Between Shifts Theatre continued their commitment of bringing top quality theatre to the corridor while winning prestigious awards against much bigger companies with top honours at the Theatre 小蓝视频's North Shore Zone Festival of Plays Friday (May 7).
The theatre troupe performed the drama Independence at the regional competition last weekend, and if sales are any indicator, the production appeared to create a buzz with the performance sold out more than a week before the show.
"Friday was really good and we were the only play with a sold-out show," said producer Paul Fletcher.
Independence by Lee Blessing takes a look at the complex and entangled relationships between mothers and daughters.
Kathy Daniels, founding member of Between Shifts Theatre and a professional actor with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in theatre, tied for best actor for her performance.
Daniels also won best actor last year, and this year said she felt the whole cast deserved the award.
"I think we all shared the actor's award," said Daniels. "Our goal for the show was to come away with no regrets and we did do our best. It was great to win but I wish there had been more recognition for my fellow actors because they were amazing."
Amy Fast, Megan Fletcher and Emma Wong round out the cast, and director Judi Price and producers Carla Fuhre and Fletcher pulled the show together with the help of the backstage crew.
Wong, a talented Grade 8 Howe Sound Secondary Student, received an honourable mention for her role as Sherry, the youngest daughter.
And the production team also earned the backstage award after resolving a few nail-biting glitches just before the curtains went up.
Between Shifts Theatre company has provided audiences an outlet for laughs, tears and awe in Squamish for the past 15 years. And their prestigious awards have earned the troupe a reputation as must-see theatre.
"People always want to see what Squamish is coming up with because they're curious about our small-town theatre group," said Liz Gruber, who has been acting with Between Shifts for 13 years.
Its 60 members normally perform three times a year with pantomimes in the fall, the North Shore Zone Festival of Plays in the spring and one-act plays in the summer.
Fletcher said their next production, Short Cutz, is a series of one-act plays designed to give the audience "just a taste of theatre and comedy in a short time period."
The line-up includes the spoof on the Hardy Boys written by Vancouver playwright Durang and original plays by a local playwright, Alan Forsythe. Most plays are between seven and 30 minutes long and they are packaged together for an hour and a half of entertainment.
Performances will be held at the Brackendale Art Gallery (BAG) May 27 to 29 and June 3 to 5. Tickets are $12 and Fletcher said he is looking forward to performing at the BAG again after several years performing elsewhere.
"It has the big advantage of having a restaurant and a bar and people really enjoy that," said Fletcher.
"An arts guy down in Seattle wrote an article about 10 things that every small theatre group should do in order to increase their membership and one of the things was make sure you have a bar in your theatre."
The major difficulty facing the Between Shifts Theatre company is the lack of venues in Squamish for rehearsing and holding productions, said Fletcher.
"We'd love to have a location to call home," said Fletcher.
Between Shifts Theatre is always looking for new talent in playwriting, producing, costumes, publicity, stage managing, performing and more. If interested, contact Kathy Daniels at [email protected].
