Rosebud Theatre looks forward to 35th anniversary year

By Laureen F. Guenther Times Contributor

Morris Ertman, Rosebud Theatre’s artistic director, reflects on the 2017 season, anticipating a 2018 lineup worthy of the theatre’s 35th anniversary.
“I still think (2017) was a season for our time,” he said. “We opened with a play that was all about everybody surviving the toughest of times and coming out of the end of it as family.”
That play was The Skin of our Teeth. Ertman called the performances “stellar,” but the production received mixed reviews.
Rosebud Theatre also lost some corporate sponsorships this year, he said, so “we really were surviving by the skin of our teeth.”
But in summer, when The Spitfire Grill actors sang of hope, Ertman felt that hope was for Rosebud too.
David Snider performed An Almost Holy Picture on the BMO Studio Stage. Though Ertman wished more people had seen it, “the impact on people for whom that story went right into their hearts was significant.”
The fall show was The Christians, and it was a highlight for Ertman that an unprecedented number of audience members stayed for talk-backs.
Cariboo Magi, a Christmas comedy, is ending the season with sold-out shows.
“It feels like we started by the skin of our teeth and we sang hope in the summer with The Spitfire Grill,” he said. “We stayed true to the soul of the place with The Christians and An Almost Holy Picture, and then at Christmas time is a play that puts it all together.
“It feels like the song of the summer is coming true at Christmas.”
The 2018 season has a different feel and imagery.
“We’re going into our 35th anniversary season, 35 years of plays in this valley,” Ertman said. “We’ve got so many loyal, long-time patrons for whom this is a deal. And we recognize how lucky we are to have these people come, year after year after year.”
So, they’re bringing back two audience favourites.
Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat will return to the Opera House in summer, with Cassia (Schramm) Schmidt singing as narrator.
Mark Twain’s The Diaries of Adam and Eve, which “packed the house” in the BMO Studio Stage, will be performed in the Opera House in fall, with Heather Pattengale.
The season opens with Driving Miss Daisy, with actors Judith Buchan and Vancouver-based Tom Pickett. Pickett rarely leaves Vancouver, though he’s often asked to perform across Canada, Ertman said.
“Tom is coming to do the show because it’s happening in Rosebud,” said Ertman. “He wants to do a show in our company.”
The Amish Project, an “incredibly timely” play based on the school shooting in Nickel Mines, Pa., will be on the BMO Studio Stage in summer. Vancouver-based Jessie Award-winner Angela Konrad will direct.
The season closes with Nathan Schmidt as Sherlock Holmes, in Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Christmas Carol.
“It’s not very often that we can do a lineup like this,” Ertman said. “But we’re pulling out all the stops for our 35th anniversary season.
“It’s just an incredible privilege for all of us in Rosebud to get to do this, to offer up shows to people,” he added. “What really drives us is this wonderful connection to these glorious people that make their way out to have dinner and wander about the valley, and see our shows. It’s an incredible privilege.”