Northern Groove

Stage North is holding auditions for the opening show of its 2012-2013 season, Legally Blonde the Musical!!! The show will be opening on November 3rd, 2012 and closing on November 10th.

Auditions will be on Friday May 4th, from 5:30-9:00 and Friday May 5th from 10:00-5:00 at the North Peace Cultural Centre. Callbacks will be the following Sunday, May 13th from 10:00-5:00. If you are not able to make these times but still want to be in the show, please contact Emry Mika.

Please prepare a song to sing at your audition. A stereo will be provided if you want to use accompaniment. A cold read script from a scene in the musical will be provided. There will be a dance component that will take place in the callbacks as well!

If you would like to see what the show is all about, a recorded version of Legally Blonde the Musical is on youtube, performed by the original Broadway cast! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aZM9UKf_FY

If you have any questions about the show, auditions or helping out behind the scenes please don't hesitate to contact Emry!

The reels of movie film as we know it are coming to an end. Along with the demise of photographic film and conventional cameras, celluloid film will be a thing of the past. Movies will soon come to the local cinema on digital. The familiar saying of left on the cutting room floor will take on a new meaning.  

Stage North has found a way to celebrate the well-known strips of black mini-frames by challenging creative people to make wearable art and art forms out of recycled movie film. As a Landmark Cinema, the local Aurora is making the switch gradually this spring and has supplied rolls of film for all competitors in the challenge.   

A showcase of the creative works will be featured at Stage NorthÆs Annual Oscar Night on the Big Screen on February 26. A fashion show and art exhibit opens at On the Rocks Nightclub on Sunday with the Red Carpet at 5pm and Fashion Show at 7:30pm. The Oscars will be shown on the big screen as they happen live in Hollywood. Tickets are only $15 and available online at tickets.npp.bc.ca or at the NPCC box office. 

This unique event is one of a kind and has caught the imagination of many artists. A Youtube video located under Fashion and Form was created by Stage North member Karen Rutledge with the help of local actors and former mayor, Bruce Lantz. Email enquiries have come from as far away as Manchester, England.  

Stage North has partnered with Northern Environmental Action Team who has recycling at the top of their list and the Fort St. John Community Arts Council who encourages new creative projects. Along with Dimitri Karampalas at On the Rocks, Stage North and Fort St. John will be the first to stage a fashion show and art exhibit with recycled movie film.   

Participants have until February 6 to register and all fashions and artworks are to be delivered by February 22. For further information:  www.stagenorth.ca or phone 250-785-6214. 

Stage North is celebrating 35 years of quality live theatre in Fort St. John. Having its roots with Workshop Players, Stage North began in 1977 when Northern Lights College launched a drama program as part of its curriculum. Over 150 productions later, Stage North is thriving in 2012. Look for more from the archives of local theatre throughout the year in celebration of 35 years of Stage North.

Where Does The Money Go?

Gone are the days when a live theatre production cost in the low hundreds to stage. In the 60’s and 70’s, Workshop Players in Fort St. John took over a gymnasium of an elementary school for a weekend, pulled together costumes from home closets, and advertised by telling their friends and colleagues. An entry fee of $2 covered most of the costs and a few dollars were left to start off the next production.

A typical Stage North production now costs about $8,000 to $10,000 to stage, with the popular musicals having large casts costing as much as $17,000.  

So where does the money go? The production rights for each show can vary from $50 a performance to $1500 a performance. The musical Cabaret paid $6000 in production rights to Tams-Witmark Music Library and The Good Game coming up in February will pay $325 to the playwright.

The cost of the performance venue has increased with the development of a fully equipped theatre with sound, lighting and raked seating for the audience. Casts and crews have the advantage of working in a proper theatre instead of a make-shift gymnasium. Gone are the days of hauling in the lights and the sound and setting up benches for the audience. Audiences have comfortable seating now and do not have to sit on the hard gym floor. Technical expertise comes along with the sophisticated venue and the total cost can be as high as $7500 as it was for Cabaret.

Rehearsals take place months in advance of the show opening on stage. Stage North pays rent for rehearsal space which triples as costume storage, set storage and set construction space as well. Commercial rent is required for 12 months of the year since rehearsals are back to back and sometimes overlap. Rent is now just over $20,000 a year since Stage North downsized to a smaller, less versatile, but a more affordable space.

