Entertainment Abounds This Spring
Kelowna Capital News
April 23, 2008
What a great weekend of laughter. I made it to the opening night of Fred Skeleton Theatre Company’s first show of their first season, All in the Timing, in Summerhill Estate Winery’s Pyramid Theatre. I simply loved the way the six one-act plays fit together.
The opening and closing plays worked well to frame the rest, both of them dealing with how people interact when they meet each other and what causes some to result in a good relationship and others not to.
Sarah McCall and Cameron Gordon set the pace right off in Sure Thing, where every time one of them said something that would make the forming of a new relationship fail, Shannon Moore would ring the bell on her desk and they’d start over again until they got it right, making everyone in the audience laugh.
Ashleigh Somerville provided a musical interlude between each of the acts, singing her own thought-provoking and fine-crafted songs while the six actors got ready soundlessly behind the curtain.
Marlena Mason-Brown, Rob Mason-Brown, Troy Berg and Shane Martens round out the rest of this highly professional cast and all of them were bang on all night, keeping the audience laughing all the way. The only thing missing was a bigger audience.
I’m hoping that FST have not bitten off more than they can chew with such an extended run in their opening season. It takes a while for word of mouth to spread and it’s hard to say if there’s a big enough base of theatre-goers to support that many shows of good, non-musical, contemporary theatre. I hope there will be and although the audience was small opening night, it didn’t affect the performers, or if it did, they were professional enough in their way of handling it that it didn’t show. They really do a great job and I’m hoping word of mouth will spread and people will get out to support this fledgling theatre company, aiming to produce professional theatre. Just a word of warning, it’s cool inside the pyramid so dress warmly.
Tickets, which include appetizers, are available on line at Ticketweb.com for $39.95 or at the door cash sale for $39. Show time is 8 p.m. Thursday to Sunday from April 17 to May 4 at Summerhill’s pyramid. For more information, go to www.fredskeleton.com.
Adult theatre in a pyramid
Kelowna Capital News - April 09, 2008
By Glenna Turnbull
The infinite monkey theorem states that a monkey randomly hitting keys on a typewriter for an infinite length of time, could eventually write a Shakespeare play, such as Hamlet.
At Summerhill Pyramid Theatre, it might just happen in under 10 minutes as Fred Skeleton Theatre company brings to life the David Ives play, All in the Timing, which features three typing “chimpanzees” in one of the scenes.
“All in the Timing is actually six one-act plays that are about 10 minutes long each, written to be performed together,” explains Marlena Mason-Brown, artistic director of Fred Skeleton Theatre.
“All of the plays are very funny. They have to do with relationships, break-ups, how people meet and,” she says looking over at her husband Rob Mason-Brown, “monkeys!”
Wearing a pair of short shorts with plastic buttocks attached to the rear end, Rob is joined by fellow chimpanzee actors Troy Berg and Jenny O’Toole in the piece Words, Words, Words. In it they put a literal translation into the philosophical infinite monkey theorum.
“Another piece is called Sure Thing about two people meeting in a café, and they keep meeting until they get it right,” says Marlena.
Getting it right is something the new theatre group certainly did at their inaugural event, a fundraiser held two weeks ago featuring a night of improv by the FST Players. Rob Mason-Brown, general manager of FST says, “We’ll be doing a lot more of the improv, in between our regular season shows.”
Their season gets underway April 17 with All in the Timing which plays through until May 4, followed by The Glass Menagerie from May 21 to June 8; Dinner With Friends from June 30 to July 17; The Dishwashers from September 10 to 27; No Exit from Oct. 30 to Nov. 16; and finishing with A Christmas Carol from Dec. 18 to Jan. 11.
And so, with their eyes set on the 20 to 50+ demographics, they’ll be kicking things off with a bit of monkey business, hoping to attract theatre buffs who are looking for more than just musicals or Shakespeare. “Our mandate is to produce off-Broadway style adult theatre.”
Cameron Gordon, director of marketing for FST says they’re hoping it will develop into a fully professional equity paying company. “Because there really isn’t a professional club here in Kelowna, we are trying to start that. The goal is to pay our actors and get to the point where we can do an equity show.”
The group’s performance space is built inside the pyramid at Summerhill Estate Winery in the Upper Mission and seats about 100 people. “And because of our connection with Summerhill, we’ll have a cash wine bar and be serving complimentary appetizers at the shows,” says Marlena.
So where does the name Fred Skeleton Theatre come from? With plastic buttocks firmly in place, Rob Mason-Brown explains, “The name was originally from my university days when I started my theatre company there. It was a barebones theatre and we had this big cardboard skeleton in our flat named Fred.”
