Almost the panto that never was, White Rock Players Club’s Once Upon A Pantomime: The Legend of Shenanigans is finally online.
Although delayed by technical glitches, the panto – videoed before Christmas – made its virtual debut last week.
It’s offered to viewers free of charge – although a suggested $15 donation would be appreciated – on the Players Club’s website, whiterockplayers.ca
An experiment in mid-pandemic theatre strategy, the show was intended to be presented in December as a limited-audience staged reading, but when that became impossible due to provincial regulations issued in November, it became instead a video of a staged reading.
The 12-member cast were filmed largely independently by a small crew, following distancing protocols, and director, author and co-star Dann Wilhelm took on the task of editing the footage into a two-hour-plus semblance of live pantomime – complete with audience-reaction sound effects, and multi-screen numbers backed by musical director Tim Tucker, given a modicum of movement by Danica Domay.
For this origin story of the Players Club’s resident pantomime giraffe Shenanigans, Mother Goose (Wilhelm) is joined by a plethora of past pantomime characters played by Samantha Silver, Jake Hildebrand, Paige Thomsen, Adrian Shaffer, Stefani Delisimunovic, Christopher Hall, Fiorella Artoni , Beth Cantor, Dianna Harvey and Kaden Chad.
