If there were one role that Coquitlam actor Lisa Pope MacDonald can relate to the most, the mom-of-two would choose "Nancy."
She's the stereotypical, involved and very hardworking mother one of three characters created by Kathleen Clark for her Secrets of a Soccer Mom.
Though in real life her kids are more keen on baseball, Pope MacDonald said she often hears the trials and tribulations from other moms engrossed in the soccer world "and I think to myself,' Oh, they're just like Nancy!' So I guess I have a pretty good idea of what they're going through and how Nancy would react to similar situations of being constantly busy."
Secrets of a Soccer Mom is Pope MacDonald's second show with the Coquitlam-based Stage 43, which this and next month will close its "mother-themed" season with the comedy. (Last fall, it produced Mama Won't Fly and, over the winter, it put on the tear-jerker Steel Magnolias.)
Pope MacDonald, who is returning to the theatre scene after a two-year hiatus following the birth of her second child, said she looks forward to getting back into the swing of things.
It'll be her third time working with Stephen Torrence, who is directing his first play for Stage 43.
A New Westminster resident, Torrence said he found the Secrets of a Soccer Mom script in a library a few years back and thought it would be fun to stage.
He offered it to Stage 43 for consideration mainly due to the demographic makeup of the Tri-Cities, being the third largest school district in the province and they, too, thought it would work well locally.
"The Tri-Cities is the heart of parent-participation sports," Torrence said. "It seemed like such a good fit for the community."
But while the show is geared to moms, Secrets also appeals to teens, grandparents and men, "if only just to understand their wives," Torrence said, with a laugh.
Still, it's not his first go at directing an all-female cast. Torrence and his wife have a company called Get Real Theatre and, in 2009, it qualified for a provincial spot after winning Best Production for Eleemosynary at the Greater Vancouver Zone Festival.
That experience will help Stage 43 next month as Secrets is its entry to the Fraser Valley Zone Festival, which runs May 17 to 23 in Langley.
And Torrence feels the show has a good shot.
Not only are the three actors Pope MacDonald, Julia Walmsley and Arsha Tahir comfortable with each other and the material but Secrets is also skillfully stage managed Jess Piper Douglas, he said.
"It's a great production that will resonate with many people," he said.
GRAB A SEAT
Tickets for Secrets of a Soccer Mom are $22/$18 via the Evergreen Cultural Centre box office (1205 Pinetree Way, Coquitlam) by calling 604-927-6555 or visiting evergreenculturalcentre.ca. Seating for the show is cabaret-style.
@jwarrenTC