Ashley Somerville will be playing songs in between the six one-act plays which Gordon says, “will make it very similar to watching Saturday Night Live.”
And he warns potential audience members: “Because this is an adult-themed play, there’s adult language, so you’re going to hear the ‘f” word on a fairly regular basis in this play.”
But is that just because the monkeys keep hitting those keys? You’ll have to see the show to find out.
All in the Timing stars Rob Mason-Brown, Sarah McCall, Cameron Gordon, Shane Martens, Troy Berg, Jenny O’Toole and Shannon Moore. Tickets are available on line at Ticketweb.com for $39.95 or at the door cash sale for $39. Show time is 8 p.m. Thursday to Sunday nights from April 17 to May 4. For more information, visit their website at www.fredskeleton.com.
Not Your Typical Theatre Fare
2005 NEWS ARCHIVE - eVent!
By Jude Campbell
Like the witches of Macbeth, this young theatre company plans to render a concoction of cutting-edge humour, life perspective and a dollop of British weirdness, all served up on stage.
With unusual plays on the platter, the newly hatched Fred Skeleton Theatre Company, and all three of its founding members, are full of anticipation for their first season.
“We want to do pieces that are entertaining, thought-provoking, humorous and a bit on the edge,” explained Rob Mason-Brown, the British portion of the group. “We’re planning on a four-show season, with productions that you wouldn’t see otherwise. It’s not your typical fare. We’ll do pieces that entertain, certainly, and make you think, but not stuff to scare you away.”
Working on what amounts to less than a beer budget but hanging on to aspirations with champagne taste, the trio have set their sights on entertaining the university/college-age crowd, as well as theatre-goers who want more than the usual Broadway musical or comedic fluff.
“There are lots of companies in town that provide that genre of theatre, and that’s great! But it’s not necessarily what appeals to the university and 30-something crowd,” added Marlena Morton, whose entry took best stage manager/best presentation and best actor honours at the recent One Act Festival of original plays.
“We want to give that crowd thought-provoking and alternative theatre,” she added. “With OUC (Okanagan University College) growing into UBC (University of British Columbia), it opens up even more opportunities. We plan on presenting the kinds of relevant themes that a university population wants to see, a fresh social and political perspective.”
Having migrated to Kelowna from the drama-laden city of Edmonton, which has for decades supported a thriving Fringe Festival, Morton is convinced that Fred Skeleton Theatre can carve a solid niche in the local theatre scene.
“The trademark of a successful city is a thriving, vibrant and diverse art scene,” she said. “Live theatre has its thumb on what the community is feeling and responding to. It’s our responsibility to bring those issues to the stage.”
Since there is no budget, the company is relying completely on friends, family, ‘freebies’ and goodwill, which begins with being given space at The Actors Studio, as well as being mentored by both Randy Leslie (artistic director) and Nate Flavel (production manager) from the studio.
Mason-Brown said that their productions will make use of down time at the studio when no other productions are in progress, ensuring that the studio is used to full capacity, while offering theatre alternatives.
“We really are as low budget as you can get,” Morton said, “it’s actually a $0 budget. Everyone is donating their time. It’s a little frightening to start off with nothing, but we’re also getting incredible support from the Actors Studio. The mentorship from Randy and Nate has been beyond anything we dreamed of.”
“The advantage to starting small with no financial reserve,” added Mason-Brown, “is that you don’t have the extra pressure of worrying about drawing a large audience to pay the bills and support the budget - because there isn’t one!”
Dave Jabour, one of the ready-to-jump-on-board actors who has already shared the stage with Morton, and also took part in the company’s recent well-received production of Excess Unwanted Growth, said working with a fledgling group means “everyone does everything they can to make it work.
“We’ll be working with themes similar to the harder-hitting Laramie. It’s not lighter fare, but it’s also pretty much PG-13,” he said. “When it comes to the British humour side, it’s not the farce, the Fawlty Towers thing. It’s more character-based, more the situation and conversation between the characters. More Monty Python, surreal humour.”
Since the company is just stepping out into the limelight, it is also very open to having would-be actors, technicians, designers and playwrights step up to the plate and “give it a go.”
“We are very, very open to new talent,” Jabour said. “We’re trying to build a base of actors as well as an audience base. Even if you have never done anything on stage before, we’re certainly willing to have you give it a shot.”
“Not to worry,” Mason-Brown added. “Come on out. We need lots of help.”
Morton said the first production, in undertone at least, mimicked a slightly skewed version of The Odd Couple, and “was well received.”
“We were pleased with the results, and we had a decent-sized audience. Considering it’s our first time out, and considering our budget,” she said.
