There was a definite emphasis on the Saskatchewan Roughriders during the first day of the Best Business Showcase last week in North Battleford.
Not only did the noon audience hear former wide receiver Matt Dominguez at the VIP luncheon, but so did one of the team's biggest fans - Ottawa-based actress Colleen Sutton, aka RiderGirl.
Sutton was there to promote her one-woman play RiderGirl, which has been touring Saskatchewan and across Canada and will be coming to the Dekker Centre of the Performing Arts for a performance Nov. 16.
The performance is slated for the night before the CFL Western finals, "which I'm sure the Riders will be a part of," Sutton says.
She got to meet Dominguez at the luncheon event, and then spent the afternoon inside the NationsWEST Field House promoting her show and signing autographs. On the main stage at 5 p.m. Thursday, Sutton sat down for an interview with Dekker Centre manager Moe McGuinty to talk about the show and what audiences can expect.
She is excited about how the show will look on the new Dekker Centre stage. "The show is going to look so good here. I'm so excited because the stage is just stunning and brand new."
Sutton grew up in Saskatchewan, living in Carlyle, Rosetown, Saskatoon and eventually Regina, where she earned a bachelor's in music education from the University of Regina.
She went on to be a saxophonist with the Canadian Armed Forces before completing the acting conservatory program at Ottawa Theatre School and worked professionally in theatre in Ottawa after graduation.
Sutton was inspired to create her own work and write a play, settling on a subject close to her heart - the Riders.
"I knew I wanted to start to write and knew the number one thing I wanted to write about was Rider Nation," said Sutton.
She said she felt it would be a subject that would strike a chord with people.
"I find it's a bit of an enigma, especially out in Ontario - they don't get us," she adds, though not in a negative way. "It's just sort of an awe thing like 'what? Why are you such a big football fan and what is it about Rider Nation?' So I thought, 'I think I could write about this.'"
She said she wanted to write about something she was passionate about, and "there's very little I'm more passionate about than the Riders."
She came up with the idea shortly after the 2010 Grey Cup and, with the encouragement of colleagues including Janet Irwin who signed on as director/dramaturge for the project. The play was submitted to the 2012 Winnipeg Fringe Festival and got in.
Her first performance of the show was July 2012. Sutton was unfazed by the fact that the show got its launch in Blue Bombers' land.
"The most important thing for me was that I did get the show up in a football town," said Sutton.
"I wanted to premiere it in a place where they got the CFL, they appreciated it and loved it."
There were some other advantages to debuting her show on enemy territory. "If they liked the show, then I really had something."
Never did she want the RiderGirl show to be limited in its audience to Riders fans. "It had to be a show that would speak to everybody, even the non-fan."
Since then the RiderGirl show has played in Ottawa and also in Regina during the Labour Day Classic. This year the show has toured to such venues as Estevan, Swift Current, Regina and Saskatoon and also outside the province to Hamilton, Ont. and Calgary and Edmonton, Alta.
In addition to North Battleford, the plan is for RiderGirl to perform in Craik, Regina and Assiniboia during November.
It's helped convert some audience members into actual fans, she's said. "They're walking away with a new appreciation and enthusiasm," said Sutton.
Part of what motivates her as well is spreading the message of how passionate she is about the CFL.
"I really love this league and I really do want to promote it," said Sutton.
She didn't hold back in expressing her frustration for the lack of enthusiasm she sees for the league in other parts of Canada, particularly Ontario. "To see such an apathy in Ontario drives me a little crazy."
Sutton also says she's been trying to get league commissioner Marc Cohon to go see her show. If he does see it, she says, "he'd see what I'm doing, that it really is about promoting the league and not just about being a Rider fan."
Sutton owes her initial fandom for the Riders to sitting next to a fan named Sandra in the pep band.
She describes her as "so passionate and so fervent and so dedicated, and spoke her mind, that I couldn't help but begin to have to ask questions and learn about the game. In learning about the game and in learning what it means to be a fan, a true fan, it gave me so many life skills that I still hold to this day about following your heart and sticking with your heart no matter what."
That was how she started as a fan, but Sutton says "the team and this fan base is the reason why I'm still a fan and will always be a fan."
