By Jill Sperling

New WCT season highlights Canadian, new productions

Feb 24, 2017 | 3:00 PM

KAMLOOPS — Western Canada Theatre has announced its 2017/2018 season of performances. 

With a new artistic director compiling a brand new season of shows it seems fitting that the upcoming theatre season includes some brand new works of theatre. 

“The great thing about this community, and the people that I’ve met is that people want to take a few chances, they don’t want the same-old tried and true,” said Artistic Director James MacDonald.

Sagebrush Theatre will set the stage for the world premiere of Glory next February. It’s a truly Canadian story written by local playwright Tracey Power.

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“Glory is a fantastic Canadian story that people don’t know about, about a women’s hockey team in the 1930s that won 300 games and only lost two,” MacDonald said. “(They) traveled all across the country and really were one of the most popular teams of the time. We’re really excited to capture that spirit of hockey on the stage, and also to promote a story about women.”

Another brand new Canadian work, the musical Children of God, explores the heart-break of a family torn apart by the residential school system. 

In October, the Broadway hit musical Million Dollar Quartet is expected to get peoples’ toes tapping. 

“It was a Broadway smash hit that has the music not only of Johnny Cash, but also of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins,” MacDonald said. “It’s about a real life event when those guys ended up at Sun Records in Memphis on one day in 1956.”

The Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol, adapted and directed by MacDonald, will be a show people of all ages can enjoy heading into the holiday season. 

“I’ve done the show for many years in Edmonton as an actor,” MacDonald said. “Again, it’s just a fantastic way to get families into the theatre as well as first-time theatre goers.” 

The Best Brothers, The Birds and the Bees, and Armstrong’s War are three more Canadian pieces rounding out a season that coincides with Canada’s 150th. 

“Because we’re doing two new world premiers, as well as several newer Canadian plays it’s also a way to celebrate our 150th that we can do together, and it’s a way that people can celebrate what we’re doing here in Kamloops as well.”