The show must go on

Kelsey Huus and Ian Heckman in a scene from The Reckoning
Kelsey Huus and Ian Heckman in a scene from The Reckoning. Photo by Madeline Couse.
Each year, Green College Resident Members passionate about all things theatrical, the GC Players, produce and perform a special play for the public. From March 24 to March 26, the Players put on "An Evening of Theatre", featuring mystery, intrigue, and revenge.
Rita McNamara, one of two student directors, reflects on this year’s production, the hiccups along the way, and why the show absolutely must go on.

Most theatrical productions keep the majority of their drama backstage; ironically, the performance is usually the least dramatic portion of the show. But as they say, "The show must go on." And so this year the GC Players lived that adage a little more than usual. Perhaps someone had the gall to utter the name "Macbeth" a little too loud, perhaps we insulted a spirit of theatre, perhaps we were just plain unlucky. In any case, our unofficial title for this year's performance may well have been, "The Play that Would Not Die."

Resident Members in a scene from The Murder at Twicknam Vicarage
(L-R) Lucinda Murray, Arthur Despres, Lucy Kiester, Brent Holmes, and Andrew Alexander in a scene from The Murder at Twicknam Vicarage. Photo by Madeline Couse.

Initially, our plan was to do Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. We managed to cast Much Ado and complete the fall semester rehearsals before one of our leads came down with a nasty case of co-rec sports induced eye injury, which unfortunately forced him to retire from the cast. With so little time left to re-cast the role, the GC Players as a group opted to shift gears and instead perform a series of shorter plays that could more evenly showcase the talents of all performers still involved. At this point, Hilary Ball and Lucy Kiester really stepped up to take leadership of both our excerpt from Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest and David Ives' The Mystery of Twicknam Vicarage. I opted to continue with a smaller directorial role of Percival Wilde's The Reckoning. The Players took another turn for the dramatic around a month before curtain time when one of the two actors in The Reckoning also had to leave the cast for personal reasons. With very little time to prepare, Ian Heckman stepped in to the role of John and gave a stellar performance, despite shaving his signature beard for the show.

Finally, opening night arrived. Despite re-castings, re-workings, and the Coach House re-roofing in progress, we made our defiant way on to performance. Perhaps one of our cast did an extra cleansing ritual against the curse of the Scottish Play when no one else was looking.

Lucy Kiester, Hilary Ball, and Brent Holmes in The Importance of Being Earnest
Lucy Kiester, Hilary Ball, and Brent Holmes in a scene from the Importance of Being Earnest. Photo by Madeline Couse.

Our final three plays – Scene from The Importance of Being Earnest, The Reckoning, and The Mystery of Twicknam Vicarage – presented a well-rounded arc of emotions. We took the audience from light intrigue and comical miscommunication, to intense betrayal and revenge, finally ending on hilarity and farce.

The overall attendance across three shows was around 90, with Opening Night (Thursday) being our most well-attended performance. Our at-the-door donations to Covenant House, a Downtown Vancouver charity for supporting homeless and at-risk youth, totalled to $230. Even with this success, our "plays that would not die" would surely have perished without the continued support of the community.

A huge thank you to everyone who came to make it such a great weekend!