Director Lee Prindle is excited to present his third Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten penned dinner theatre for Playgoers of Lethbridge. The Savannnah Sipping Society runs at the Country Kitchen, underneath the Keg, Oct. 17-21. The $55 tickets are already selling quickly.

“I didn’t even know it was out yet,” Prindle said noting as soon as he learned the 2016 play was out, he leaped at the chance to direct it for Playgoers of Lethbridge.
 The show features an experienced cast of four talented ladies— Linda Johnson, Shelly David, Elaine Jagielski and Jane Meaker.
“I’m very pleased with how it has gone. I’ve worked with them all before, so I know what they can do,” he said adding having the talented cast and an experienced crew, makes his job as director an easy one.

“They’re all really talented and accomplished,” he continued.

 The play takes place over a six month period during which three women undergoing their own life challenges meet after a hot yoga class and decide to have a glass of wine together.

“It is a comedy. Three women decide to go for a glass of wine after an hot yoga class on Miranda’s Veranda. One woman’s husband just died, one’s husband ran off with another woman and another woman just lost her job, so they all meet and a fourth woman joins them and becomes their life coach. So it’s all about friendship,” Prindle summarized adding because it only takes place over six months, costume changes and set design is really simple.

“But each of them does a monologue, and we have a pin light on them while they are doing it. The others are changing costumes then. So that’s different. So there are a lot of complicated light cues,” he said.

Shelly David is excited to have been in all three of Prindle’s Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten penned productions.

“I play Jinx Jenkins. That’s a humdinger of a name for a humdinger of a gal,” David described, quoting one of the lines from the play.

“All of the women are going through big life changes. My character is investigating a side business,” she noted, adding she ends up befriending the other three women and becoming their life coach.
“And in helping these women, she realizes she’s fragile and really wants to help herself,” she said.
“It’s the third show I’ve done written by these three playwrights,” she said adding she enjoys their dialogue.

The University of Lethbridge opens their drama season with a nineteenth century French play “Ubu Roi,” running Oct. 3-7 in University Theatre.

“It’s about a narcisstic woman who convinces her husband to overthrow the king of Poland so he can be the sole ruler and he ends up being a terrible leader,” said director Jay Whitehead.

 “Ubu Roi”was written by Alfred Jarry in 1896 and translated into English by Barbara Wright.
Père Ubu was a mediocre and unqualified leader, doing and saying what it took to keep power in his greedy hands. The play, which takes place in Poland, or nowhere, deals with the cruelty of oppressors and the stupidity of the human condition. Sometimes described as an absurdist parody of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Ubu Roi has been called one of the most excessive political satires of all theatre history. The play ranks among the most original and powerful burlesques of all time.

There are 18 students involved in the production.
“It’s a very physical play. We’ve stripped everything down to the  bare essentials. There’s bare minimum stage and minimal lighting. it’s a very immersive experience, Whitehead continued, noting  while the subject matter is unsettling relevant to events happening today, it is very funny.

“It’s a very funny play. It’s very absurdist. When it premiered in the 1800s, it created a stir and caused a riot on opening night,” he continued.

“ “It’s very satirical and  critical of political leaders. One of the reasons I wanted to do it is  because of it’s relevance to events today. We live in a time when we have leaders who are arguably unqualified to do the job and make poor decisions,” he continued.
“ But I love this play because it is fun. Sometimes the plays we do are more serious in nature,” Whitehead continued.

New West Theatre brings their Barn Dance to a close with three more shows including two shows on Saturday, which will also mark the last shows at the Yates theatre, before it closes for renovations.
As expected, New West Theatre’s second summer show of the season is all about country music— namely more modern country music, but with a couple classics from Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers and the show opening Hank Williams Jr.’s “ All my Rowdy Friends.”

The set is designed to look like a barn with the band playing against a barn wall, plus several movable wall and corall and wooden bar and bar stools which are moved into place as needed.

 I’m not a huge country music fan, but this show includes quite a few ’90s country nuggets, which I used to play back in the day when I was in a country band, namely the Dixie Chicks’“Goodbye Earl,” which is performed with a lot of sass and humour by the female cast members Erica Hunt, Kathy Zaborsky and newcomer Andrea Bailey, who though she is studying for her education degree in Edmonton, I hope she returns for another New West show.

 Andrea Bailey is a real pleasure to watch, she struts around the stage with sassy attitude and a mischievous grin.

She is hilarious in her comedy bits, especially as a mother writing a letter to her son as she delivers absolutely corny lines and puns in a deadpan voice you can’t help but to laugh out loud at. The comedy as a general rule relies a bit much on rural stereotypes and delightfully awful puns, for which I had trouble restraining myself from shouting out the punchline on a couple, but which also took off in delightfully unexpected hilarious tangents on others.

 While Bailey is nestled in the corner reading her hilarious letter out loud, the rest of the stage is being set for a wonderful version of  The Band Perry’s “ If I Die Young,” sung by the always delightful Kathy Zaborsky, which also allows guitarist Scott Mezei to show off some mandolin skills.

Bailey shows some mighty powerful  pipes especially on numbers like Trisha Yearwood’s “She‘s In Love with The Boy.“