By Greg Nikkel
Representatives of Theatre Saskatchewan and Crocus 80 Theatre of Weyburn were on hand Monday to open Community Theatre Week in Saskatchewan, with the release of more details about TheatreFest to be held here on April 1-8, including a display of the awards that are up for grabs.
Community Theatre Week is being observed in Saskatchewan from Nov. 5-11, with the news conference in Weyburn, and later the TheatreOne festival in Warman from Nov. 9-12, featuring one-act plays.
Melissa Biro, executive director of Theatre Saskatchewan, noted this will be the 84th long-play festival to be held in this province, as it returns to Weyburn after last being held here in 2005. The provincial festival will feature community theatre groups from Regina, Indian Head, Balgonie and North Battleford, in addition to the host organization, Crocus 80 Theatre of Weyburn.
The week-long festival will be opened by the Regina Little Theatre, which will present, “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”, and it will close with a play by Crocus 80, “A Child Will Lead Them”, featuring youth actors from Crocus 80’s summer theatre program.
Crocus 80 representative Carol Reeve noted this play will focus on a young Jewish child in an internment camp during the Second World War.
“We are working very closely with the youth to find an actor who will fit the part. This is a very poignant play, especially as today there are youths in internment camps in different places around the world due to armed conflicts,” she said.
“This is a huge undertaking. It takes a lot of people a lot of time to organize an event like this, and it will be a week when nobody sleeps,” said Biro of TheatreFest, who noted it means a lot to the visiting theatre groups to see all the hard work of the local organizing committee, and to be able to travel outside of the community to be able to perform, and see other performances.
Noting the display table of awards, set up in the Allie Griffin Art Gallery, one of the biggest and heaviest of the awards, The McIntosh Cup, is also the oldest trophy, which was donated in 1932, and it is still presented at competitions today, along with a long list of several others.
TheatreFest will feature one play each evening, with a green room reception following, all tied in with the theme, “Broadway This Way”. Each evening will be themed to a different classic Broadway play, such as “Oklahoma!” or “West Side Story”.
Crocus 80 representative Sean Riley noted the green rooms will be open by around 9 or 10 each evening, with beverages and snacks available, along with the opportunity to visit with the actors of that evening’s performance.
From Monday to Thursday, the green room will be at the T.C. Douglas Centre, and on Friday and Saturday will be at the Legion Hall.
Also, starting the next day after the first play performance, there will be an adjudication of the play by former Weyburn resident Gordon Portman of Saskatoon, and drama workshops put on each afternoon at the T.C. Douglas Centre or the Legion Hall.
“Members of other theatre groups can come in and hear the adjudication, and talk about different ways of presenting the story,” said Biro. “It’s all about the opportunity to learn.”
The workshops each afternoon will cover a range of topics from writing to an introduction to directing, acting and improvisation, she added, noting she is working with Crocus 80 to develop other workshop ideas.
The advance tickets will be $50 each from now until the end of January, after which the price will be $85. The tickets will be available through Pic-a-tic or by emailing her at [email protected], or [email protected]. An office location in Weyburn has yet to be determined for making advance tickets available.
