Before signing on to direct Theatre Under the Stars' production of We Will Rock You, Saccha Dennis might not have seemed like the ideal candidate for the job. For one thing, she lives in Mississauga, Ontario. And for another, up until last year, she'd never even heard of TUTS.

"I just saw an ad that they were looking for directors," recalls Dennis on the phone, "and We Will Rock You was one of the shows. So when I saw that I immediately applied—not thinking that I would get it, because I'm not in Vancouver, but just to kind of put my name out there anyway. And I was surprised to get a call to say that they wanted to meet with me and talk more about that possibility. So I'm really glad it worked out."

Although unfamiliar with Theatre Under the Stars, Dennis knew all about We Will Rock You. She had spent just over a year as a member of the ensemble cast during the show's first national U.S. tour, which traveled across the States in 2013 and 2014. In the immortal words of Loverboy, she was lovin' every minute of it.

"It was such a fantastic experience," raves Dennis from her current digs near downtown Van. "I've never been on tour before, because I was always performing in Canada, but to be able to see the States was great. Whether we were going to Nashville one week or Rhode Island the next, it was just really nice to travel.

"And the biggest highlight for me in that show was to perform with [Queen guitarist] Brian May in one of the shows. He has a tendency to, if he's in town and we're doing We Will Rock You, to try to be there on the stage for the last number, to play 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. So that was definitely a highlight."

While there's no guarantee that May will show up at Malkin Bowl to sit in with the show's live band—which includes guitarists Sam Brock-Mahood and Jason Heras, keyboardists Christopher King and Arielle Ballance, bassist Monica Dumas, and drummer Colin Parker—there will definitely be more than 20 Queen songs rolled out in the telling of playwright Ben Elton's 2002 tale.

"The story is kinda set 300 years in the future," Dennis explains. "It follows a young guy named Galileo Figaro, who kind of hears music in his head but doesn't understand what it is. He meets a young girl named Scaramouche, who is quite an outcast like he is, and they live on this iPlanet, where individuality is banned. So Galileo and Scaramouche try to restore rock music on this iPlanet where music is banned, and they meet a lot of friends along the way. They kind of take us all on a journey through the soundtrack of Queen."

Dennis first discovered her love of musical theatre when she was 10 years old, and she and her brother would sing in their basement and put on shows. When she got into her teens she started committing to any type of performance that she could do. Her father used to dance back in Trinidad, and her mother was a singer, "so it's in the blood," she says.

The first musical Dennis ever attended in person was a Toronto performance of The Phantom of the Opera, starring Paul Stanley from Kiss, and she vividly recalls how elaborate the set was—including the giant chandelier. But the main attraction to musical theatre for Dennis has always been, apart from the music, the storytelling.

"When you realize you'd spent two hours in your seat really engaged, I think there's something so magical about that."

Dennis has been able to spread that kind of magic around herself through directing productions such as Rent, Pippin: Reimagined, Legally Blonde: The Musical, and Dreamgirls. She's also accumulated several acting credits, including for roles in the musicals Sister Act, Sousatzka, and Come From Away, which she's particularly proud of.

"Come From Away is very much at the top of the pack," she says. "It's the longest show I've ever done—I spent two and half years on that show, did 850 performances. I'm really proud of that because of the work that I've put into that show, not only as an actor but as an activist, with just providing acts of kindness and just kind of using that as the motivation to help other people in the community, which was a platform that we had."

After We Will Rock You runs its course in late August, Dennis will head back to Ontario to direct the Stephen Sondheim musical, Into the Woods, at London's Grand Theatre. But for now it's rehearsals in Stanley Park, where she's becoming more and more of a Queen fan every day. She was a late bloomer as far as Freddie Mercury and Co. are concerned.

"I had only heard 'Bohemian Rhapsody' from like Wayne's World back in the '90s," she admits, "and that was maybe the only kind of association I had with Queen. I'd heard a couple of songs, but was never particularly a fan in the beginning. After performing the show on tour I definitely was, though."

Dennis—who cites "Play the Game", "Killer Queen", and "Bohemian Rhapsody" as her fave Queen tracks—finds it fairly bizarre that she's helming the same musical she once toured with.

"If you told me ten years ago that I'd be directing the show here in Vancouver I wouldn't believe you," she says with a laugh. "What a full-circle moment it is for me, to be able to do that."

Theatre Under the Stars presents performances of We Will Rock You, in repertory with Something Rotten!, from July 3 to August 27 at Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park.