Bridge to Broadway presents Self Help Sunday, June 18 @ 7:00 pm All Seats $20
A married couple of second-rate actors re-invent themselves as nationally renowned self-help gurus. Their lives unravel as they try to conceal a body and hold onto their falsely won fame.
Proceeds from this performance will assist Bridge to Broadway in presenting Self Help at the provincial theatre festival in July.
Welcome to Tip your Toque to Canadian Theatre the 2017 Peace River Theatre Festival. We are please to present three fantastic productions this year to compete for the chanced to represent our Zone at the BC Mainstage this July. Throughout this weekend, you will get to experience a love, loss, heartache and hilarity as we bring you these three fantastic productions.
First up is Salt-Water Moon presented by Stage North, followed by Self Help presented by Bridge to Broadway and finally Late Company presented by Spectacular Chair Factory.
We are ecstatic to be reviving the Festival this year! To be able to hone our craft of theatre through competition and adjudication. Thank you to the Peace River Zone board members for your dedication and team work. Thank you, Michael Armstrong for Adjudicating. And thank you, our audience, for joining us for this display of exceptional Canadian Theatre. Your support drives us to continually strive for excellence in the all our productions. Please join us for the coffee critiques, the awards ceremony and reception.
Theatre Eh!
Synopsis of Plays
Late Company:Late Company explores restorative justice, cyber bullying and the ever-changing complexities of parenthood in the 21st Century. The parents of a bullied son Joel, who has committed suicide a year earlier, have his teenage tormentor Curtis and his parents over for dinner. Tannahill writes profoundly compelling characters that live in the slipper grey-zone of believability. Late Company twists and turns with dexterous mastery – just when you think you know where things are going, the story lurches in another direction.
Salt-Water Moon: Jacob Mercers returns to his hometown to win back his former sweetheart’s love. However, she’s getting married in a month. Can he win her back? Should he?
Self Help:A married, couple of second rate actors re-invent themselves as nationally renowned self-help gurus. Their lives unravel as they try to conceal a body and hold onto their falsely won fame.
Winners of the Peace River Zone Festival display their awards before diving into the congratulatory cake at the celebration after the Festival on Saturday night. From the left: Mason Temple, Melissa Beaumeister, Stephen Drover, Ted Sloan, Dallas Ashdown, Dennis Szalai, Carli Vance, Braden Lock, Jamie Lock.
For the first time the Peace River Zone Theatre Festival will be represented at Mainstage 2013 by an original play written, directed, and acted by high school students from Fort St. John. The winners of the regional theatre Festival were announced Saturday night at the closing of the three day competition among community theatre clubs. The winning play, written and directed by local high school student Mason Temple, won the Best Production among other awards. Adjudicator Stephen Drover of Vancouver praised the group from the Spectacular Chair Factory theatre club for their insight, character development and bravery in staging the show.
The Best Production Award went to Hallways, a festival entry by the Spectacular Chair Factory Theatre Club. The club is a newly formed young people’s theatre club that entered another show in the festival as well. Three additional awards went to Hallways. The entire cast won Best Ensemble and Best Set (Cameron Wilson and Terrence Zhou). Plus Mason Temple won the Best Newbie for his role as a first time playwright and director of a show.
Adjudicator Stephen Drover emphasized that he is awarding Exceptional Awards rather that Best Awards. He said that all the shows had elements of exceptional and the choice is sometimes not easy to make.
Best Director was won by Ted Sloan for The Breakfast Club. This play, also an entry of the Spectacular Chair Factory received more awards than either of the other shows: Best Technical (Jenn Merrett and Ted Sloan), Best Costumes (Melissa Baumeister), Best Supporting Actress (Carli Vance), and Best Supporting Actor (Braden Lock). Braden Lock, a local high school student, adapted the show for the stage which had never been done before.
The Stage North Theatre Society’s Take Five won three awards with Runner Up Best Production. The Runner Up is eligible to represent the Peace River Theatre Zone at Mainstage in Kamloops in July if the winning play cannot go. Stage North won Best Actress (Jamie Lock) and Best Actor (Dennis Szalai).
Spectacular Chair Factory will be fundraising in the next month to raise enough money to get the cast and crew to Mainstage in Kamloops to compete among other selected performances from throughout the province.Hallways will perform Friday, July 12, at 12 noon in Kamloops. The Peace River Zone committee kicks off the fundraising efforts with a $2000 grant.
For further information please contact: Mason Temple (Hallways) 250-794-8088, Braden Lock (Spectacular Chair Factory) 250-263-2201 bstrembicke@gamil.com, Dale Hillman (Peace River Zone Theatre) 250-793-6715 dhillman@pris.bc.ca
Three plays and a showcase will be featured in Fort St. John on the North Peace Cultural Centre stage when the Peace River Zone Theatre Festival opens its curtains on May 16. Local talent from Stage North, The Spectacular Chair Factory and NPSS drama students will be adjudicated by professional actor Stephen Drover of Vancouver. Audiences will have a chance to hear what he has to say about the shows and anyone can register for in his workshop on the “Many Faces of Shakespeare”.
Tickets are only $15 adults/$12 students are available online at tickets.npcc.bc.ca or at the NPCC box office 250-785-1992. Some shows contain coarse language and adult subject matter. All shows are at 7pm. Check out stagenorth.ca