It’s a story about family, relationships, and separation, a story director Wendy Punter can relate to.
Over the River and Through the Woods, Echo Players next production, is a “funny, poignant play” in Punter’s words, about a single, Italian-American guy from New Jersey who is faced with moving away from his close-knit family, made up of two sets of Italian grandparents.
“I love it because it’s got natural humor. It’s not contrived it’s just people being people,” Punter said.
Punter is originally from Northwest England, just outside Liverpool, and has been in Canada for 30 years. She’s been involved in theatre since she was 15, taking time off only for “baby rearing.” After moving from Calgary, Alberta to small town Cochrane, 18 km west, she found there was no theatre group. So she and some friends started one up which led to her first foray in directing.
“When we decided to stage our first play we had nobody to direct it except me,” she laughed.
This particular play came to Punter’s attention after a friend had seen it in Ottawa. She insisted it was a perfect play for Punter and gave her the script.
“So I read it and wept and laughed all the way through and I said, ‘Yeah, this is my kind of play.’”
Since then Punter has directed about a dozen plays, including another classic about family relationships, On Golden Pond, but has yet to be able to do Over the River and Through the Woods until now. This will be her first full length play for Echo Players, she directed a one-act play during the One-Act Play Festival in 2009.
Punter didn’t have any grandparents growing up and said she missed that close, family connection present in this play. She’s had a much closer relationship with her own children, but they, like the character in the play, had to take opportunities that have led them to the U.S. and Nova Scotia.
The play will appeal to a wide audience, Punter said, because we all have family and we can all relate to the family situations in the play. Many will also enjoy the series of schemes the grandparents deploy to try and keep their beloved grandson close to home, she said.
Over the River and Through the Woods plays from May 26 to June 12 at the Village Theatre in Qualicum Beach. Tickets are $18 for adults, $15 for seniors and $10 for students, available at the box office or by phone.
Visit www.echoplayers.ca or call 250-752-3522 for tickets.
