For those anxious to attend the first play of the 2011/2012 ECHO season the wait is almost over. Laura, by Vera Caspary and George Sklar opens on October 13.
Directed by the experienced ECHO member Werner Koch, this is a play set in the 1940s. It involves the unraveling of the baffling murder of our heroine Laura and is a fine example of the American Detective genre. This moody play with a background of some of the best of early American jazz music takes you on a ride of cross and double cross, lies, affairs and a surprise ending sure to thrill audiences.
The first of this season’s comedies appears in February, 2012 with You can’t get there from here by Pat Cook and directed by Wendy Punter, who directed the popular Over the River and Through the Woods last season.
Strange happenings at a bed and breakfast draw the attention of a reporter, with hilarious consequences.
Dancing at Lughnasa, by Tony award-winning playwright Brian Friel, will run in April, 2012, and is directed by Sue Murguly.
Set in Donegal, Ireland during the 1930s and filled with drama and laughter, the play is a bittersweet reflection on life in rural Ireland. It involves theatre-goers in the lives of the five Mundy sisters and their older brother Jack, a missionary priest and seven-year old Michael.
Barely able to make ends meet, the sisters acquire their first wireless radio and dream of happiness and love. Years later, as Michael looks back at the events of that summer, a tender and passionate portrait of the Mundy sisters’ lives unfolds
This production will be ECHO Players’ entry in Theatre BC’s North Island Zone Festival.
The season ends in May and June with the hilarious comedy Office Hours by Norm Foster, one of Canada’s best-known playwrights.
Directed by Gerri Hemphill, it features the mores and morals of the contemporary office, some humorous, others savage and bizarre, all delivered in Foster’s sharply funny and witty dialogue that will keep audiences laughing from beginning to end.
In addition, the Annual Vancouver Island One Act Play Festival will be held at the Village Theatre in Qualicum Beach during the first week of November,.
Details are available in the 2011/2012 season brochure at the Village Theatre. They are also posted on ECHO Players’ www.echoplayers.ca).
