Question: How do you recreate 100 years of Red Deer’s history on stage?
Answer: You don’t — not if you’re Tree House Youth Theatre’s artistic director Matt Gould and you’ve been tasked with writing the official centennial play to mark Red Deer’s big birthday.
Gould couldn’t imagine writing a literal “A to Zed” history of the city that begins with Red Deer’s founder Leonard Gaetz wheeling and dealing to get the railroad to locate onto his land, thereby sparking the city’s growth, yadda, yadda. ...
Instead, Gould admitted, “I cherry picked — I picked certain interesting stories and mixed it up and made it ridiculous.”
He may have omitted Gaetz’s dry land negotiations, but included the thrilling true story of Red Deer Boy Scouts capturing the fugitive police shooter Arthur Kelly after finding him crouching in a field in 1911.
There is also a colourful reference to Red Deer’s celebrity Jersey cow, Rosalind, who received a shiny silver trophy and inspired a celebratory (non-beef) dinner for being the world’s best milk producer.
And there will be a brief appearance by the city’s conflicted first mayor, Francis Galbraith, who ran city hall while also reporting on his own performance there while publisher of the Red Deer Advocate.
Gould describes his original stage play, Red Deer River Stories — a Tree House Youth Theatre production that will run from Thursday to June 8 at the Scott Block in downtown Red Deer — as a rich local hodgepodge of this and that.
But his mixed theatrical bag, which also celebrates Tree House’s 25th anniversary this year, will still encompass this community’s past, present and future.
With a cast of 14 actors, aged 12 to 17 years, the play begins in 1913, when youngsters from the high school literary society are celebrating Red Deer becoming a city with a vaudeville-style stage show at the local Lyric Theatre.
Gould admitted he “borrowed” some inspiration from old film footage of George Burns and Gracie Allen doing their comedy schtick.
In the first act, actors from the literary society will perform a variety show that includes scenes from what was then Red Deer’s recent history — including the Scouts’ citizen’s arrest of Kelly, who fled after pumping two bullets into Police Chief Bell (who survived).
Gould said back stage action at the theatre will also be shown. “Everything will be on stage.”
The play’s second act jumps to the flower power early 1970s, when Red Deer is celebrating its 60th birthday.
Gould chose to focus on the jubilee year of 1973 instead of the city’s 50th anniversary a decade earlier “because the ’60s were so uninteresting,” compared to the dynamic 1970s. That’s when society’s mores shifted, due to the Vietnam War, women’s and civil rights movements, the sexual revolution and other changes.
The ’70s were also Gould’s formative years, “so I could relate to that time,” he added.
The “complex” middle act will feature the Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High School drama club putting on a groovy “Age of Aquarius” style show, and in the process, revealing changes the community is undergoing. Gould said some heavier “issues” will be introduced — including one 13-year-old character, who is beaten and kicked out of the house for being gay by his alcoholic dad.
“The (societal shift) is part of the fabric of the interactions between characters,” he added.
The third act will show the audience various visions of the future — from the imaginative Jules Verne-like projections from 1913 (spaceships to the moon, golfing under the sea) to the bleak 1970s view (choking pollution, overpopulation), to some of the more optimistic forecasts being made today.
Despite global warming, Gould said he’s been reading material lately that suggests “the future is not as bad as you might think. It’s really turned my thinking around.”
He hopes the play will inspire audiences to envision how they would like Red Deer to be on its 200th birthday.
The young Tree House actors have taken to his esoteric script “like ducks to water,” said Gould, who’s really pleased by the strong performances. Some of the young actors have now had five Tree House seasons under their belts and “they’re performing at a very high level.”
He hopes Red Deer River Stories will not only highlight the city’s history, but will also showcase Tree House’s young performers. “They are an extremely dedicated cast, and it’s going to be really exciting.”
The play runs from May 30 to June 8. Tickets to the opening night gala at the Scott Block (which includes the play as well as refreshments, a question and answer session, and a brief introduction by Gould), are $25. Otherwise, tickets for the rest of the 7:30 p.m. shows (and 2 p.m. Saturday matinees) are $15 from www.treehouseyouththeatre.ca.
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com