L.A. Beat

The Playgoers of Lethbridge are pleased to present the regional One Act Play Festival, April 30 at the Sterndale Bennett Theatre.
 There will be five plays presented ranging in length from 12 minutes to 40 minutes including two original scripts. There are also classics like Anton Chekhov’s The Bear, more modern fare and two one woman plays.

The participants range from university students to an independent theatre troupe from Foremost.
“It’s a really good forum for new actors, directors and new material,” said Rita Peterson, regional representative for the Chinook Region.

 She is not only excited that enough plays were submitted to make the festival a go this year, but is also excited Lethbridge will be hosting the provincial festival, May 20-21.
“It was just our time,” she added, noting the seven best plays from all over the province from the seven different regions in Alberta, will be performed at the finals.
 But for now, Peterson is pumped up for April 30.
“There is a lot of variety. Put it this way. It is going to be a really interesting evening of fun. It should be a very worthwhile,” she said.

Plays include the University of Lethbridge’s John Wiebe’s short show called “Are You Blind Or Just Stupid,” which features seven actors.

“It is a satirical examination of the justice system in Canada. It’s based on an actual legal case in Calgary,” Peterson described.
The other University of Lethbridge play is ‘Permission.’
“It was runner-up in the University of Lethbridge play and prose competition. It comes from a group called Punchline Theatre,” Peterson described.

Rambunxious Entertainment is looking for a variety of  soldiers and aliens to audition for their upcoming full length feature “The Medic” to be filmed in Southern Alberta  this summer.
“ We have 10 main roles and about 20 supporting roles,” said director/producer Aaron Kurmey.

 The Medic is  the feature length follow up to their  popular short film “The Overture,” which is about a band of Canadian soldiers to destroy an enemy base during and alien invasion. Filming will take place in Cardston, Vulcan and in Lethbridge during late June and July.

“The main characters will be shooting for three weeks straight, but the supporting characters will be  in and out. It’s a big film. We need people to play soldiers and aliens,” he said adding those who want to audition should come prepared to improvise.

“You don’t need any improv training . This is just to see how you create  scenes and dialogue. Basically it’s to see what you are like naturally. To see if we want to hang out with you. If we want to hang out with you, you can be in the movie,” Kurmey laughed.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun because that’s just how we roll,” he said.

“There is the Medic. He’s the main character. He was forced to join the army because he was young and fit. And we have a Korean special forces commando and a Canadian special forces commando. The rest are a mix of assholes and heros,” he said adding they will also need a lot of extras to play soldiers and aliens. If you can’t make the weekend auditions, though 10 have been booked already, they will arrange a time that works  later on.

 To get a sense of what  Rambunxious Entertainment does, they will be screening the overture as well as their previous full length feature Hoodoo Voodoo at the Movie Mill, April 28 at 9:30 p.m. Tickets are five dollars.

People interested in taking part in this original science fiction adventure are encouraged to e-mail Kurmey at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to book an audition, which take place Friday in W426 at the University of Lethbridge green  screen  room.