She’s an opera singer turned actor for a stage reading of Speed Dating for Sperm Donors presented at Theatre NorthWest on Oct. 29 at 7 p.m.
Anahi Tregueros portrays Paige in the play by Natalie Meisner, an award-winning Canadian playwright.
The production introduces the audience to Helen and Paige, a lesbian couple, who would like to have a baby. They are looking for Mr. Right to make an important contribution to the cause.
Tregueros’ character, Paige, was adopted as a child who wants her own child to know their parents. This adds a complication to the traditional sperm donor concept where the donor would most often be anonymous.
Julian Legere, who is an artist in residence at Theatre NorthWest, is looking to lift up the queer community and showcase their talents during the stage reading he is presenting.
Tregueros found a posting on a local Facebook page and when she answered the call she got the role of Paige.
“I used to be a professional opera singer in
Tregueros met her real-life wife, Alex, online and moved from
“I fell in love with her, the place and the community,” Tregueros said about the experience.
It was a tough decision to move from the small community of
“But it has been an amazing change of pace,” she added. “In
Tregueros added the stage reading to her already busy life here but said it was a great opportunity to help raise awareness for the queer community, too.
“It’s important to be part of something like this,” she said.
Tregueros has great admiration for the playwright, Natalie Meisner, who uses the power of comedy to inspire social change.
“The play is touching, it’s funny and I really enjoyed it and I really wanted to be part of it,” Tregueros said. “From the queer perspective right now we are better represented in movies and television shows but certainly in smaller communities it feels different. Usually if you want to go to a play where the queer community is represented you’d have to go to
Others who are participating in the play are Lynne Van Roode, Matt Murray and Kyle Sampson.
Representation of the queer community in the theatre community is very important for Julian Legere to support, he said.
“When I was young and queer and growing up one of the things that really helped me understand the feelings I was having and that there was an identity I could identify with in a community I could find was just seeing stories about it,” Legere said. “So as an artist I really try to be part of creating more of that for other people to be able to, even in general, see queerness is important for people’s health and wellness. Just to know the things they are feeling, thinking and experiencing are not strange and confusing but are part of a legacy and lineage of stories. The other thing is I really value theatre as an art form in particular because it is an excuse for people to gather together in a place and time especially after the last year and a half of not being able to do that very much under Covid - it’s really hit home for me how vital it is for us as individuals as well as for us as a community to have ways to come together and find joy and sharing stories and sharing the emotions that come with experiencing a great piece of theatre or art together.”
When Legere put out the call for participation in the play, he made sure to reach out specifically for people who had no acting experience at all and as a result three of the four participating in the stage reading are not actors.
“It’s been really amazing for me to see how quickly and easily people have been able to jump in and get a sense of how to read a play and how to bring a story to life,” Legere said. “In recent years I have come to really value creativity as a path to wellness, health and community so seeing that play out - not just with professional artists - but with people who are just kind of random community members who stepped up and said ‘yeah, I’d like to be part of telling this story and helping build community’ - it’s been really exciting for me.”
Legere said he’s found there’s a bit of elitism in the theatre world.
“There’s a bit of gate-keeping where people say you have to have this training or this background or this kind of experience in order to be allowed to share art with people and I just think that’s totally the opposite of the approach we should take,” Legere said. “Especially for those of us who do it as a profession, we should be encouraging the tearing down of those boundaries and wanting everybody to not just witness the art but to participate in it and be part of creating and telling stories.”
Tickets are available at www.theatrenorthwest.com.
There are content warnings for the play including mature language, sexual content, and references to homophobic violence.
