B.C. Theatre Mainstage moves uptown

One to watch for at Mainstage 2015 is Red Skeleton Theatre Company’s production of Our Country Is Good. It’s a dark comedy about British convicts mounting the first theatre production in Australia, all in the shadow of the hangman’s noose.

Mainstage 2015 Lineup

All performances start at 7 p.m. at Sagebrush Theatre

July 5: Bus Stop (Nanaimo Theatre Group)

July 6: Proof (Williams Lake Studio Theatre)

July7: Rabbit Hole (North Vancouver Community Players)

July 8: Our Country is Good (Fred Skeleton Theatre Company, Kelowna)

July 9: Kiss the Moon, Kiss the Sun (Mercury Players, southern Vancouver Island)

July 10: Miss Somewhere (Chilliwack Players Guild)

For complete details visit http://www.tbcmainstage.ca

By MIKE YOUDS

Like city commuters, Theatre B.C. Mainstage has a coping strategy for construction congestion, wanting its audience to arrive on time for curtain calls.

The game plan? Avoid it altogether.

The provincial community theatre festival held every summer in Kamloops for the past five years is temporarily moving uptown, adopting the Coast Kamloops Hotel and TRU’s Actors Workshop Theatre as venues while performances are held at Sagebrush Theatre.

The adjustment will ensure that festival audiences, specifically the Kammute shuttle bus, arrive on time for performances of a half a dozen top-ranking stage productions.

“This year it makes sense to get out of the core of the downtown due mainly to the construction,” explained Vance Schneider, executive director of Theatre B.C.

Mainstage is the culmination of theatre zone festivals around the province. Community drama productions play off at the zone level, with the top-ranked shows earning a ticket to the provincewide competition. Here, a professional adjudicator selects the best of the best — this time it’s Fran Gebhard from UVic — and delivers constructive (and often entertaining) “coffee critiques” of each show.

While winning’s important, a feather in the cap of any theatre club, it’s the sheer joy of theatre that takes centre stage through the week. The coveted Thespian trophy goes to the winners, but it’s the overall experience that most find rewarding.

“When you mix the competition with the education component, you’re getting a really big overview of community theatre.”

All eyes this year will be on Kelowna’s Fred Skeleton Theatre Company, which swept the awards last summer with its production of Reds.

Since the festival put down roots in Kamloops four years ago — it used to rotate between various B.C. host communities — local audiences have grown to appreciate the sampling of community dramas brought to their doorstep. The marketing of Kamloops as Destination Mainstage has brought renewed vigour to the festival, thanks to local support from audiences, sponsors and volunteers.

“It’s been close to a 25 per cent increase in attendance every year we’ve been here,” Schneider said. “The local audience is getting better and better.”

Typically they were playing to small houses back in 2012, barely filling the lower bowl of Sagebrush Theatre. More recently, they’re attracting audiences of up to 300.

“Which is really good to see. It really supports those people who’ve brought their shows from wherever they’re coming from.”

Mainstage has also become the host of Theatre B.C.’s provincial playwriting competition. Actors are chosen to read the new works before an audience. The audience is consulted for critical feedback, sometimes unaware that the playwright is seated among them. This adds a little fun once the creator of the work is revealed to them.

“They go mute.”

Audiences can look forward to six plays, fewer than in recent years since four zones did not have festivals this year due to various issues at local levels. Costs have steadily risen while clubs experience the ebb and flow of volunteers. Theatre B.C. may amalgamate some of its zones in future years. Community theatre, typically, is leaner than professional theatre financially yet still demands an extraordinary time commitment, Schneider noted.

Theatre B.C. holds its annual general meeting at Coast Kamloops immediately following the festival.