Mixed Nuts — An Evening of Song and Schtick — will be presented Saturday night in tribute to late Red Deer thespian Carole Forhan.
Featuring more than 30 performers, songs from 10 Broadway musicals, and a series of comic scenes, the one-night presentation at Studio A of the Red Deer College Arts Centre will be “a celebration of laughter and song — which is what Carole would have loved,” said the revue’s director Lori Lane.
Forhan, who died of cancer in October 2016, was a U.K.-native who came to Red Deer via Quebec, Saskatchewan and Drumheller — getting enthusiastically involved with theatre groups wherever she went.
This spring, the Red Deer Players will be presenting the first annual $500 Carole Forhan Theatre Arts Scholarship to a deserving individual between 14- and 21-years-old who’s interested in expanding his/her theatre training.
Lane said the Mixed Nuts revue is helping kick off the memorial scholarship “with a bit of fanfare,” raising public awareness of the award as well as its namesake.
Forhan was a member of Red Deer Players and Central Alberta Theatre, who lent a hand wherever needed, said Lane — whether as an actor, director, costume sewer or set painter. “She was always the last to leave and the first to arrive,” tackling everything — including making experimental prop “bottles” out of sugar so they could be broken without causing injury.
Lane recalled Forhan was particularly thrilled to work with youths, so was touched to learn a scholarship benefitting young people would be started in her name. An endowment was raised during a special gala performance of Calendar Girls.
Applications for the scholarship will be accepted on the Red Deer Players website until April 15 and the money will be awarded in June.
Lane said many talented people are involved with Mixed Nuts, including Paul Boultbee, Keith Ainscough, Nigel Lane and Haeley Ginter. Blaine Newton and Leslie Greentree will return to Red Deer from Edmonton to take part in the presentation.
Tunes from Phantom of the Opera, Oklahoma, Wicked and Spamalot will be among those performed. As well, students from Notre Dame High School and St. Joseph High School will reprise music from their school productions of Do You Wanna Dance? and Godspell.
About half of the eight comic scenes tare written by Newton and the others are by British performers Rowan Atkinson, Dudley Moore and others.
Lane believes Mixed Nuts will be an musical evening of theatrical fun that honours a woman who left a positive mark on her community.
Tickets are available from rdc.ab.ca/tickets or through www.reddeerplayers.com.
lmichelin@reddeeradvocate.com
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