The very best in community theatre productions will be showcased on the stage at the Cugnet Centre in Weyburn, with the 84th competitive play festival, TheatreFest, set to run from Sunday, April 1 to Sunday, April 8.
The week-long festival will be kicked off by the host, Crocus 80 Theatre, which will bring the play, 鈥淎nd A Child Shall Lead鈥�, to the stage on April 1, featuring an all-youth cast.
Indian Head鈥檚 Stage Left Players will present 鈥淥n A First Name Basis鈥�, written by Norm Foster, on Monday evening. The Moose Jaw Community Players will present 鈥淭he Melville Boys鈥� by Norm Foster on Tuesday evening, and Regina Little Theatre will perform 鈥淏edtime Stories鈥� by Norm Foster on Wednesday evening.
Yorkton鈥檚 PaperBag Players will present 鈥淏uying the Moose鈥�, by Michael G. Wilmot, on Thursday evening, followed by Balgonie鈥檚 Tumbleweed Theatre performing 鈥淓xit Laughing鈥� by Paul Elliott on Friday evening.
The Festival鈥檚 final performance will be presented by the Battlefords Community Players, 鈥淔or the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again鈥�, written by Michel Tremblay.
The Crocus 80 play, 鈥淎nd A Child Shall Lead鈥�, is written by Canadian playwright Michael Slade, and is based on real-life records of poems and stories written by children who were interned in a concentration camp in Terezin, just outside of Prague, Czechoslovakia. There were also interviews with survivors and research was done in archives and museum collections in the Czech Republic where journals, poems, stories and drawings by the children were found.
Director Connie Nightingale had worked with many of the young actors and actresses before through the youth theatre program at the T.C. Douglas Centre, and provided them with the assignment of doing research on their characters and on the Holocaust during the Second World War.
