Double Header at Fort Edmonton

Nowhere is artistic expression more profound than at the local grassroots level. It is a remnant of ourselves. It is who we are.

The next generation of talent is constantly mining new ideas from old concepts. Take Fort Edmonton Park’s new dinner and theatre initiative.

Edmonton has a strong theatre scene, but the reality is there are limited roles for young actors. Edmonton playwright Nick Green, a 2006 graduate of University of Alberta’s BFA acting program, was tapped by Fort Edmonton Park’s Hotel Selkirk to write a play. The hotel offers a dinner and theatre package with a four-course meal followed by a show in the Fort’s midway.

Green went one better. He wrote two one-acts — Under the Big Top and Bearded Lady — billed under the umbrella of Sideshow: A Double Header. Both premiere this coming Wednesday for a two-day run.

In keeping with Fort Edmonton’s vintage ambience, the plays are set in Alberta during the Roaring ‘20s, an era of radical change. “The plays are thought-provoking, emotionally touching, but most of all they’re fun,” says Green.

Under the Big Top is a one-hour period musical that inserts Alberta history into a blender with Vaudeville and the Andrews Sisters’ song stylings. It is set on a farm affected by a wheat crisis. The father drinks and the mother is an early suffragette. Due to outside pressures, both parents fight.

Alice (Allison Leggatt), their 14-year-old daughter, tired of the tension, sneaks off to the circus and hides in the trunk of two circus performers. Joyce (Joëlle PrĂ©fontaine) and Mary (Holleay Rohm) want to kick her out, but Alice tells an exaggerated tearful story and they relent.

Green describes former St. Albert resident Allison Leggatt, “as an explosion of energy. She brings a youthful vibe to the performance. It’s hard to walk away when you’re watching her.”

Former Legal resident Joëlle PrĂ©fontaine, a dynamic triple threat performer, revels in playing the sassy, confident Joyce, a perfect foil to Rohm’s quieter Mary.

And the original score and lyrics composed respectively by Joel Crichton and Green provide another opportunity to show off her lush vocals. “I have this great solo, A Girl’s Gotta Do,” says PrĂ©fontaine.

Director Amanda Bergen also stars in Bearded Lady, a one-woman, multi-character show that questions what normal is. She is sick of being treated like a freak and tries to make positive changes.

PrĂ©fontaine is sure theatre goers will be enamoured by the park’s river valley. “It is beautiful at this time of year. You barely hear the cars with all those trees and it smells glorious.”

For additional information view www.hotelselkirk.com.