The Souris Valley Theatre has announced a new main stage production for their 2016 theatre season.
Chickens is a Canadian musical-comedy that will be performed from July 6 to 9, and 12 to 16.
“It’s a very funny script about a farmer and his wife who are struggling to make ends meet on the farm, and so they decide to go into raising exotic chickens,” said Maureen Ulrich, the chairperson of the theatre’s board of directors.
Ulrich hasn’t seen the show before, but other theatre supporters have, and gave it rave reviews. They have been talking to artistic director Kenn McLeod about bringing Chickens to Estevan.
The cast boasts six performers. Four of them portray the chickens, but they also have other roles in the show.
The theatre originally planned to have the Wizard of Oz as a main stage show, but those plans were scuttled due to the sliding value of the Canadian dollar. So they’re going with made-in-Canada productions.
“It might be a trend because next year is Canada’s 150th birthday, so it would be appropriate to be doing Canadian plays as well,” said Ulrich.
The other main stage show, The Volstead Blues, will run from July 25 to 29 and August 2 to 6. It was performed during the theatre’s first two years in 1990 and 1991, and the people involved with the theatre decided to bring it back because they thought its depiction of local history made it a perfect show to be performed during the 2016 Saskatchewan Summer Games.
There will be a few other special attractions this year. Ulrich’s production, Diamond Girls, will be performed June 20 and 21. Judy Wentzel’s production, Shangri-La, will be shown July 20 and 21, and Saskatchewan Express will perform at an August 10 show.
“We’re pretty excited with the way the summer is shaping up,” said Ulrich. “We’ve been talking to the park and the golf course, and we’re doing a stay-and-play package with them.”
The theatre also plans to have a ladies’ night out fundraiser on June 25. A team of female improv comedians, named the Lady Bits, will be performing, and Munish Sharma, who was part of the cast for last year’s performance of the 25th Putnam County Spelling Bee, will perform his burlesque show.
