Rosebud talent brings Canadian comedy to Fire Exit Theatre

Times Contributor   

 

Halo, directed by Mark Lewandowski, Rosebud Centre of the Arts’ General Manager, opens at Fire Exit Theatre in Calgary, Oct. 8.

“Halo is about the image of Jesus that appears on the side of Tim Hortons in (the fictional town) Nately, Nova Scotia,” Lewandowski says. “Is it real? Is it not? People come flocking to it … and it just causes an uproar.”

One character in the uproar is Casey, who’s just moved back to Nately, although she hates living there. 

“She can’t stand the pressures she’s under to conform to this little town, to the religious viewpoint of the Catholic Church there, and to just the small-town-minded thinking,” he says. “She’s a big city girl. That’s what she wants to be.”

Donald is a Christmas tree farmer whose daughter has been in a coma since a car accident a year or two ago. 

“He’s praying for a miracle,” Lewandowski says, so when the image of Jesus shows up on the Tim Hortons, “he believes that something’s going to happen.”

But Casey and JJ, the town’s new Catholic priest who’s “a little broad-minded in his thinking,” are as skeptical as Donald is hopeful.

“I think people are going to really be surprised by the turns that it takes,” Lewandowski says, “but I think that the end is extremely satisfying.”

Josh MacDonald, Halo’s Canadian playwright who also wrote “Hoax for the Holidays,” the movie version, “is a very clever writer,” Lewandowski says. “There’s a lot of comedy in this … but at the same time, it’s got lots of heart.”

“If I have my way as a director,” he says, people “will be laughing until they cry and then profoundly moved at the same time.” 

In fact, he says, Rosebud resident Randall Wiebe, who plays Donald, and Kendra Hutchinson, the Rosebud graduate playing Donald’s daughter Lizzie, came out “bawling” from an early rehearsal. 

“They come out (saying), ‘Yeah, we love doing comedies, don’t we?’” Lewandowski laughs. “So it’s got a real range of emotions to it.

“The overwhelming theme of (Halo) is about belonging. It’s about finding a place to belong and a people to belong with, whether that’s a religious community, or whether it’s a small intimate community, or a broader thing. Where do we fit? How do we fit? How do we belong? Everybody is searching for belonging.

“I really want people to have a great time. But in that laughter, you’re going to identify with some things and you’re going to have some connections with people.”

Lewandowski had such a great turnout for auditions, he says, choosing the cast was “really, really hard.” 

Wiebe and Hutchinson are the only  Rosebud actors, but several people with Rosebud connections are working backstage. Naomi Esau, fourth year Rosebud student is Halo’s assistant director, and graduate Julie Serger is scenic designer. Victoria Krawchuk, who designed set and costumes for Rosebud Theatre’s Our Town, is designing Halo’s costumes. Colin Lowe, who did sound and music for Rosebud’s We Won’t Pay, is Halo’s technical and musical director.

Halo plays at Fire Exit Theatre in downtown Calgary, Oct. 8 – 12, with both matinee and evening performances. See fireexittheatre.com for details and tickets.