Stage 43 admits it’ll be going in reverse this year.
For its new season that opens next Thursday, its fall show focuses on divorce while its winter production is about dating, marriage and parenthood. And, for its final performance next spring, there are the pending nuptials.
“It’s kind of backward but we’re okay with that,” laughed Port Coquitlam’s Claire Pinkett, a producer with the Coquitlam-based theatrical group. “It was really out of our control because of the directors’ availability and schedule.”
Richard Weins, a regular with Second Storey Improv Theatre, was picked to direct the first comedy Men Are Dogs. It features eight actors including PoCo’s Jill Menkveld and Taryn Harms, who portray Allison and Jane.
Their characters meet with Rose (Lorene Stuart), Loretta (Sara Zaitsoff), Madeline (Tiffany Markwart) and Cecilia (Lauren Hillman) at a support group for divorced women.
Cecilia leads the ladies and recruits an actor and a delivery man for role play to help them sort out their emotions. Bob (Taylor Sloan) and Tony (Chris Francisque) bear the brunt of their anger. “It’s really a good laugh,” Pinkett said of the play by Joe Simonelli.
Next up in the All You Need Is…. Love? series is the musical I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change!, which runs in January at the Evergreen Cultural Centre and is directed by Charlene Scott. Angela Bell takes the final show with Five Women Wearing the Same Dress, a comedy about five identically dressed bridesmaids — with contrasting personalities — battling it out at a Tennessee wedding.
Pinkett said while last year was female dominant, “We do have some men involved this year!” adding the season “is all about relationships and how people misinterpret things.”
As for the company itself, it’s faring much better financially thanks to gaming and city grants, she said.
Still, unlike neighbouring community theatre societies such as New Westminster, Surrey and Langley, Stage 43 is without a permanent home.
Costumes are in storage and rehearsals are out of the Pinetree community centre.
The board of directors are looking to the city for help as well as for the municipality’s 125th anniversary designation for its 2016 shows.
“We feel that things are positive and we are looking forward,” Pinkett said.
• Tickets for Men Are Dogs are $22/$18 through the Evergreen Cultural Centre (1205 Pinetree Way, Coquitlam) by calling 604-927-6555 or visiting evergreenculturalcentre.ca. The show contains some mature subject matter. The company has a 2-for-1 ticket special on Oct. 21 and Oct. 22 only, using the promo code WOOF.
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