It’s easy to understand why Theatre SKAM’s upcoming Bike Ride shows are appropriate for a five-year-old.
It isn’t just because the Victoria theatre company is celebrating the fifth anniversary of its annual outdoor theatre festival.
Could this increased sensitivity to the needs of younger theatregoers have something to do with Matthew Payne’s fatherhood? Theatre SKAM’s artistic producer and his wife, photographer Pamela Bethel, became first-time parents last year, after all.
“I certainly have a different perspective on age. I’m used to counting age in weeks and months,” says Payne, whose son, Munro, celebrated his first birthday May 22. “Actually, SKAM was already veering into material for all ages before I was contemplating fatherhood. Not all our work will be for families, but Bike Ride is, and Smalltown’s a great family show.”
Payne was referring to Smalltown: A Pickup Musical, the new musical by Amiel Gladstone and Lucas Myers he’s directing. The show, whose cast of 10 performs catchy tunes from the back of a pickup, makes its world première Aug. 13.
(They’re still looking for a pickup “probably newer and older” to acquire, hopefully as a sponsorship deal.)
One sign of Bike Ride’s family-friendliness at Thursday’s launch of the festival was a performer on stilts sprinkling fairy dust on the crowd at Pizzeria Prima Strada. The festival returns to the Galloping Goose and “the Hub” — Cecilia Ravine Park — on July 6, 7, 13 and 14.
Other entertainers included Crow-Matic Theatre’s Peter Sandmark and Trace Nelson as country performers Slim Sandy and Willa Mae.
There were a record 36 submissions for this year’s showcase, which will feature 17 performances spaced short distances apart along the Galloping Goose, with theatregoers departing the Hub on bikes for mini-show tours. Expect drama, comedy, storytelling, improv, dance and other mixed-genre creations, with this year’s lineup including four out-of-town companies.
“What’s exciting for us is there are more artists than ever, because it’s a tricky time of year for them,” Payne said.
Shows include a workshop production of What Noise Is This, which “uses four iconic literary characters in a kind of Shakespeare-meets-hip hop performance” from Toronto’s We R Here; Epic Adventure Trail by Waddle Waddle Productions, which takes us into a virtual-reality game world; and the Noisy Neighbours’ Postscript, about the interconnecting lives of a courier and collector.
Hush Money, a comedy about an encounter between a mother and a guy who collects empties on the Goose, is also featured.
Although shows are selected by committee, Payne joked he could take flack, since his wife’s company is doing Hush Money.
“I’ll take the heat,” laughs Payne, whose operations manager Erin Crowley assured him it was fairly chosen by committee.
“It’s been fun to watch it develop, this funny exchange between the kind of people you see all the time on the Goose.”
Details: skam.ca
