When I was a teenager my parents dragged me off to see every performance put on by the Vancouver Opera Company.
I didn’t dare let any of my friends know that I was unavailable to go to a drunken teenage party on opera night because I was going to be in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre watching opera. That would’ve been the end of my tiniest slice of “cool” as a teenager.
That was until the opera performance when I saw the Power Mechanics shop teacher from my high school on stage, with no shirt on, as he savagely beat on a massive drum and sang in a baritone voice that shook me from head to toe.
That was the game changer for me. Monday morning I went back to school and told all my friends that I had seen Mr. Town in a performance of an opera on Saturday night. And that it was AWESOME.
Seeing a real live person, a person that I knew in real life, on stage hooked me on theatre. I have loved theatre ever since that moment.
Last Friday night my family and I went to the Evergreen Cultural Centre for a performance of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas by the “Nearly World Famous Dufflebag Theatre Company“.
Their performance may have been the “Mr Town” moment for some of the kids in attendance.
The performance was FUN. And completely engaging for the kids and most of the adults in the Evergreen – other than the ignorant slob sitting in front of me who answered her phone during the performance.
Their performance of ‘Twas the night before Christmas breaks down the fourth wall and brings audience members on to the stage to play parts in the performance.
There are three kids from our community who are probably going to go to school on Monday morning and talk about how they got to perform on stage in front of a live audience. Those kids may be hooked on theatre.
The family series of theatre events put on by the Evergreen Cultural Centre is a fabulous series. It is a very inexpensive way to get the kids into the theatre and experiencing real live theatre and having fun – it is fun for the kids and it is good business for the theatre; this is how they can build their future audience.
The Nearly World Famous Dufflebag Theatre Company is on their way to Penticton and out of town for a little while but they will be back in Metro Vancouver shortly.
I’ll do a little searching to find out where they’ll be playing next. They are an incredibly engaging troupe of actors (especially for kids) and if you get a chance, you need to check out their performances.