Pine Tree Players seeds vibrant theatre community
by Shari Bishop Bowes
The lights flicker and dim as the last stragglers take their seats, shrugging off the warm coats they’ve worn on the one-block walk off Canmore’s Main Street to the Canmore Miners’ Union Hall.
The large, rectangular historic building — and that’s historic in Alberta terms, where a structure over 100 years old harkens back to the first few decades of settlement — is home to Canmore’s longest running community theatre group, the Pine Tree Players.
On this chill October night in 2003, Pine Tree’s talented volunteer force has come together to present the comic play, Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward, to a sold-out audience of locals and visitors. While the comic talent and technical aspects of the evening’s presentation are enough to please those in attendance, there’s something that’s even more impressive. At the close of the nine-night run, Blithe Spirit’s director, Cathy Faille celebrated the remounting of the same play she directly exactly 20 years before in the same hall, and with many of the same dedicated community theatre volunteers.
Pine Tree Players marked its 25th anniversary with its 2003 season, a feat worth even more celebration when considering all that has changed in the community in that quarter century.
A year after staging its first play — a children’s production called The Bad Children — the Canmore Mines, the community’s economic driver, closed forever. With just a few thousand people resident at the time, and tourism still a mere twinkle in the future, it was difficult to predict how local theatre would survive.
But survive — and thrive — it did, with more than 50 productions to its credit. “It shows such commitment and longevity, and the strong bond in the community,” says original PTP member Bob Snape of the theatre group’s longevity. “Ever since we have been blowing the audience away with the level of professionalism of our volunteers, and in our performances.”
A small core of original PTP volunteers has held strong, through the difficult years that followed the mines’ closure, and into the tourist boom that started with the announcement that the 1988 Winter Olympic Games would hold the Nordic skiing events in Canmore.
PTP started with the hard work and talent of a small group, who passed their skills along to newcomers who showed up at their casting calls. In recent years, new talent has come to the theatre group with the growth of the community. The audience in recent years has also seen some changes. “It’s getting to the point where there’s visitors here all year round,” Snape says, adding that both residents and visitors seem to be more aware of Pine Tree and responsive to its selections.
While the earliest performances may have been mounted for a few nights over a weekend, today’s PTP volunteers work hard on a production that runs nine nights: one night for sponsors and eight for the public.
“That’s huge for us,” says Snape. “It’s a big commitment for everyone involved.” Pine Tree Players’ fall production, a comedy titled Windfall, by hugely popular Canadian playwright Norm Foster, is already in the works. It will take to the stage in the Union Hall Nov. 11 to 14, and Nov. 17 to 20. There is hope that PTP will take this production on the road to Ottawa in 2005 for “Alberta Scene” a showcase of this province’s arts and cultural groups traveling to the capital in celebration of Alberta’s centennial.
Pine Tree Grows Theatre in Valley
Another success at the quarter-century mark for the Pine Tree Players is the spin-off and formation of many other theatre groups, both volunteer and semi-professional, in the communities of Canmore and Banff.
Precipice Theatre in Banff has a focus on environmental issues, while The Living Room Theatre, a program run by the Banff Service Industry Network, is currently mounting its second summer season of Shakespeare in the Park.
back to top
|
Brigitte Franyo and Simon O'Brien perform in Pine Tree Players' 2003 production, Communicating Doors.
Potato Shed Theatre, a company started by two talented local actors, Sarah Harper and Bridget Franyo, mounted its first alternative play written by the pair last year.
A semi-professional improv troupe, The Flukes of Nature, also involves Franyo, along with her zany counterparts, Sean Krausert and Ed Winningham. The Flukes can be found entertaining at corporate functions held in the valley, and performing their hilarious brand of on-the-spot theatre in the Canmore Street Performers’ Festival.
Involving children in theatre at an early age was always an important objective of Pine Tree Players, who spun off the young Pine Cones troupe in the early 1990s. The first few productions were held for friends and family after a series of theatre and improvisation workshops. Today, the Pine Cones present to the public, with a new work, co-written by the children involved, expected to begin production this fall.
Yet another children’s theatre company, the Rogue Players, was formed in the past year. It’s inaugural production, Rumplestiltskin, was a highlight of the Canmore Children’s Festival in May.
Perhaps the most well known semi-professional theatre company in the area is Conquest Theatre, whose founder and artistic director, Marjorie Sutton, is a long-time Pine Tree Player.
Professionally trained in London and Wales, Sutton went on to perform in London and Manchester before moving to Canada. Her first taste of owning her own small theatre company came in Ottawa, with Spotlight Theatre.
Sutton was very involved as a performer in Pine Tree Players over the years, but with her own company enjoys the opportunity to select the plays and the playwrights she loves the most.
“I think that people living in a small community need to go see something live,” she says. “I do think live theatre gives them the opportunity to see great works of art — and I’m interested in putting on great playwrights’ work.
Conquest Theatre’s upcoming fall production will be “Art”, a dark comedy by Jasmina Reza, running Oct. 28 to 30 and Nov. 4 through 6 at the Creekside Hall in the Canmore Seniors’ Centre. The play centres on the relationship between three male friends, and what can happen when friendships drift apart. The actor Judd Hirsch, of sitcom “Taxi” fame, played one of the lead roles when Sutton first say the play in Washington, D.C.
|
)
