just a Regular Day.”
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we → pivot → class
It sounds autobiographical.
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It → sound → ?
Tomaschoff: It took our personalities and cranked them up to a million.
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It → take → million
We constructed absurd versions of ourselves living through a regular day in high school.
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We → construct → school
It was such a success that we decided to expand it and remount it the next year, adding cast members.
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we → decide → members
Our dads helped build sets.
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dads → help → sets
We rented a theatre for two nights at Crescent School, sold tickets, made CDs.
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We → rent → CDs
Citron: At any other high school, we’d have been bullied and stuffed into lockers.
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we → bully → lockers
But somehow, it was considered cool.
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it → consider → ?
Kids and parents listened to our CDs while carpooling, there were posters everywhere.
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Kids → listen → CDs
Being creative was encouraged.
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Being → encourage → ?
There was a class called “Interdisciplinary Communications,” and we were assigned to do a video project near the end of term.
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we → be → term
We made a music video to the “Kim Possible” theme song.
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We → make → song
This was before social media, and we got something like 90,000 views on YouTube.
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we → get → YouTube
Noam, I believe you made the discovery that you were donor-conceived in 2023.
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you → believe → 2023
I know you deal with it in the show, but did some things become clearer to you after receiving the news?
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things → know → news
He pushed me hard and exposed me to tons of culture.
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He → push → culture
He clearly had some insecurity about feeling like I was “his.”
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I → have → insecurity
He’s a native Hebrew speaker, so he only spoke that with me growing up.
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he → ’ → me
He wouldn’t answer me if I spoke to him in English.
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I → answer → English
The upshot of that is I’m fluent in Hebrew.
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I → ’m → Hebrew
I didn’t understand why he was that way, because I didn’t have all the information.
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I → understand → information
…and 58 more, not listed.
The Aporia
