For years, Yellow Point Drama Group director Patricia Zogar has wanted to bring to the stage something more ambitious and dramatic than the theatre company’s usual comedic productions. This fall she is finally getting that chance.
Yellow Point is opening its 2017 season with a production of Alterations by American playwright Leigh Curran to be performed at Cedar Community Hall in October. The family drama tells the story of Erica, a middle-aged woman caught between an aging mother she’s considering putting in a home and a teenage daughter who is considering declining an offer of admission from Harvard University in favour of joining an ashram.
“It’s not your typical community theatre fare. It’s more depth, more emotion, more of a character study than the sort of broad comedy that we most often find in community theatre … something with a little more meat. Something a little more sophisticated that you might see in the bigger cities,” Zogar said.
The play features longtime Yellow Point actors and real-life married couple Maureen Molyneaux-Watt and Alan Watt as spouses Erica and Peter, while fellow veteran Joanne Rowland plays the part of Erica’s mother Biesel. Zogar said she had Molyneaux-Watt in mind for the role of Erica for years and that casting Watt as her husband brings “reality” to the portrayal.
“When you’re on stage there’s a level of intimacy you have to get to with the other actors,” Watt said.
“It makes it easier to connect that way because she is my wife.”
Peter and Erica’s daughter Phoebe is played by 18-year-old newcomer Katrina Basnett. The television and theatre student at Vancouver Island University, got her start in musical theatre when she was 13 but this is her first adult production.
“It’s been nice. I’ve been learning a lot from everybody and been able to sort of grow my own acting skills through working with people with more experience,” she said.
“My background is mainly musicals, so I haven’t really done a lot of plays in general, so it’s been interesting to see how a play works versus a musical.”
The cast has been rehearsing all summer and Rowland said they’ve developed into a cohesive unit over the past couple months.
“We trust each other implicitly and that is absolutely necessary in a company like this,” Rowland said.
“Take a risk, trust it’s going to work and when it does, you’ve got magic.”
WHAT’S ON … Yellow Point Drama Group production of Alterations by Leigh Curran at the Cedar Community Hall. Performances on Oct. 6-7, 13-14, 20-21 at 7:30 p.m. Matinee on Oct. 21 at 2 p.m. Admission is $20 at the door.
arts@nanaimobulletin.com
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