A woman who touched thousands across New Brunswick is being remembered.
Suzanne Doyle Yerxa passed away on Sunday.
She was born just outside of Boston, in Waltham, Massachusetts. She moved to Canada in the late 70s and became a teacher at KV High.
“She had been a cheerleader, and she had been involved in her local theatre troupe in Waltham, and she just turned it into a love for herself and a passion. She was so great at bringing that passion out in the students at KV, and then through that, the people that joined in production through KV Players,” Music Director Christopher Lane told our newsroom.
He shared a memory from just last month when they celebrated Yerxa’s 75th birthday, “So there were about, I’m going to say a dozen, a dozen and a half of us that gathered at her home. We had an ice cream cake, and we sang songs and musical theatre songs. She sat there and just took it all in, and at the end of the night, she said to her son, who was there with us, this is the perfect evening. This is exactly what I wanted.”
Lane said that being able to create that for her was wonderful.
Yerxa and Bob Doherty created KV Players in the early 80’s, as a way for students to continue their love for theatre in the community after they graduated.
“Her aspect of KV Players was that it was very much community theatre, that it was open to everyone who wanted to have that moment to shine on stage, whether it was a lead or in the chorus, helping to paint sets, helping to create sets, and build props. She just wanted to create a huge community,” Lane expressed.
Lane explained that her love for theatre and other interests were what helped her to draw people in and share her passion.
“She was a great supporter of the Boston sports teams. She would build a connection with the athletes in the school as well. So she’d be talking to the football players and the hockey players and the basketball players and say, come be on the stage.”
He described Yerxa as someone who lived a huge life for theatre, creating a legacy for musical theatre in the Kennebecasis Valley.
Another memory he shared was a time during the pandemic, when the whole world was shut down. They had plans for a summer theatre, but instead, they created two virtual shows.
“Sitting around her dining room table, post-it notes on the walls, figuring out how to record people, how do we get them to submit. I think that will be one of the special moments that we shared, still finding ways to create theatre in a time when it felt like we couldn’t create anything,” Lane shared.
