Over the last few years, I've been a little involved in community theatre and serve on the board of one of the local theatre companies, the Guild Hall. I've been in several plays over the past years and here's a bit on each and some pictures.
July 2022
Brandon Wicke (2022)
A disgraced university professor and his fiance return to his parents farm in southern Ontario. With the problems of his academia, South American drugs, hockey mathematics, a group of hobos, strange drifters, and a jinxed dog, what could go wrong? I play Nathan, the father.
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November-December 2019
Tom Stoppard (1979)
In Dogg's Hamlet, students prepare and present a shortened version of Hamlet. There is one hiccup: all of the characters speak Dogg, a language that uses English words but they have different meanings. For example, the greeting "Afternoon" from English means "Get stuffed!" in Dogg. Along comes a delivery driver with the materials to make the stage. The fun starts when the delivery driver only speaks English and communication falls apart.Lots of physical comedy and double entendre. I play Dogg, the pompous headmaster of the school, and Claudius in the performance of Hamlet.
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May-June 2019
Doug Rutherford (2019)
Ghosts haunt the halls of the House of Commons.
In May 1966, Paul Chartier, an unemployed former miner, trucker, and hotelier, suffered a serious mental breakdown. He blamed the federal government for a long history of personal and business failures, so he asked if he could address Parliament to complain about how the country was being run and was refused. He decided to get revenge by throwing a bomb onto the floor of the House of Commons during session, delivering a speech listing his many grievances, and declaring himself the President of Canada. However, his plan was unsuccessful, and he died in the attempt. Our play takes place in present day, more than 50 years afterwards, with Chartier being offered the opportunity to deliver his speech he had taken with him to the House of Commons... from the afterlife.
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November 2017
Book by Conrad Boyce (2017)
Music by Matthew Lien
The White Pass & Yukon Route Railway is designated as one of the engineering wonders of the world. The play follows the life of Michael Heaney, one of the driving forces in its construction.
I play a number of roles, including John F. Stevens, Erasmus C. Hawkins, Zdenek, and an Irish partygoer.
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November-December 2016
Peter Church
Picture the story of the Christmas classic It's a Wonderful Life, presented in a 1947 radio studio, coomplete with foley effects and 1940s commercials ("Doctor, what brand of cigarette do you smoke?"). I play the Announcer, the bumbling but loveable Uncle Billy, and the bank inspector.
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April 2015
Written by Trey Parker, Music by Trey Parker and Rich Sanders
The play is loosely based on the true story of Alferd Packer and the sordid details of the trip from Utah to Colorado that left his five fellow travelers dead and partially eaten. It follows how the story developed from their ill-fated trip to the trial of Packer.
November 24 - December 8, 2012
Craig Lucas (1988)
Peter and Rita meet, fall and love and get married. It sounds normal enough, until an old man asks to kiss the bride at the wedding. This simple act results in Rita and the old man switching souls and bodies. Will Peter be able to get Rita back and will she ever be the same?
I play Rita's Uncle Fred from Cinncinati. I am the aging hipster with a much younger, and quite bossy, trophy wife.
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May 2012
Doug Rutherford (2011)
How do you plan for the worst case scenario? How do you survive survival?
After a major earthquake and tsunami devastate the west coast, three survivors interact in a mess tent in a refugee camp east of Vancouver. Three approaches to life, three approaches to death and three approaches to survival meet in spartan quarters.
I play Hugh Ferguson, a seismologist who was caught in the devastation on his way back to Victoria.
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May 2010
Roy Ness (2010)
When was the last capital case held in the Yukon? The case of Trevor the Dog has led to considerable embarrassment for many Yukoners and a victory for others. The case of protecting Trevor from euthanasia was covered throughout Canada and the story was picked up by many international news agencies as well.
Dogtown was prepared as a first draft of an upcoming play on Trevor. It showed the trial scene for Trevor the Dog and incorporates Judge Von Rail, who suffers from spooneritis and speaks in spoonerisms (e.g., Trevor the Dog becomes Devor the Trog, and the court clerk's name, Frank Tucker...)
I play Don Jaylor, the Chief Whitehorse Bylaw officer, and play the banjo for the big, scene-ending production number. I'm trying my hardest to ensure that Trevor' execution takes place tomorrow but am up against stiff opposition.
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April 2010
Colin Heath and John Millard (2007)
This is the tale of a town, during the Depression, with an extremely corrupt mayor and town council. I am playing Artemus Fox, the Charities Commissioner. The Charities Commissioner is responsible for seeing to the well-being of the poor citizens in the town. Most are starving, yet I weigh between 3-400 pounds and eat throughout the play.
The Mayor receives word that an federal government inspector is on his way to root out corruption. He may well be in town already and no one knows what he looks like. Also, there's now a stranger in town,at which point the humour really starts.
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November 2009
Carol Geddes (Writer/Director/Producer), Josh Miller (Executive Producer) (2009)
This is a tale of Anash and his friend, Kole, who are trying to find all of the pieces of the sun rock, a large diamond. The legend states that peace will come to Anash's people when all of the pieces are found and returned to the bottom of the lake. The first six episodes were filmed and produced in 2007 and the last seven were shot in Whitehorse in 2009. I play Brother Leo, who has an important part to play in the last episode.
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November, December 2008
Joseph Graham and Norman Alexander Easton (2008)
There's nothing like a good tall tale, particularly one billed as "a northern mystery of man, murder, mutilation and mayhem." Mutiliation is an important concept here. The play is set in the are of Chisana, Alaska in the 1930s and tells of how a group of old bush hands play a practical joke on a German greenhorn who shows up in town. I play the part of Will, a crotchety prospector in his 60s who's hiding from the federal marshal over a bit of a beating... and a bit of diddling his daughter.
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March, April 2008
Garsin Kanin (1946)
This play originally ran for 1,642 performances on Broadway and is one of the longest running plays on Broadway. It is the tale of Harry Brock, a corrupt junk dealer from New Jersey who comes to Washington, DC, to bribe a senator. He brings his unsophisticated girl friend, Billy Dawn, to keep him company on the trip. To keep her from causing social problems, he hires a newspaper writer, Paul Verrall, to educate her. She eventually falls in love with Paul and they block Harry from his plans of using the senator's influence to get even richer. I played Eddie Brock, Harry's cousin and butler. I had lots of lines and lots of action. Eddie was a bit of a hood and I needed my best New Jersey accent.
I'll also mention the fact that a lot of people found the fact that I had to shave my beard off for the play to be a bit traumatic.
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October, November 2007
Howard Richardson (1939)
Rewritten by William Berney (1945)
The play is a rendition of the folk song, Barbara Allen, set in the Smokey Mountians in Tennesse. It is the tale of John, a witch, who falls in love with the mortal Barbara Allen. The play has been controversial and includes one of the townspeople raping Barbara Allen in the church. I played the role of Mr. Summey, the shopkeeper. The play isn't a musical but I did end up playing the guitar, banjo and mandolin as part of my role.
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Page last updated January 6, 2020.