A new season is dawning on the Sunset Theatre.
The performing arts house in Wells has a season of high calibre entertainment on the horizon. They are located on the threshold of Barkerville and the first show is scheduled for Tuesday.
"We are really focusing in on our new play development series and we also are having a world premiere of a play that has gone through this process," said the theatre's executive artistic director Karen Jeffery.
"I think it's going to be quite stunning. We are also helping develop three new plays from First Nations creators that I think will be of interest this year and very timely. Marcel Gagnon, Kym Gouchie and Danette Boucher are all developing shows this summer."
The former two are Prince George residents, the latter one from Wells. The local connections even cross-pollinate somewhat, thanks to the old and diminutive theatre space in the gold rush village.
"Because of Kym's past work at the Sunset Theatre, it stimulated Danette to go back to a theatre project she had in mind about James Douglas, and Kym is going to come back to keep developing her project The Blood Runs Through My Braids," said Jeffery.
"It's moving, it is a privilege to be able to play a role in these very personal stories growing into theatrical productions."
Another production slated for this summer at the Sunset is led by Canadian musical force Morag Northey.
Although she is based in Calgary where she is one of the nation's leading cellists (with a healthy dose of writing and theatre in her background as well), Northey has been developing a show entitled 17, which is heavily rooted at the Wells performance house. Jeffery said 17 is five years in the making and it makes its world premiere in August.
"Dirk Van Stralen is directing it. We are so thrilled he came on board. He did Jake's Gift which also had its beginnings at The Sunset Theatre so we are very excited about its possibilities. And we also have one of Canada'a top lighting technicians, Gerald King, lending his talents to 17, and Eugene Stickland is also involved so it has some real power," said Jeffery.
Most theatres are mercenary spaces, fields on which others wage their battles of wit and symbolism.
The Sunset Theatre, as demonstrated, also wages a lot of its own wars of enlightenment.
"Our core meaning is to create new Canadian work," Jeffery said.
"Wells is a unique setting, so in order to survive we have to do more than just be the place that has shows to watch. We have to develop productions. We have to be the place where new Canadian theatre is invented, developed and comes to life."
The season commences Tuesday with a Cabaret night (this will happen again on July 11, Aug. 22 and Sept. 19). These are variety shows in the spirit of the 1960s coffeehouses or European salons. Almost any kind of entertainment might happen; you just never know.
Lheidli T'enneh First Nation's own Juno nominee and two-time Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards winner Marcel Gagnon will be next on the Sunset schedule. His combination of stories and songs will play out on June 30 and July 2. The show is called The Awakening Of My People Through Sweat Lodge.
Mansel Robinson of The Other Theatre Company in Kamloops will take the Sunset stage next, presenting his collection of blues music, poetry and theatre in a performance he calls Rock 'n' Rail. It happens July 6-8 and 13-15.
July 19 is a concert by Mamaguroove spinoff band Samson's Delilah.
July 21 is a concert by acoustic troubadour Ewan Macintyre and his band, visiting the area from Scotland.
Northey debuts 17 on Aug. 3, 5, 10-12.
The performance style shifts a bit after that. The Moonrise Film Festival is having its fifth annual screenings of "carefully curated indie films from around the world," said Jeffery.
"We had 300 applications from all around the world, this year. It is now a really sought-after festival to get your film into." The film event runs Aug. 25-27.
That is followed by A Soldier's War on Aug. 29-30. This play presented by Joshua Ramsden is a tale of brotherhood, honour, and home from basic training, through the D-Day invasion, and finally the return to Canada. It is based on wartime letters written by Ramsden's grandfather.
On Sept. 1-2, an old friend of local theatre comes back for her own show. Nicolle Nattrass has been featured in past productions by Theatre Northwest and also has her own acclaimed solo play called Mamahood: Bursting Into Light. She wrote the script and also performs this comedic yet serious examination of her own motherhood.
The season of performances then ends on a set of readings of brand new theatrical works still in the construction phase. One is Nattrass's next play she's so far calling Into The Roots, another is Gouchie's Blood Runs Through My Braids and the third is The Douglas Project by Boucher. These will be presented Sept. 8-9.
Jeffery splits her time between Wells and Lion's Bay throughout the year. She also used to include Prince George in her residency, when she was the Manager of Ceremonies & Culture for the 2015 Canada Winter Games.
"Since leaving the Games I've been focused on the theatre - getting it funding and support, and it has really taken off," Jeffery said.
"It is open year-round now and taking on a life of its own. But the main focus is the development of new Canadian theatre."
The theatre is located prominently on downtown Pooley Street.
For more information visit the website at www.sunset-theatre.com or drop in for a visit.
