Playgoers of Lethbridge on the way to 100 uninterrupted years with An Evening of Three-ater

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Playgoers of Lethbridge doesn’t want to break the streak of being Canada’s longest running Theatre Company. They’ll break 100 years in 2023, so to m ensure they reach that goal, they are putting an evening of Three-atre, Nov. 18-20.

 The evening features Elaine Jagielski”s “Loves Best by, Artistic director Rita Peterson directs  a reader’s theatre of “The Best  Christmas Pageant Eve,” and Rob Berezay brings John Carroll’s “ Oh What  A Tangled Web.

“ Because of Covid, it has been extremely difficult to  put on theatre, but we wanted to put on something,” said Peterson.

 

“Covid has made it  challenging to cast a full production, so we thought we’d put on three smaller productions.” she continued. 

 

There are a lot of familiar faces involved with the evening. Rob Berezay directed and starred in “ Where’s Oscar” in 2018.

 

Elaine Jagielski and Shelley David are involved in “Love’s Best By” and  “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.” They are involved with most Playgoers of Lethbridge presentations.

 

 Jagielski debuted  “ Love’s Best By” in the 2018 One Act Play Festival.”

“We want to reach 100 years as Canada’s longest running theatre company,” Peterson said.

 

 The last Playgoers of Lethbridge production was “Daisy,” which closed last March, right before the pandemic hit.

 “Oh, What A Tangled Web” is a one act farce by John R Carroll about  a web of lies spun by sisters Jan and Chris. Chris wants to meet a boy but she’s scheduled to work, so she asks her sister to lie to her boss and things snowball from there.

 

“Love’s best By” explores a group of friends in their 50s  who talk about love and relationships in their 50s over a glass of wine.

 

“It’s about as group of middle aged women  who have a beautiful  talk about love in the later stage of life,” Peterson said.

 

Peterson decided a reader’s theatre would be easy to put together, so she adapted Barbra Robinson’s book  “The best Christmas Pageant Ever” into one.

 

“I adapted the 80 page book into 13 pages. it’s a great story about the Herdman kids who don’t like Christmas pageants, but decide to be in this one because  there is free refreshments. So they do something a little different to be part of it,” she said.

 

 The readers except for narrator Donna Kalau play multiple characters— the six Herdman kids, the mother and narrator.

 

“It should be a fun night of theatre. There’s three really different plays. So I hope people will come and enjoy it,” Peterson said.

 The evening begins at 7:30 p.m. each night. Admission is by donation.

All attendees mush have proof of double vaccination and wears masks through the approximately hour long show. 

— by Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor

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