Directing a Play - Quite the Ride!

Having been a theatre performer since high school, I well know and understand how to bring a character to life in a play, it's a challenging, fun and very rewarding experience made all the better by those nightly applause. None of this however, prepared me adequately for my first major directing experience which is just wrapping up as I type this. The play is called Having Hope at Home and is a brilliantly written piece by David S. Craig, a Canadian. The play is challenging, fast paced and very prop-heavy. All of the action takes place in one night and all 6 actors are on stage for most of the play. Pacing, accuracy, lighting and sound queues all have to sync up perfectly to achieve the maximum effect. In all fairness, I did stack the deck in my favour by courting some of the best actors in Kelowna. Dorothy Dalba, Stephen Jefferys, Deb Nicholson, Roger Ward, Karen Mason and Jim Rhindress have created a dream cast and a great theatre directing experience for me.

We played to mostly full and very enthusiastic audiences for 10 performances in The Black Box Theatre. The set is a monstrous creation with an elevated bedroom, multiple doors, a full kitchen and roof. Next week, we take our little show on the road to compete with it in Vernon at the Okanagan Zone BC Theatre Festival. I will be very interested to hear what the adjudicator has to say about the play and where we hit and missed the mark. I'm happy with the play and look forward to treating audiences with lots of laughs next Thursday night.