Deciding what to pack for a camping trip can be difficult.
Lucas Myers has packed humour, hope, music, mystery, mayhem and a bit of technology into Campground, a murder mystery comedy in the woods (with music).
Campground, written and performed by Myers, is coming to the Chuck Mobley Theatre Friday, April 20 as part of the Quesnel Live Arts season.
A young man goes missing from a provincial campground while on a personal journey to discover himself. Four people are suspects, despite lack of evidence, aside from Facebook posts and the video from the young man’s cell phone, but the overzealous detective is undeterred.
“Lucas Myers brings his trademark brand of observational humour and brilliant character work to this examination of the world within a world that can only be found in the Campground,” states the Quesnel Live Arts brochure, which warns this show will include flashlights, self-discovery and didgeridoo.
Before going to the show, you can do some sleuthing on your own. Visit the Facebook profiles of Justin Case from Vancouver and Michael Hodgkins from Medicine Hat to try to find some clues.
The inspiration for Campground came when Myers was camping with his family in the Shuswap.
“I realized this is kind of like a world within a world,” he says.
“You can choose who you want to be because you are only there for three nights. You can be that jerk that turns on the generator really late at night or really early in the morning. But you all have to get along. And you can’t really judge the super redneck people beside you because you might need sugar and go over and find out they are the nicest people. You have to get along because you are really cheek and jowl and so close together.”
Myers will perform Campground April 20 at 7:30 p.m. at the Chuck Mobley Theatre at Correlieu Secondary School. Tickets are available at Save-On Foods, Kmax, Green Tree Health & Wellness, The Occidental, by calling 250-747-2207 or at the door.
Myers says this is not a show for children, and he would consider it PG13.
For more information, visit qla.ca or call 250-747-2207.
Myers will also be performing a Quesnel and District Community Arts Council Children’s Concert Saturday, April 21 at 2 p.m. at the Chuck Mobley Theatre, sharing the time-travelling adventures of Captain Future.
What happens when the imaginations of the future are threatened by the brain-numbing, highly addictive, social networking apps of the evil Dr. SAMGOOGAPPLESOFTSUNG-MART?
Captain Future happens.
With his trusty ukulele, Myron, and his slightly-less-trustworthy time machine, the Timeswozzler 8000, Captain Future will take audiences back through time to bring the history of our imaginations vibrantly alive, using songs, raps, puppets and interactive performance. Will his hijinks succeed? Find out in Captain Future Saves the World.
“Captain Future is a do-gooder from the future who’s part of a plucky group of rebels who don’t want to be enslaved by this app,” says Myers.
“He’s come back from the future, and he’s trying to let people know you can’t let this happen.”
In the future, everyone’s imaginations are dried up because they have no outlet, explained Myers.
As Captain Future tries to save the imaginations of the future, he starts wondering why we even need reading and writing, and he wishes he could go back in time to find out. Thankfully, he has a time machine, and he starts to do just that.
“The show consists of him going back to various points of reading and writing and literacy,” explains Myers.
Throughout Captain Future’s journey back in time, we meet Carl the Caveman, a shepherd, vowels and William Shakespeare.
“You can’t have a play about imagination and writing without Shakespeare,” says Myers.
“He raps, of course.”
Myers says the show, which includes a lot of music, is aimed at children in the kindergarten to Grade 6 age range.
Tickets for Captain Future Saves the World are available at Bo-Peep, Quesnel Music, Circle ‘S’ Western Wear, the Quesnel Arts and Recreation Centre and at the door. For more information, visit quesnelarts.ca or call 250-747-2207.
Myers, who lives in Nelson, has been creating theatre since his graduation from the National Theatre School in 1998. After working with Theatre SKAM in Victoria and studying with the SITI Company of New York, he returned to the West Coast and formed PilotCoPilot Theatre.
Myers was recently nominated for the Touring Artist/Company of the Year award by the BC Touring Council.
