Leeann Minogue is excited her play, Dry Streak, will be performed at the Souris Valley Theatre’s Frehlick Hall.
Dry Streak is the second main stage show for the theatre this summer. It’s a two-act play set in a small Saskatchewan community during the drought of the late 1980s. A city girl struggles to adapt to rural life while spending the summer on her boyfriend’s family farm.
Frustrated by the dry conditions, she vows to streak through the town should it rain.
Minogue, who now resides in Griffin, was a teenager during the drought of 1988 and 1989.
“I grew up on a farm north of Swift Current, on a grain farm,” she told the Mercury. “It was very, very dry in 1988.”
As for the play’s plot, Minogue gained the inspiration after she heard of a group of women in Australia who said they would streak if some rain would interrupt a drought.
Minogue penned Dry Streak in 2004, when a friend was in charge of a dinner theatre in a small town, and they were having a hard time finding a play pertinent to their location. There were plays about life in big cities, but not in small town Saskatchewan.
So she wrote the play, and while it wasn’t used by that community, it has been performed in many locations.
“It really got started through the Saskatchewan Playwright Centre, who put it on in a workshop,” said Minogue. “The director of the Persephonie Theatre picked it up and ran it there, and it’s had a really good run ever since.”
It has been performed in many rural Saskatchewan communities, and was used for a dinner theatre at the Estevan Comprehensive School.
“It’s so exciting to see my words on the stage,” said Minogue. “Especially when people laugh. I love it when the audience laughs. I like to sit at the back, and watch people watching it.”
It will be performed in Billings, Montana next March – the first time it will be shown in the U.S. Minogue also released a Dry Streak book about a decade ago, and was a finalist for the Saskatchewan Book Awards in 2006.
The opportunity to have the play performed in Estevan came after the Souris Valley Theatre’s artistic director, Kenn McLeod, saw a rendition of Dry Streak, and wanted to have it in Estevan.
“You have such a great director,” said Minogue. “I think one or two of the actors who were in the Spelling Bee show (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) are in this play. I just saw the Spelling Bee musical, and it was fantastic, so I’m really excited to see what Kenn will do with this one.”
She’s a big fan of the Souris Valley Theatre and its Frehlick Hall building, as she views it as a great place to watch a show.
Minogue said there is the suggestion of nudity in the show, but nobody is actually seen naked.
There is some foul language in the original script, but it has been removed for the performances in Estevan.
She noted she’ll be bringing her eight-year-old son to see Dry Streak in Estevan, so it is family friendly.
Dry Streak will be performed from Wednesday, August 5, to Saturday, August 8, and from Tuesday, August 11, to Saturday, August 15. Shows will be at 7:30 p.m. each night. There will be a 2 p.m. matinee on Aug. 13.
Dry Streak is playing on the heels of the Souris Valley Theatre’s latest performance, which was Snowbirds, a play written by Souris Valley Theatre board member Maureen Ulrich.
