The Emerald Pig Theatrical Society collected another stack of accolades for its production of Trying at Mainstage earlier this month.
The play by Joanna McClelland Glass won best production at the provincial theatre festival, and also drew praise in individual categories.
Emily Doreen Wilson won the best actress award for her portrayal of Sarah Schorr, while John Stuart won best actor as Judge Biddle.
Simon Challenger took the award for outstanding direction by a first-time director. Trying also won for best technical sound and received honourable mentions for set design, lighting, costumes and makeup.
Directed by Challenger, Trying is a play about trying – trying to hold on to the past, trying to move forward into the future, trying to help, trying to help oneself, trying to change, trying to stay the same. The production also took top honours at the Fraser Valley Zone Festival in May.
Trying is based on the real experiences of the playwright working for Judge Biddle in 1967. It is a heart-warming story of a “trying” relationship that evolves into understanding, mutual respect and friendship.
A brilliant legal mind, Judge Biddle was appointed by Harry Truman to the Nuremberg Tribunal in 1946 and went on to be attorney general under Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Years later, he finds himself functioning “somewhere between lucidity and senility” with the weight of what he’ll leave behind as a legacy bearing down on him.
Biddle just can’t seem to find the right person to assist him in organizing the papers and experiences of a brilliant career. Many have tried, but none have succeeded. Just as he decides that there’s no one who can meet his expectations, Sarah Schorr, a 25-year-old, plain-spoken girl from Saskatchewan, arrives at his office.
