Award-winning director brings romantic comedy to Rosebud stage

Laureen F. Guenther
Times Contributor

 

Award-winning director Kevin McKendrick brings his talents to Rosebud Theatre this summer, directing The Last Train to Nibroc on the BMO Studio Stage. McKendrick won the 2015 Calgary Theatre Critics Award for Best Direction of a Play for Equivocation, which he directed for the Shakespeare Company this winter. He also recently received the Harry and Martha Cohen Award from Alberta Theatre Projects, for significant and sustained contribution to Calgary theatre.
The Last Train to Nibroc is a romantic comedy, set in the 1940s. “(Raleigh) is a flyer in the U.S. Air Force, who’s just left the service for medical reasons, because he has epilepsy,” McKendrick said. On a train to Corbin, Kentucky, he meets May, who’s traveling back from California where she’d gone to meet her fiancé, expecting they’d become missionaries. Heather Pattengale and Jordan Cutbill play May and Raleigh.
“It’s a story about love and forgiveness. It’s romantic. It’s very funny in places. It’s poignant,” McKendrick said. “The script itself is a really strong piece of writing. It’s evocative. It makes you feel things. It makes you laugh in a genuine way,”
“Here are two people who were pursuing a dream that they thought was the most important thing in their life, and those dreams have been shattered,” he said. “They come to realize that what they really want and need is in their own backyard rather than across the seas.”
“The authentic dialogue in the very real relationship (between May and Raleigh) is the play’s biggest strength,” he said. “It’s fraught with all of the foibles that we experience as humans — anxiety and fear and questioning faith. And wondering what our purpose is in life. The playwright has captured a very human exploration of what it means to be a person.”
Norma Roth created “a wonderfully evocative design,” he said. “We’re using the sense of the same setting and just altering it slightly, to try and create a place that moves in time and place. It’s been a very strong design that way.”
And sound designer Paul Zacharias is using banjo, accordion and guitar for the soundtrack, interweaving his original work with gospel and Appalachian music. “It’s a really wonderful sound to accompany a play,” McKendrick said.
“If you’ve never been out to Rosebud, what a delightful way to make this your introduction to the place,” he said. “You can come out and have a bite to eat and enjoy the beautiful setting, and take in a smart and entertaining piece of theatre at the same time.”
The Last Train to Nibroc opens on July 2, on Rosebud’s BMO Studio Stage, and runs at 5 pm, Wednesdays to Saturdays, til August 29. Get tickets at 1-800-267-7553 or www.rosebudtheatre.com.