Board members from Crocus 80 Theatre met on Wednesday night to finalize some of the details for hosting the week-long TheatreFest provincial drama competition in Weyburn at the Cugnet Centre on April 1-8.
There will be seven community theatre groups coming to put on full-length stage dramas that will be adjudicated, with a different group performing every night. Crocus 80 will be highlighting youth in their play entry, called “And A Child Shall Lead Them”.
Each night during the week there will be a “Green Room” after-party where the cast and crew from that night’s performance will be on hand for people to mingle with and meet, and Crocus 80 is planning a different theme for each night, with the Green Room to be hosted in the basement of the Tommy Douglas Centre.
The board finalized the theme nights, which will be centred on famous Broadway productions. These include “Rocky Horror Show”, “Cabaret”, “Avenue Q”, “Grease”, “Phantom of the Opera”, “Oklahoma!” and “The Great Gatsby”. The night the Crocus 80 youth theatre performs, the theme will be “Grease”, with “The Great Gatsby” on the second-last night, and “Phantom of the Opera” on the last night of the festival.
Crocus 80 was hoping to open TheatreFest with their play entry, but was told by Theatre Saskatchewan this might have to be changed, depending on the availability of the participating theatre groups. Bob King came on board with the group to be the stage manager for the Cugnet Centre, as he manages the facility for the Weyburn Comprehensive. Some details still have to be hammered out, such as who the emcees for each night’s performance will be, and finalizing the sponsorships for the event.
One idea that Crocus 80 is pursuing is offering a one-time award to recognize leadership in the performing arts, with nominations to come from the participating communities in TheatreFest. The group is hoping to have a platinum sponsor lined up for TheatreFest, including of this one-time award, and they drew up a list of incentives for signing up such a sponsor, including a private showing of the Crocus 80 play entry, tickets and a spread in the TheatreFest program, which is being printed by Theatre Saskatchewan.
The Crocus 80 members decided to keep the licensing for the nightly Green Room after-parties at the T.C. Douglas Centre. Theatre Saskatchewan will sponsor up to 15 apprentices to attend TheatreFest, including all of the shows and adjudications, the workshops and their general meeting. The apprentices, selected by Theatre Saskatchewan, will get to shadow the adjudicator and ask questions about the how and why he or she has judged each play. The deadline for apprentices to apply to Theatre Saskatchewan is Tuesday, Feb. 27.
The T.C. Douglas Centre’s main auditorium will be the venue for the drama workshops to be held through the week by Theatre Saskatchewan, and which will be open for the public to attend along with the members of the visiting theatre groups, and a group of apprentices.
There will be five workshops focusing on different areas of play production, including introduction to directing, stage combat or stage fighting, clowning, an introduction to playwriting, and a voice workshop.
Theatre Saskatchewan is selling advance tickets for the week, as well as Crocus 80, and the earlybird price of $50 for the week was extended until Wednesday, Feb. 28.
