When summer comes to southeast Saskatchewan, nobody should be afraid to go out walkin' after midnight.
The Souris Valley Theatre is bringing the Patsy Cline story back to the Frehlick Hall stage, when Devra Straker portrays the lead role in A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline.
That is one of three plays that will entertain local theatregoers in Estevan this summer. As the theatre returns this year after a washed out 2011 and 2012, the stage will host three different plays for the first time since they opened in 1990.
New theatre director David Leyshon is originally from Swift Current and has a background primarily in acting.
Leyshon spent seven years with the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, as well as time at the Stratford Festival, the Globe Theatre and Stage West in Calgary. He has recently spent time in several regional theatres across the country.
While most of Leyshon's experience is in acting, directing is a fresh challenge that he's looking forward to.
"It's really exciting. It's always exciting to be involved in making theatre," said Leyshon. "When you're an actor, you come into the process at a certain point when the machine has been up and running and a lot of things have been put in place. This is a different perspective to look through the making of theatre. You're kind of at the base level of it all (as a director)."
In his new role he said some challenges will be new, but other are going to be familiar.
Leyshon said he expects there to be lots of excitement about the return to the Souris Valley Theatre after a two-year absence.
"The theatre has been dark for the last little while. We're kind of infusing the energy back into that space, which is both exciting and a challenge. People are eager to want to see productions in that space again, bringing that kind of creativity back to the area in the summer months."
Leyshon both fears and loves the challenge of putting on a show.
"The idea of putting on plays is always a bit daunting," added Leyshon, quoting a character from the film Shakespeare in Love, who said, "'I don't know how it's going to work out, it just does.' The theatre always has a way of just making it happen. It's kind of a mysterious beast that way. It always takes its own journey to get to where it's going to go."
Theatre manager Jocelyn Anderson said the group is excited to start fresh. While the theatre has produced Patsy Cline previously, they are bringing in two new stories, including a one-woman fringe show by Saskatchewan native Colleen Sutton entitled Ridergirl. Sutton went to university with Leyshon, and when he found out he was going to be coming to Estevan, contacted her to see if she wanted to perform.
The other performance is I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, which will run in July.
Tickets to the theatre were sold leading up to the holidays, and Anderson said many are bubbling with excitement in getting the beloved theatre back and running in the city.
"We want to get everything revitalized," she said. "We want to bring back everything that's been missing for a couple of years now."
Anderson is also excited to reboot the youth musical theatre camps this summer. She said they will be exciting and new as they try to revamp the camps to energize Estevan youth in the spirit of performance arts.
"Our musical theatre camps that we're doing for the youth, we're making it a little bit fresh," added Anderson. "We've got themes going on this year where before we just did a straight theatre camp. Everything's just a little bit different but exciting and new."
The theatre experienced some damage during the spring flooding in 2011, and that meant two consecutive cancelled seasons. Anderson said there wasn't too much damage to the building, but the seats were replaced and the dressing rooms are to be replaced with a mobile home.
The grounds suffered no major damage, but the concession had to be renovated.
Anderson noted they are still looking for individuals to sponsor seats. Sponsorship forms may be printed off the theatre's website at sourisvalleytheatre.ca
The theatre will also be adding an online box office as another option for people wishing to purchase tickets this season.
