June 23, 2011 Volume 10 • Number 25 50¢ Newsstand Price
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Mainstage best place to learn about theatre We may not be as big as Vancouver, Toronto or even Kelowna but what we lack in size and stature we more than make up for in culture. Kamloops seems to have more artists and arts based festivals and shows than most other cities. This summer alone we just finished the BC Provincial Performing Arts Festival, are looking forward to Project X’s summer run of Munsch Ado About Nothing, the famous Art in the Park during Canada Day and for a second year in a row Kamloops will be hosting Theatre BC’s Mainstage Festival. “Mainstage is the adjudicated Annual Provincial Theatre Festival for community theatre groups throughout BC,” explains Vance Schneider of Theatre BC whose office is now conveniently located in the Old Courthouse Cultural Centre. Theatre BC will be fully moved in and officially based in Kamloops by the end of this July. “It is one of the longest running theatre traditions in Canada.” Mainstage is more than just theatre, it is the best of the best of theatre in the province. The province is broken up into 10 different zones, which each year hold a festival. The winner of each festival is eligible to come to Mainstage to compete head to head with the other zone winners for bragging rights on being the best community theatre production in the province. If you are thinking, oh great, community theatre, why would I want to watch a bunch of amateurs try and act their way out of a cereal box”, you couldn’t be farther from the truth. “These are the best of the best,” continues Vance. “These are top notch shows that rival any professional show.” This year there will be eight shows running from July 1 to 9 at the Sagebrush Theatre. The
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Lori Tych (L) and Nancy Ebert star in Ladies of the Camellias, just one of the many wonderful comedies that the Mainstage Festival has in store for you from July 1 to 9.
week starts off with Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song Trilogy and ends with Neil Simon’s Biloxi Blues, with Fuel, Over the River and Through the Woods, Memory of Water, Lost in Yonkers, The Duck Variations, and Ladies of the Camellias in between. “This is going to be a great festival,” Vance continues. “They are pretty much all comedies with the exception of Fuel. It’s anyone’s game, top prize could go to anyone.” Mainstage brings more than 200 actors,
crewman and stage people to Kamloops for the week to participate in festival. Each production has crews of 15 to 30, all of whom come with them to produce a quality show for you to see. One major difference between a Mainstage production and that of a show you are used to seeing at the Sagebrush or elsewhere is the adjudicators commentary at the end. At the end of each show, they stop and give a talk about what they liked, didn’t like, what they thought – continued on page 2
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