Theatre in the Country (TIC) will open the first of its main-stage shows, Salt-Water Moon by David French, with a special Sunday Night Valentine’s Day presentation.
The hope had been to provide the show to a live audience, but on Feb 5, when Dr. Bonnie Henry extended her orders banning events, the theatre company moved to a well thought through plan B.
Reg Parks, artistic director of TIC, formerly located in Maple Ridge, said people need the arts in the midst of the pandemic.
The idea of taking theatre from the stage direct and live into people’s homes is an exciting challenge that he knows the little theatre company is up for.
Key partnerships the theatre’s landlord, Langley Vineyard Church, and the dedicated efforts of people in the TIC community continue to keep the operation chugging along as it rises to meet each new challenge.
Hannah Everett, a UBC theatre grad, who was performing in early 2020 and the New York fringe festival, and Tyler Boe, a young man with many local theatre credits,star in the show.
They play Mary and Jacob, respectively. The teenage couple in 1926 Newfoundland finds relationship shattered when Jacob suddenly leaves for Toronto without telling Mary.
Over the next year, Mary has become engaged to another man, when suddenly Jacob returns to try and win her back.
It’s a moonlit August night as the two young people try to figure out their hearts, their feelings and if they can really trust one another as they teeter on adulthood.
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Salt-Water Moon is the best known work of Canadian playwright David French.
Parks said it fits well into TIC’s 2021 theme of Here Comes The Light, and the goal of keeping cast numbers low, so that rehearsals and performances can be COVID safe.
Theatre in the Country continues to hope that as COVID numbers fall, they will have a chance in the coming months to open their doors to a live audience.
Over the fall of 2020 the theatre company ran three show for audiences of 50 or less a night.
Currently on stage are the three sets,stacked one in front of the other in hopes that some of those plays can be remounted for a live audience in the near future.
Salt-Water Moon will play on Feb. 14, 19, 20, 26, and 27 for five livestream shows. TIC will also offer watch-on-your-own-time tickets.
Tickets are $30 a viewing point and can be purchased at theatreinthecountry.com or by calling the box office at 604-259-9737.
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