A grassroots celebration of British Columbia’s cultural scene will include a fun theatre workshop in Kelowna.
The ninth anniversary of B.C. Culture Days, Sept. 28 to 30, will be highlighted by different events staged in nine regions of the province.
In the Thompson Okanagan zone, the representative event will be Play In A Day, an invitation for groups to create their own theatre production, complete with props and lighting, within a 24-hour time frame starting Saturday, Sept. 29, and wrapping up Sept. 30.
Elana Bizovie has taken on the task of organizing the event this year, which the now disbanded Theatre Kelowna Society has staged in past years.
“UBC Okanagan has done this in the past as well as Theatre Kelowna so I am stepping up to take it on this year,” Bizovie revealed.
Related: Spreading culture in the Okanagan
She is hoping to attract teams of three to six people to create a 10-minute play at the Rotary Centre for the Arts. At the end of the workshop, each group will perform their production in RCA’s Mary Irwin Theatre with the public invited to check them out.
Each participating group with have local theatre professionals volunteering their time to assist them.
She calls the workshop an opportunity for those who performed live theatre in high school and left it behind or adults who wondered about theatre but never pursued the thought beyond their own mind.
“It’s not an age thing. Anyone can take part. You don’t need to feel intimidated by the idea as it can be a fun experience,” she said.
Bizovie, who works with Kool Arts Society as art program coordinator for adults with developmental disabilities, said she has enjoyed a passion for theatre and the arts in her life, started by her mother.
“We grew up in a small town (in Alberta) but my mom would take us to shows whenever she could in the larger cities, and we grew up singing and dancing a lot around the house,” Bizovie recalled.
Since moving to Kelowna four years ago, Bizovie describes Kelowna having a strong cultural arts community that has grown a lot even since she arrived here.
“We are seeing more community involvement in our theatre scene which is very exciting to see, and hopefully the various cultural disciplines will continue working together even more than they do now to help our cultural scene grow,” she said.
Bizovie says B.C. Culture Days aims to encourage thousands of British Columbians to participate in open rehearsals, workshops, discussions, tours and collaborative art projects in a provincewide celebration.
“People who might feel they don’t have room in their lives to participate in arts and culture activities will hopefully be encouraged to take the time see what is out there and hopefully find inspiration for them or their families to get involved in whatever capacity they might be able to do that,” Bizovie said.
For more information about Play In A Day, check out the website www.culturedays.ca.
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