The sport of theatre is game-on starting today in Williams Lake.
The Central Interior Zone Festival is on now until Sunday with four plays in contention for the slate of awards.
Prince George is represented by Pocket Theatre and their production of Dearly Departed, which was seen most recently in May at CNC's Shaffer Theatre. Producer Allison Haley and director Dominic Maguire kept rehearsals running after the show wrapped and the cast is now in the south Cariboo getting ready to remount the production for competition.
"While part of the thrill of going to Festival is putting your play into competition, a larger part of the draw is the element of sharpening your theatre skills while having fun with your theatre peers," said Haley. "Each year a different theatre professional is brought in to offer acting, directing and technical tips in both brief public adjudications and longer coffee critiques."
This year, the imported theatre professional and educator is Joan MacLean, who teaches performing arts for the Burnaby School District and is a Theatre BC-approved adjudicator and instructor.
In addition to strategic feedback from MacLeod, the zone festival is a chance to be recognized for strong theatric work. The awards portion of the event shines a spotlight on the Best Male Actor, Best Female Actor, Best Set, Best Lighting, Best Backstage, Best Director to name a few - and the show chosen as Best Production will travel to the provincial Theatre BC Mainstage Festival held this year in Kamloops in July to compete with the best productions from community theatre from around the province.
"Zone festivals and Mainstage are always great opportunities to perform before your peers, to gain valuable advice from theatre professionals, and to take advantage of educational workshops and see some great theatre," said Haley. "Some of the players in Pocket Theatre's Dearly Departed are festival veterans and previous award-winners, some have been to festival in different capacities - as tech crew or backstage - but are now attending as actors, and for several this will be a new experience."
Prince George has not always been represented at the Central Interior Zone Festival. Not every play is suited to competition, not every production team is motivated to transport the show to other locations. Some from Prince George have gone on to win high honours at the provincial level. Haley said the competitive element is only the backdrop for building a regional and provincial amateur theatre family that helps each other do better performance work.
"Bringing home new skills and insights into the craft of theatre helps us put on more interesting shows here in Prince George, while taking our shows out into the rest of the province showcases the talented community players Prince George has fostered," she said.
The Central Interior Zone Festival will host performances of Sense and and Sensibility and Glengarry Glen Ross, both by Williams Lake Studio Theatre, and Tales from Me and Irmie by Kersley Players, as well as Prince George's Dearly Departed scheduled for a matinee at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
The winning play gets a special production workshop by MacLeod on Sunday.
Anyone wishing to attend can find the shows on the boards at the Williams Lake Studio Theatre located at 4100 Mackenzie Ave North.
