LETTER – Celebrating theatre more than ever on this World Theatre Day

Tonight, Chelsea Hotel: The Songs of Leonard Cohen would have had its second performance at the Sagebrush Theatre. We would have said a recent farewell to the brilliant Tiffany Ayalik in Café Daughter and been looking forward to welcoming Neworld Theatre’s The Boy in the Moon and the incredible Dawn Petten with Every Brilliant Thing.

Our Stage One Theatre School would be in full swing, wrapping up spring break camps for dozens of students, gearing up for the May Performance class, enrolling young people in summer camps, and continuing drama education for adults.

And our staff would have been preparing for a busy 2020/21 season, full of music, comedy, mystery, and family-offerings.

Instead, along with thousands of theatres and millions of artists around the world, we are in the dark. Instead of gathering as a community in our theatres, we sit alone at home.

But we don’t sit idle. For the next several weeks, follow our social media and website as we move our activities online. As a special event for World Theatre Day, in case you missed the incredible Facebook live-stream of some of the songs from Chelsea Hotel, you can find the link here to watch now. Start just before the 8:00 minute mark. No need to be a member of Facebook.

And our amazing Education Director Terri Runnalls has put together a special theatre game that you can play with the young and young at heart in your household. Look for it later today on the wctlive.ca website.

We will return. We look forward to roaring back to life, entertaining and inspiring all of you, educating our young people, and giving everyone a reason to come together in celebration. This has been our commitment to Kamloops for over 45 years, and we can’t wait until we get to see you again in person.

Thank you,
JAMES MacDONALD, Artistic Director