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Taber Players has a trio of shows lined up next week
Posted on March 23, 2023 by Taber TimesPoll
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By Ian Croft
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
With Taber Players hosting another theatrical event at the Taber Legion next week from Sunday, March 26, to Thursday, March 30, the three directors spoke on the play that they have been working on.
“I was actually the one that shows all three plays with the help of my theatre colleagues of course, and that one really called to me,” said Jocelyn Steinborn, director of ‘The Break Up’ by Julia Cho, when speaking about the play she was directing. “I thought it was a good opportunity as well to inform other actors to try their hand at directing one acts. Less pages, so less worrying about where everybody is on the stage, and it’s just a really good opportunity to get your toes wet with a smaller play so you can get some experience and help from other people that have directed in the past. I have a good trio of actors. One has come back after a long hiatus, and we’re really excited to have her, and I’ve worked with the other two in the past. I think this is going to be a really excellent group of three players and of course the evening is going to be spectacular with the live music from Olivia Blue.”
Steinborn followed this up by discussing the reason why she chose these plays.
“I’m always drawn to personal connection — connection between people, people and animals,” said Steinborn. “I also wanted the three plays to be different, and ‘A Dog’s Life’ really appealed to me because I thought it was going to be a real challenge to personify humans to have dog-like characteristics, but still make them very believable as a human. I think that our director, Sarah (Lee), is doing a really awesome job at that.”
Following this the other two directors provided a brief summary of their plays.
“A recently widowed mother is visited by her three children three months after their father’s passing,” said Jaclynn Elfring, producer and director of ‘Alternative Accommodations’ by Pam Valentine. “The children without consulting with their mother have a plan to sell the house and move their mother into a retirement home. The only problem is their mother has plans of her own.”
“It is about four Dogs that are in a dog kennel waiting to be adopted, and the warden who takes care of them,” said Sarah Lee, director of ‘A Dog’s Life’ by Pam Valentine. “Someone comes to check them out to be adopted, and then they can explain what happens in their lives. Then it’s kind of a dark comedy. It’s funny and has a surprise ending.”
‘The Break Up’ only has three characters with Teresa Huszar playing Lil, Angela Renner playing Mama, and Cole Fetting playing Jason. The cast of ‘Alternative Accommodation’ has Jocelyn Steinborn taking on the role of Anna Webster the mother, Cole Fetting playing Peter Webster the oldest child, Jaclynn Elfring as Joy Webster the middle child, and Maysen Merkl who has the roll of Gemma Webster the youngest child. Finally the actors who will be performing in ‘A Dog’s Life’ are Darrell Croft as Ben, Annie-Jo Lee as Ginger, Angi Heninger as The Warden, Joel Bhasky as Fritz, Maysen Merkl as Fifi, and Kadence Riddles as The Woman Visitor.
Lee and Elfring both also shared their experience about taking up the role of director for their respective plays.
“It’s been fun. A new learning experience for me,” said Lee. “I’ve never directed before. I went to school to direct, but never had the opportunity to do that I’ve always been the actress. This has been my first time it’s been fun. The actors in the play are great, accommodating, helpful, and it’s been a very awesome learning opportunity.”
“It has been both frustrating and rewarding,” said Elfring. “Frustrating because I have spread myself a little thin as I am producing the show, I am acting in the show that I am directing, and I’m singing with the band. Rewarding because I’m getting to try something different and something new. I’ve never directed before — I’ve chosen a cast that is so easy to direct because they all have such a natural stage direction already, and because they’ve been around the block a time or two they are so forgiving when I drop the ball. They know what they’re doing already and they’ve been really easy on me, and probably next time I’m going to direct a show that I am not acting in so that I can get a better perspective.”
Additionally, both of them provided reasons why people would be interested in coming out to these nights of entertainment, and why people would enjoy their particular plays.
“I think they would be interested in coming out for the whole evening because we’re having a whole variety of talent and different genres of plays I think, mostly all comedies, but all can be relatable to one person or another,” said Lee. “We’re looking forward to having the live music between each one act play, and our one act is different because it’s people acting as animals acting as humans. It just gives a different outlook on what dogs might be thinking about humans, and what humans think about dogs. It’s just different and enjoyable and see how people interpret what animals might be thinking.”
“People love the show because it gives them a taste of theatre and live music between the shows,” said Elfring. “With the talented band members of Olivia Blue which are Bill Lawson (guitar and vocals), Darrell Croft (vocals, harmonica, and clarinet), Cheryl O’Neill (keyboard), Jason Gibson (percussion and vocals), Reid Siebert (Bass), and the part-time singer with them is me. I think so many people will relate to the show in particular — I think they’ll relate to all three of them, but this show in particular, whether you’re a parent or child, or both, it gives you perspective on what people tend to overlook when planning or making big life changes.”
If interested in attending, you can purchase a ticket online at taberplayers.ca or that the Taber Legion doors before the show starts. Doors will open at 7:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. will be showtime.
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