Small theatre companies come together for first-time fest

Community stage companies are uniting this month in Winnipeg to remind audiences that the cure to what ails them could be a little theatre.

Starting this weekend and running every weekend in February, eight local amateur troupes — Cactus Theatre Co., Dark Horse, An Seanchaí, the Tara Players, Illustrium, R-G Productions, Aodhán Theatre and the Winnipeg Mennonite Theatre — will bring one-act productions to the stage at the Irish Association of Manitoba’s newly renovated theatre on Erin Street.

The inaugural Little Theatre Festival kicked off last night with Cactus’s production of Benjamin Bettenbender’s The Siren Song of Stephen Jay Gould — starring Dave Pruden and Eve Ross Moore — and the first performance of Thine Is the Stillest Night, written by locals Mike Seccombe and Leslie Boardman. Both productions run again today at 2 and 7 p.m.

“We were missing the festivals that used to happen in the city, like the Master Playwright Festival and the Irish Association’s Acting Irish festival. Not only the shows, but the camaraderie,” says Siobhan Keely, who co-founded the new festival with fellow theatre enthusiasts Steph Blanchette and Rob Kwade. “We particularly wanted to find a way for community theatre groups to join forces.”

While the fest includes works by out-of-province playwrights — such as Ireland’s Robert Iles, Toronto’s Claire Holland and American writer Christopher Durang — Seccombe and Boardman’s dark afterlife comedy, starring Tim Webster and Laurie Monk, is one of three original local scripts getting their chance in the spotlight.

Fringe regular Hayden Maines is reprising Emergency Ops, his one-man, first responder comedy from last year’s fest; while Brendan Carruthers, a founding member of the Irish Association’s Tara Players, will bring his Weaver’s Grave — a secretive drama set in rural Ireland — to his home stage for its première on Friday; Alison Kolisnyk directs a six-person corps.

Festival co-founder Blanchette’s passion for community theatre can be traced back to 2007, when the educational assistant’s daughter was cast in a children’s musical about a walking, talking porcupine. Noticing Blanchette’s organizational skills and willingness to volunteer, the director asked her to serve as stage manager.

Her experience as an independent producer illustrated to Blanchette the need for reduced competition for entertainment dollars among companies. That recognition shaped the Little Theatre Festival’s model, which is based on sharing not only an evening’s bill but on pooling resources such as set pieces, props and costumes. Blanchette’s company even shared a promotional poster with Dark Horse.

“There are so many different ways we’re supporting each other,” she says.

Each participating group gets a percentage of its total weekend ticket sales, a system that has encouraged cross-company promotion to fill the house. With a portion of the sales routed to the Little Theatre Fest for operational costs, Blanchette says that festival organizers are thinking ahead to next year and beyond.

“We are really hoping this is something that becomes an annual event,” says Blanchette, who started Cactus Theatre Co. for last year’s Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival in memory of local playwright and theatre enthusiast Daniel Gilmour.

“This might sound like a stretch, but someone said to me last week that the fringe festival started small in Edinburgh with eight companies performing,” Blanchette says. “We’re starting with eight companies here, and I would really love to see it grow.”

winnipegfreepress.com/benwaldman