Rosebud director, student and graduates perform cancer story

Laureen F. Guenther
Times Contributor

 

Mark Lewandowski of Rosebud, a graduate of Rosebud School of the Arts, directs the play Sarah and the Dinosaur for Calgary’s Fire Exit Theatre, Feb. 3-7.
Seven other cast and crew members have also been students at Rosebud School of the Arts. Geordie Cowan plays Dinosaur. Alysa Glenn, John Moerschbacher, Alix Cowman, Diana-Marie Stolz and Sienna Holden are also in the cast. Naomi Esau is Stage Manager.
Natalie Buckley plays Sarah, and Chanakya Mukherjee is her boyfriend, Charlie. Kiki Secord plays Sarah’s sister.
Sarah and the Dinosaur is the story of a 26-year-old kindergarten teacher who has eye cancer that has now metastasized to her liver.
“The unique approach of this is that she ends up visualizing this cancer as a dinosaur that follows her around,” Lewandowski said.
This story is fiction, but it originated in the true experience of Sarah Pharis, now 36, who blogged about her own cancer. Her response inspired her friend and theatre arts professor, Ingrid De Sanctis, to write the play.
Because De Sanctis knows Pharis so well, she was able to write a play that convincingly portrays the human experience with cancer.
“I really appreciate the honesty,” he said. “I felt like these people were really real. I felt like it wasn’t shying away from the tough things.”
And despite its potentially dark subject matter, Sarah and the Dinosaur affirms life.
“It’s life-affirming in the sense that you can go through trials but it doesn’t have to stop you from this, from living a full life,” he said. “(Sarah) hasn’t really been living before this. She has this bucket list of things to do, but she hasn’t been doing it. She hasn’t been living. At one point, she says cancer’s not a gift, it’s a catapult. It sends us further … It forces us to live.”
The play is also very funny, he said.
“Just this idea of this dinosaur following her around. Geordie Cowan is playing the dinosaur and he’s just got this great essence of ‘goofy’ … we’ve chosen to have him eat all the time, so he’s always got a bag of chips or M&Ms or licorice,” he said.
The relationship between Charlie and Sarah is also funny.
“They have this big fight over lettuce,” he said. “She’s just spent $163 on lettuce and lettuce alone and now she’s going out to get some more because she’s on this lettuce diet. He just wants to have a steak.
“I think it is the type of play where people say, ‘Well that was fun,’ yet he predicts it will touch us too. “I’m anticipating that everybody’s going to cry near the end of the play. The dinosaur turns, looks at the audience, and says, ‘Everybody’s crying.’”
Sarah and the Dinosaur plays for Fire Exit Theatre in the Arts Commons, Feb. 3-7, with nightly performances at 7:30 p.m., and 2 p.m. matinees on Feb. 6-7.
Get tickets at fireexit.ca/shows or call 403-640-4617.