Drama Beat

Good Times bringing back the funny with live comedy Tuesdays through Saturdays

Wednesday, 27 May 2020 14:17 Richard Amery

If there was ever a time to laugh it is during a pandemic. So with that in mind, Good Times has re-opened their venue and stage to showcase local comics and to provide a few yuks. Good Times has re-opened. Photo by Richard Amery
“It‘s not about making a lot of money right now, it’s about getting our name back out there. So We’re excited to bring the funny,” said Good Times co owner John Pogorzelzki.

Good Times had their grand re-opening last night, May 26.

They will be having nightly shows for the rest of the week in up to and including Saturday at 7 p.m. each night and are planning for next week as well. There are also 9:30 shows on Friday and Saturday.
“ Last night was the grand re-opening and we had about 20 people, which wasn’t the sell out we expected. Hopefully it will get better,” said Pogorzelski, who was one of the featured comics performing.

“It was great to be back on stage again. It felt like the first time I got on stage, but better,” he said, adding they are fortunate to have a strong stable of local comedians to draw from.

“It will be similar, but it won’t be exactly the same show each night,” he continued, noting they aren’t ready to bring in out of town comedians yet. So ticket prices are five dollars a show. So we’re not charging top dollar for comedians you can see any day of the week,” he said.
“Usually tickets are $10 or $15 but that’s for out of town comedians.

New West Theatre cautiously optimistic their next season will go on

Saturday, 04 April 2020 18:08 Richard Amery

Kathy Zaborsky was part of New West's production of Dear Johnny Deere. Photo by Richard Amery New West Theatre, like everybody else, is on hiatus until the Covid 19 panic passes. However they are ready to go as soon as people are able to support live entertainment in the communities.
“ We‘re reasonably optimistic though we are on edge,” observed New West Theatre Artistic Director Kelly Reay.

“ But we had to cancel the last few shows of Dear Johnny Deere. We’re reasonably optimistic life will return to normal by a reasonable time,” he continued.

Theatre Outré broadcasting new season of Gommorah online

Friday, 27 March 2020 19:35 Richard Amery

Theatre Outré is experimenting with technology to get their work out to the world. Theatre Outre Artistic Director Jay Whitehead. Photo by Richard Amery
“ Last week we did our drunk improv show live online (on March 21) on the Theatre Outré Facebook page, but now we don’t even feel comfortable doing that,” said Theatre Outré artistic director Jay Whitehead.

This weekend, Saturday, March 28 they are embracing technology again for the first episode of their new improvised sop opera Gommorah inspired by reality television shows like Big Brother through the Zoom app, which will,once again, be broadcasted on their Facebook page.

“We’ll be self isolating and playing a variety of crazy characters from our own laptops, computers and even phones,” Whitehead continued, agreeing it is a good fit, considering Big Brother uses a lot of cameras on the just the individual characters.

“ We’re experimenting, We’ll see of it works. I’ve been getting familiar with Zoom because I’ve been using it for teleconferencing at work. We have to experiment to do what we love to do,” he said.
He said they will keep the show to 45 minutes.
“There is a lot going on on social media competing for people’s attention,” he continued.

2020 One Act Play Festival cancelled due to COVID-19

Friday, 27 March 2020 17:37 Richard Amery

COVID— 19 has lead to the cancellation of the One Act Play festival, which was originally scheduled at the Sterndale Ben Jocelyn Steinborn performing in the 2019 One Act Play Festival. Photo by Richard Amery nett Theatre, May 5-6 with the provincial finals originally scheduled for May 22-23.

Playgoers of Lethbridge co-artistic director Rita Peterson said it was the right choice.
“We don’t know how things will be in two months,” said Peterson, who was part of a conference call with the other members of the ADFA (Alberta Drama Association) who sponsor the festival, who agreed.

“It was going to be the biggest turnout we had in years. We already had five or six scripts and it isn’t even April yet. One group was even paying for rehearsal space,” Peterson said, adding a lot of people were looking forward to the event, which is an important event for the long standing local theatre group Playgoers of Lethbridge.

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