Local theatre is in the zone.
The strength of local community drama has ebbed and flowed over the years but the results of the Central Interior Zone Theatre Festival in Williams Lake this past week are an indication of an upswing going on.
The local production of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike by the Pocket Theatre Company took six of the 21 awards, and especially hit the mark on the high-profile trophies.
"Our awards didn't happen until near the end. We weren't getting anything and it was beginning to worry me, but then it was us they were calling out time after time," said the show's director Dominic Maguire, who took home the outstanding director award, at the end of the night.
Other Prince George trophies went to Katherine Trepanier for best supporting female actor, Adam Harasimiuk for best supporting male actor, Jody Newham for best performance by a female actor, and Pierre Ducharme was given an adjudicator's choice-outstanding work by a male actor award.
The group also won the award that counts most, in the B.C. context, the outstanding production citation that moves them on to the provincial round of competition: Theatre BC's Mainstage Festival coming up in July.
It was by no means assured that Pocket Theatre would be the one selected by adjudicator Sarah Rodgers (a veteran actor/director with 11 nominations and four wins to her name for the Jessie Richardson Awards for B.C. theatre). The fact all other productions won at least some of the awards was proof of that.
Pocket Theatre's co-producer Allison Haley is also the chair of the zone executive, and she said the other three in contention - two by Williams Lake Studio Theatre, and one by high school ensembles The Maranatha Players - all had their strong qualities.
"Williams Lake put on a really strong show, as hosts, and one of the best parts of this event is everyone in our zone is there not so much to compete but to just enjoy each other's work, see some community theatre done by our peers, and help each other out when we can," Haley said. "That interplay makes everyone stronger and makes the theatre process so much more worthwhile."
Maguire said he was concerned to the point of sleepless nights that the stage configuration used to show Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike in Prince George would not be workable in the two-tiered stage space available in Williams Lake. With the help of St. Michael's Anglican Church theatre fans, they were able to go into that split-level area and practice a couple of times prior to heading into the competition, and once there, other theatre companies spontaneously provided extra set pieces and furniture to help the play look its best.
That, said Haley and Maguire, is the spirit of local community theatre. Since their play is moving on to provincials, the generosity even extended to keeping some of those borrowed items until they complete their Mainstage mission.
That mission includes all the actors and a good number of technical personnel - all of them volunteers - having to make time in their personal schedules to attend the provincial festival in Chilliwack. Adam Harasimiuk has been in a number of productions in Prince George this year, and he is playing the role of Mr. Banks in the upcoming Judy Russell production of Mary Poppins, but Russell has excused him for Mainstage because, Harasimiuk said, it is understood that this experience will only make him a better asset for the Poppins show and all future plays he might be cast in.
"You just do it," he said of the heavy rehearsal and performance schedule he has kept this past year or more. He was in the cast of the Picaroon Pictures short-film Behind The Reds, he was in the Judy Russell Presents production of Evil Dead: The Musical, he was the host for the P.G. Playhouse's recent horror movie festival, and it wasn't that long ago he was in Spamalot. Now he has these overlapping theatrical efforts underway.
"It has been a community effort to put these productions on, and that includes helping each other get through the work it involves," Harasimiuk said. "It's a lot of fun, it's a lot of work for everyone. I'm so lucky to get to be part of it."
The Theatre BC Mainstage Festival happens July 2-9 in Chilliwack.
