Audience members are set to take a trip back in time.
Narrative Art Entertainment brings ‘The Frontier Trilogy’ to the Sterndale Bennett Theatre in Lethbridge this week.
It is a Western-set stage play in three acts, with director Trevor Loman explaining that each act has its own individual plot but are all part of one larger overarching story.
Loman said the entire team is very excited for people to see the show.
“The goal with what we’re doing, I think, is to provide a different type of theatre than what cities like Lethbridge are used to, in a sense,” he told My Lethbridge Now.
“Our goal is to produce theatre with various engaging, compelling stories, and characters that’s very driven by that and isn’t so much focused on a theatrical element. Like, it’s theatrical in its own way but not so much in the same way as, you know, your musicals and your big ensemble pieces are.”
Loman said ‘The Frontier Trilogy’, originally written by Jethro Compton, usually features four actors playing different characters in each act, except for a blind preacher who appears in all three, but for the show in Lethbridge, he wanted to change things up a bit.
“Creatively, I wanted to extend that to a cast of seven. For the first act and the second act, there are two separate casts, there’s different actors for these different roles and then in the third and final act, each actor from the first two gets to return in a different role,” he said.
REHEARSAL PROCESS
Loman said the cast and crew have been hard at work, with the rehearsal process having been “a bit shorter and intensive in a way”.
“With community theatre, sometimes rehearsals are only about three hours, maybe two or three times a week,” he remarked.
“We’ve been rehearsing for kind of longer periods, about four to five hours and we’ve been trying to meet more frequently throughout the week, you know, maybe three or four times, tossing in a fifth one if need be.”
He added the team has been rehearsing for about four weeks as opposed to, in many cases, two or more months leading up to the performance.
HARD WORK
Loman had nothing but praise for the entire cast of ‘The Frontier Trilogy’.
“My cast, everybody involved, they have all worked super hard and I’ve been admiring how much work and effort they’ve put into the show, and just the joy that they’ve taken working on it as well, because that is a big priority of mine, too, is when people work on a production that I am producing, is that they have fun [because] that’s why we’re all here to do it in the first place, right? We do it because we love it,” he said.
“So, I want this to be as great and as enjoyable of an experience for them as it can be.”
Loman said the show is recommended for those 14 years of age and older, as it does feature mature themes, prop firearms and some coarse language. The play has two intermissions, one between act one and two, and another between act two and three.
GETTING INVOLVED
Loman added that with Narrative Art Entertainment, the company’s hope is to see continued growth in the community.
“We’re just looking to grow and produce bigger shows and run for longer periods of time and just get more people involved – provide more opportunities … for people to be able to get involved in performing and if not performing, also provide a chance for people to want to work the creative muscles, whether it be directing or submitting an original piece that they have written, or aspiring designers to tackle costume or set design,” he said.
“With each show that we produce, we just hope to get bigger and bigger.”
Opening night for the ‘The Frontier Trilogy’ is Sept. 16, with the show starting at 7 p.m.
Additional shows will run at 7 p.m. on Sept. 17, 18, and 19 at the Sterndale Bennett Theatre.
More information and tickets are available here.
