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Nanaimo Theatre Group announces 2018-19 season

Auditions approaching for annual Christmas pantomime
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The cast of the Nanaimo Theatre Group production of Murder in Green Meadows – Randy Humchitt, Kristin Forester, Kim Rogers and Dave Bigelow – reads through the script for the first time at Bailey Studio. (Josef Jacobson/The News Bulletin)

They’re not in costume yet, so you have to use your imagination as they read their lines.

The cast for the Nanaimo Theatre Group production of Murder in Green Meadows is meeting for their first script readthrough at Bailey Studio. This fall the 1992 murder mystery by American playwright Douglas Post kicks off the NTG’s 2018-19 season.

Following Murder in Green Meadows’ run from Oct. 18 to Nov. 3, the NTG presents its Christmas pantomime, Robin Hood and His Very Merry Men, by local playwright Tony Manning, from Dec. 20 to 31. The theatre company opens 2019 with the 2004 farce Self Help by Canadian writer Norm Foster from Feb. 20 to March 9 and the group ends its year with American writer Wendy Kesselman’s 1997 adaptation of the 1955 play The Diary of Anne Frank.

The NTG has staged both Murder in Green Meadows and The Diary of Anne Frank in the past, but executive director Sheila Coultish noted that in both cases it’s been at least 20 years since those plays graced the Bailey Studio stage.

“To me it’s a well-balanced season,” she said.

Coultish brought Self Help to the group and will be directing it. She said she saw it performed a year ago at the Mainstage Festival in Vernon and was struck by the humour. The farce follows a pair of mediocre actors in Flon Flon, Man. who become famous self-help coaches. Coultish said another reason she picked the play was because of the “audience appeal.”

“People love farces, they love to laugh. Especially in this day and age we need to laugh at some things. I admire Norm Foster’s work. He’s the most prolific Canadian playwright. We’ve done two or three other of his plays. It’s got a really unusual twist to it,” she said, adding that “It’s a Canadian farce, which is quite a rarity. Most farces are either written by French or English [playwrights.]”

Coultish said picking the plays for the theatre group’s season is a long process. From September to March the executive will read through the plays submitted by membership and grade them based on factors like casting, costumes, set design and lighting.

“We take the score into consideration, but also the balance of the season and the feasibility of performing it…” Coultish said.

“So there are a lot of questions that have to be answered before we pick the season, but it’s a fairly democratic way of doing it. Anybody in the club can have a say in it and it’s not limited to an artistic director or one person’s opinion or even a committee’s opinion.”

Casting is underway for the NTG’s production of Robin Hood and His Very Merry Men. Auditions will be held on Aug. 26, 29 and Sept. 9 at Bailey Studio, 2373 Rosstown Rd. For more information call 250-758-7246.



arts@nanaimobulletin.com

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