Every community has its colourful characters. This region has the likes of Billy Barker, Ben Ginter and Six Mile Mary. They are the kind of people on whom you could write songs or script a play.
Katrina Kadoski was so inspired and fascinated by one such regional character that the words wouldn't stop cascading until she'd done both.
Kadoski was once a tour guide at the quaint historic homestead of Ada Annie Rae-Arthur Lawson who passed away in 1985 at the age of 97. She had amassed a huge local reputation on the western shore of Vancouver Island through the mid-20th century. It compelled area residents to buy the pioneer's property and turn it into a feature of Hesquiat Peninsula Provincial Park a little north of Tofino.
Lawson also amassed herself a snappy nickname: Cougar Annie. Kadoski lived at the homestead and researched Lawson's life, composing the one-actor musical based on Lawson's life that Kadoski is now bringing to Prince George for an April 12 performance at Artspace.
Cougar Annie Tales has become a popular show in B.C. It's a little bit of guns and a little bit of guitar, a perfect blend of history and entertainment from the real-life exploits of a west coast alpha-woman.
The play has been here before and, like elsewhere in the province, has a loyal following that continues to build the buzz.
Kadoski is adding a special feature to the Cougar Annie experience, now, though, that the city has never experienced before. She and her Cougar Annie Tales theatre technician Peter Wahl have also formed a folky musical duo called Edgedwellers. Following the play, the audience now gets a complimentary concert following each performance of Cougar Annie Tales.
"I thought the idea of a mini-vaudeville show, where you get a play and a concert all in one event, was kind of a fun idea. I'm experimenting with that," said Kadoski. "Some people think that having a concert after a play like Cougar Annie Tales might dilute the play, but some people find that they go home grieving someone that they've never met and it's nice to have a kind of buffer and be able to switch gears and have something else take you back out into the world after learning about somebody's whole life in one hour. It can be intense."
But if you don't wish to have the concert, there is a break and you can leave before the music starts.
It's an idea Kadoski hatched after studying the eastern American life of Lilyan Stratton Corbin, born in 1882 and died in 1928. She was a celebrated stage performer in her time. The Crisfield library is named after her in her Maryland hometown.
In a routine that felt somewhat familiar, Kadoski was invited to live for a few weeks as an artist-in-residence in order to study the life of this charismatic 19th/20th century figure bathed in culture and tragedy. Kadoski first wrote some songs hewn from Corbin's life and times. Then she built a script around the songs. The results are not finished but the working title of this new one-actor musical play is The Waterman's Daughter. She's aiming to have it finished for summer, 2019.
All of this creation around another pivotal pioneering woman is going on in the midst of Kadoski still performing a regular circuit of Cougar Annie Tales.
"I have to shift gears," she admitted, about keeping the two muses separated in her creative zone. "But I feel like there's going to be a day when I do these shows back to back. But that day is not now."
The day for seeing Cougar Annie Tales and a performance by Edgedwellers is April 12 starting at 7 p.m. Tickets are $18 in advance or $20 at the door, available now at Books & Company.
