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Mark November 25 on your calendar for the opening of two new community theater productions. At that time, a couple of war brides drop by Confederation Theater for a dinner at the theater and when Buddy the elf begins his month-long stay at StoryBook Theatre.
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Calgary playwright P. Gail Whiteford didn’t have to look far for inspiration for her latest play The War Brides Are Coming, which opens worldwide courtesy of the Confederation Theater November 25-27. Her mother, Phyllis Kate Ward, met and married her father while he was serving in Britain and later emigrated to Olds as a war bride to live on the family farm.
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“I call The War Brides Are Coming a revenge play for the way the Whiteford family treated my mother. She was English and Anglican. They were Scottish Presbyterians and because she came before my father, they were in control of her life. They were very strict. She was not allowed to smoke, drink, dance or go to parties. It wasn’t just a culture shock, but a real hardship,” says Whiteford.
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The attitudes of the Whiteford family are represented in The War Brides Are Coming by an embittered Scottish farmer played by Greg Spielman. Unfortunately, many war brides also faced rejection and hostility from members of the community, represented by the citizen played by Lana Borrell. A young woman played by Jen White is devastated when she learns that her high school sweetheart, played by Bryan Smith, has married a woman she met in a war-torn town in the Netherlands. The citizen played by Anne Hodgson represents the people in towns, cities and villages across Canada who welcomed and helped the more than 68,000 military wives who made Canada their new home.
The War Brides are played by Sara Mattson and Chelsea Howell-Fellows.
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The War Brides Are Coming will be performed at The Royal Canadian Legion Branch 275 at 755 40th St. SE on November 25 and 26 as a Dinner Theater with a Roast Beef Buffet served at 6 pm and the following play at 7: 30 pm $45 There will be a matinee at 2 pm on November 27 with just the play for $25, although drinks and snacks will be available for purchase. Tickets for all performances are available at [email protected] or https://the-war-brides-nov-22.eventbrite.com/
NOT ALL ELVES JUST SIT ON SHELVES
StoryBook Theater is fast becoming Edmonton’s Cameron Chapman’s home away from home.
In April, Chapman played the title character in The SpongeBob Musical for StoryBook and has now returned to headline Elf The Musical, which runs from November 25 to December 30 at the Beddington Arts Centre.
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Elf The Musical is based on the hit 2003 film starring Will Farrell as Buddy, a young orphan who got into Santa’s bag of presents and ended up growing up with Santa’s elves at the North Pole. When Buddy discovers that he is actually human and not elf, he goes to New York in search of his relatives to teach them and the public the true meaning of Christmas.
“It’s more than a little daunting to think that people will compare me to Will Farrell. I look nothing like him and I’m certainly not that tall. There are kids on our show who are almost as tall as me, so I’m not as tall as Will is in the movie. The great challenge for me is not to be a carbon copy but to achieve the childlike wonder that he did. That’s what makes Will’s Buddy so adorable,” says Cameron.
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“I can’t change the expectations the kids will have when they come to StoryBook, but I will try to win them over by making my Buddy loud and boisterous, but I also want to show them Buddy’s human qualities because that’s an important part of the lessons in the play.”
Says Cameron: “Buddy loves people and sees the good in everyone. I’d like to think I share that quality with him.”
Cameron’s co-stars include Russell Moore, Stuart Bentley, Michelle Rawlings, Jolene Anderson, David Hosu, Jacqueline Gibney and Jillian Bauer. They will play to full houses for the entire duration of the show, as tickets are sold out, but StoryBook has posted a waiting list on their website at storybooktheatre.org.