New West Theatre is doing something a little different for the Canadian play portion of their series. They are bringing in a touring production of the one person show “Jakes Gift” at the Sterndale Bennett Theatre, Oct 1-11.
“ It started out as a Fringe festival show on the west coast and audiences fell in love with it, so it has been touring constantly across the country for almost a decade,” said New West Theatre artistic director Jeremy Mason.
The play was written back in 2007 and is performed by Julia Mackey and directed by Dirk Van Stralen.
The story focusses on a Second World War veteran, Jake revisiting the site of Juno beach for the 60th anniversary of the invasion where he meets a precocious 10-year-old girl, Isabelle and reminisces about the past, particularly the death of his older brother Chester, who was a promising musician.
“It’s a great balance of history and is a very human, emotional comedy,” Mason continued.
“ Because of the age difference between the two characters, it's a beautiful play. It’s funny, but it is a backdrop of war and how it affects Canadians and people in the world,” he continued adding the play puts war into a human context, so in addition to their regular productions, they are adding extra performances just for local schools.
“ We’ll be having a few student specific performances. So it will be an opportunity for junior high students to come and watch the performances.
“ It’s not just about learning dates like the Battle of Normandy, it is about how that action affected people,” he said.
“It helps contextualize what the students are learning in the classroom,” he continued.
He saw the show in Calgary a couple of years go and hadn’t originally planned on bringing it to Lethbridge, but the schedule and circumstances fell into place.
“I think audiences will really love it. So this is an opportunity for audiences to see it. And it is a reaction to finding cuts. This is more cost effective. We can dedicate the resources to where they’re needed,” he said adding the show comes as a complete package, so they don’t have to budget for rehearsal time, time spent learning lines and other expenses.
He noted similar one person shows like “Routes” and “Billy Bishop Goes to War” have always gone over well with audiences.
He said New West doesn’t do a lot of student specific performances, other than their annual Munsch shows which are targeted at families and students, but they do a lot of work in schools. They run summer drama camps and are beginning the first semester of after school drama camps at G.S. Lakie School on Wednesday, Sept. 17.
“We have two semesters— September to December and January to March,” he said.
“It is an after school program for students who are interested in drama, learning about acting and doing something active and doing something fun and creative and making new friends,” he said.
