ON STAGE
What: Wintertime
Where: Canadian College of Performing Arts, 1701 Elgin Rd.
When: Nov. 29-Dec. 2, 7:30 p.m.; weekend matinées 2 p.m.
Tickets, info: ccpacanada.eventbrite.com, 250-595-9970
The first day of winter is still three weeks away, but that hasn’t stopped a troupe of aspiring theatre professionals.
On a whiter-than-white stage adorned with nymphs, a Christmas tree, a stone fireplace and a four-poster bed, Wintertime was already in full swing on a recent November day inside the Canadian College of Performing Arts theatre in Oak Bay.
The students of Company C, an ensemble comprising graduates of CCPA’s two-year performing arts diploma program, were busy rehearsing scenes for the show, which begins its four-day run tonight.
Playwright Charles Mee’s romantic-comedy takes place in this winter wonderland, a cabin where two young lovers, Jonathan and Ariel, had hoped to spend a quiet, romantic New Year’s weekend together.
They’re shocked to discover that Jonathan’s parents, Frank and Maria, had the same idea, but with a twist. Unbeknownst to each other, Frank shows up with his male lover Edmund, and Maria with her paramour Francois.
To complicate matters in this suddenly crowded house, two lesbian neighbours show up, as well as a delivery person named Bob, and a flirtatious French doctor who makes house calls.
As tempers flare and the couples bicker, attempt to rationalize their behaviour or reassure partners who feel betrayed, opportunities for physical comedy abound.
In one sequence, Frank bursts in carrying a snowshoe over his shoulder, narrowly missing Ariel’s head as he suddenly swings around.
The sequence took an unexpected turn during rehearsal, when a snowshoe hoisted by actor Willie Knauff got too close to actor Megan Littlejohn’s head for comfort.
“It wouldn’t be a farce if somebody didn’t get bumped in the head during rehearsal,” said director Sara-Jeanne Hosie with a laugh.
Hosie encouraged her cast to become an integral part of the creative process, replacing preconceived notions about their characters with ideas of their own. Knauff said the snowshoe-in-the-back-of-the-head gag was just one example. “There were a lot of opportunities for us bring our own light into this.”
Hosie calls Mee an amazing playwright. “He encourages you as a director, during the creative process, to throw in all the elements,” she said. “He likes his plays to be full, and he encourages music and dance.”
The Stratford-based director put her own spin on the material by incorporating a Greek chorus, with snow-white nymphs supporting the story through movement, speech and music she composed herself.
“Everybody’s been able to bring something from their own background to the table, not least their gymnastic training,” said Knauff — as castmate Vinny Keats, drawing upon years of gymnastic training, pulled off an athletic stunt that brings new meaning to the term “bedspins.”
It’s that collaborative approach, and Hosie’s openness to ideas from the cast, has made rehearsing Wintertime so fruitful, Knauff said.
Hosie and Heather Burns, CCPA’s interim artistic and education director, chose Wintertime as Company C’s second show of its season for a couple of reasons, Hosie said.
“We knew how many women we have in the company and how few men, and we really wanted to find a play that supported that,” she said, adding it offers students an opportunity to work on language as well as their comedic and musical sides.
“The other reason is because all the issues in this play are so timely. I think it’s important for all layers of relationships and diversity, with the way the world is today, to be shown onstage and supported.”
Describing Wintertime as “an amazing play,” Knauff said he was impressed by how in his stage directions, Mee encourages the use of people with “different abilities and mobility and what have you,” he said.
“Everyone is represented, but not through a political lens. It’s not about the difficulties of being a homosexual or a lesbian or bisexual or whatever. It’s showing everyone as human beings.”