Delta’s Sidekick Players are hosting a special fundraiser performance May 4 to help cover the costs of entering a regional festival later that month.
After a more-than-20-year absence, Sidekick Players are participating in Theatre BC’s Fraser Valley Zone Festival, happening May 19-25 at the Langley Playhouse (4307 200 St.), home of Langley Little Theatre Society.
The Delta troupe’s entry in the festival will be the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Rabbit Hole written by David Lindsay-Abaire.
“Becca and Howie Corbett have everything a family could want, until a life-shattering accident turns their world upside down and leaves the couple drifting perilously apart,” reads a synopsis on the Sidekick Players website. “Rabbit Hole charts their bittersweet search for comfort in the darkest of places and for a path that will lead them back into the light of day.”
Sidekick did a successful fun of the play directed by club president Carroll Lefebvre at the Tsawwassen Arts Centre (1172 56th St.) earlier this year, from Jan. 19 to Feb. 3.
In two weeks, both to help with the costs of entering the festival and to prepare to mount the play in a different space, Sidekick will be doing a special performance of Rabbit Hole at the centre on May 4 at 8 p.m. While the cast will be the same as it was earlier this year, the setup on stage will be different.
“The Langley Playhouse stage is smaller than ours and this brings some adjustments and challenges,” Lefebvre said in a press release. “We are going to map out their dimensions on our stage and work accordingly, so this performance is also a test run for our crew.”
Adding to the challenge, Lefebvre said, is a festival rule that states companies have just a four-hour time-slot to erect and decorate their sets, get their lighting and sound design show-ready and allow the actors a brief chance to walk the unfamiliar stage.
“There is no time at all for a rehearsal on the stage, so the cast will be working in the space for the first time at the festival performance in front of the adjudicator, Nicole Nattrass. It can get hectic and intimidating at the same time,” Lefebvre said.
And while she has no doubt her cast will do an incredible job when they perform at the festival on May 20, for now they need one more performance at their home theatre in order to sharpen their skills.
Tickets for the one-off show at Tsawwassen Arts Centre are $20 (call 604-288-2415 to reserve your seat), and net proceeds will go towards covering various fees and expenses that come with entering the show in the festival. For example, each cast and crew member must buy a Theatre BC membership and the Sidekick Players must buy a club membership, all on top of the festival’s $300 entrance fee.
“When you add on a rental truck and gas and meals, you’ve got a cost of around $1,500-plus,” Lefebvre said.
Then, if the team win the zone festival, they will perform Rabbit Hole one more time in Chilliwack as part of Theatre BC’s Mainstage Festival this July, at even more expense.
“So, every little bit will help,” Lefebvre said.
Tickets for Sidekick Players’ May 20 performance at the festival are $25 and available at vtixonline.com/langley-little-theatre. For those keen to take in more of the festival, three-show passes are also on sale for $65, and full-week passes are available for $110.
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