A Nanaimo production company hopes the marriage of nature’s beauty and theatre’s charm will be the base of many cherished childhood memories to come.
“There is something magical about theatre in the park,” said Amanda Cutting, artistic director of Artists’ Collective Theatre. “And Nanaimo has such rich options for outdoor events.”
Next week will see the launch of the city’s first Island Summer Theatre Festival as hosted by ACT. The family-friendly three-show presentation will be held at downtown’s Maffeo Sutton Park between July 31-Aug. 4.
Having worked in outdoor theatre in England, Cutting said she wanted to create the full event feel by opening the festival space an hour before each performance so guests can enjoy the park and picnic beforehand.
While starting up outdoor theatre festivals is not new for the artistic director – she helped launch the ongoing Canmore Summer Theatre Festival in 2017 – it was her desire to answer the call for more theatre opportunities that involve youths during the summer that ultimately prompted the debut of the Island Summer Theatre Festival.
"To be able to laterally learn and have lateral leadership is such an important element to passing on the art torch, as it were,” she said. “The festival is unique in that it provides mentorship through the festival process. Different people at different stages, whether they’re young or older, are paired with mentors who help support their artistry and growth throughout the play.”
For its first year, the festival will include two productions by ACT and a third by the Murmur Arts Collective.
Both Alice’s Wonderland, written by Cutting and directed by Ben Francis, and Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Cutting, will run daily for the duration of the festival.
Alice’s Wonderland includes contemporary jazz and musical theatre-inspired songs and “larger-than-life costumes that look like they were pulled from the black and white drawings of the book.” Cutting also added that her script more closely follows Lewis Carroll’s original work than the Disney adaptation.
“In the book, Alice is a little more lost and needs a lot more support ... I took a lot of the themes about self-discovery and self-empowerment and built those stronger,” she said.
Following Alice’s whimsical journey will be a 1940s beach-inspired adaptation of Shakespeare’s comedy, Much Ado About Nothing.
Along with central Island references, the artistic director said ACT’s presentation offers a snapshot of the decade and is chock full of dancing, music and authenticity. To create the world, the soldier costumes used are on loan from the Vancouver Island Military Museum, and parts of the set were built based on real postcards of Nanaimo and the Parksville-Qualicum Beach area taken during the ’40s.
For two days of the festival, Murmur Arts Collective will present Voices In My Body, a music, dance and theatre experience. In a release, the show’s director Myriam Verzat referred to the performance as a presentation of four characters’ life experiences that explore the different parts in “all of us.”
Since Voices In My Body also explores different emotional aspects of growing up and mental health, which are themes woven through all three productions, Cutting said she felt the theatrical experience was a great addition to the festival. Information for both Nanaimo and Parksville festivals can be found online at www.acttheatre.ca.