Set construction requires lumber and paint. Costumes require materials and notions. Makeup requires replenishing between shows. The costs vary according to the type of show, the design period of the show and the number of cast members. All assembly and construction labour plus the cast and crew time is volunteer but materials, though sometimes donated, are often costly.

The advertising, promotions and program require thousands of dollars per show. Stage North is fortunate to have wonderful in-kind support from local radio and newspapers and additional print media like the Northern Groove. Hamilton’s Copiers helps by printing programs and posters. The total costs per show would be much higher than indicated above if all promotions and publicity required cash payment.

Who pays for the production costs of the show? The audience ticket sales are a main source of revenue but the support of annual Sponsors and donations from Friends is vital to the success of Stage North. At the end of the year, Stage North considers it a profitable year if it has some funds in the bank to start off the next season.

Starting off this 35 Years of Celebration, Stage North will stage The Good Game, a comedy about the hockey old timers team returning to the ice 20 years after winning the championship. The locker room banter will be familiar to every hockey player anywhere. The show runs February 17 – 25. Tickets are now available online at tickets.npcc.bc.ca or at the NPCC ticket office.  

For further information: www.stagenorth.ca

Last night I was blown away (once again) by the local theatre community.  I went to see, "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown", put on by Stage North.

Charlie Brown is my kinda humor... and these guys had me laughing the whole night.  It actually didn't work out in my favour, because I went to take pictures and had a hard time getting shots that weren't blurry because of my chuckling.  Therefore... if there are any blurry photos, I'm putting all blame on the cast. ;)

There are still a few more opportunities to go see the show... so if you can... go!

Welcome to 2012, the year the Mayans gave up on calendars, life, the universe, and everything.  Well, not til December at least...which means we have 11 more issues of Northern Groove mag to go until, much like Y2K, nothing exciting happens and we sit around and wait for the next bit of nonsense about the end of everything to come around.

Happy Holidays from Northern Groove!

We've got tons of great stuff for you this month like interviews with Fay ... and Faye! They talk about their passions and the creative things they do. There's thoughts while travelling from Tony Warriner, a backstage peek at the cast of Charlie Brown, tales of multi-cultural Christmases, cartoons from Tyson Mowatt and Rainbow Owl...

And of course the always spetacular Gift Guide! Full of local artists and artisans sharing their great and unique gift ideas - from pottery to seatbelt purses and handknitted touques to paintings. And speaking of paintings, our awesome cover girl is Sarah DeMaid, a local painter and contributer to the Gift Guide and she makes a great coffee at Patch Java!

We've got Music to Move You and getting cool with tattoos as well as eco-friendly gift options. There's tons more but you'll have to check it out for yourself...

Northern Groove December 2011 Issue

Charlie Brown and his friends, based on the cartoon characters by Charles M. Schultz in comic strip Peanuts, come to life with their innocent yet poignant observations of the universe, friendship and love. Charlie Brown questions if he really is a “good man” and is joined by Linus, Lucy and Schroeder in the search for “happiness”. Sally spouts her “new philosophy” while Snoopy reminds us that dogs have imaginations too. Through the trauma of battling a “kite eating tree” and the team work in writing “a book report”, Charlie Brown learns through “little known facts” that he is, indeed, a “good man”.

Directed by Chalene Scott, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown will be on stage at the North Peace Cultural Centre Dec 29, 30 and a special New Year's Eve perfomance on the 31st at 7:30 pm. Tickets are available from the Cultural Centre box office, by phone at (250) 785-1992 and online. 

Dec 29th, 30th - Adults $25, Students & Seniors $20, and Children $15.
Dec 31st Performance and family friendly New Year's Party - Adults $40, Students & Seniors $35, Children $30.

It all began in 1997 when a small group of Stage North members, looking for a way to raise funds to support their local community theatre group, came up with the idea of trying improv.  They started with an evening improv show in the carpet room at the North Peace Cultural Centre and having great success decided to continue on with an annual event.  They were, at that time, an unnamed group supporting Stage North.           

Spontaneous Combustion came into being in 2002, under the leadership of the infamous Al West, former teacher in the North Peace, now retired south, working with Mike Odowichuk, now a great local musician, to take the group a step further by initiating a weekly improv drop in. They were not really thinking so much about fundraising, but more to learn about, teach and practice the art of improv for pure enjoyment as well as a social outing, encouraging members and anyone interested to attend.  That was when I became involved.  Al had arranged for a room, donated by Northern Lights College one evening a week, and the fun began.  The name Spontaneous Combustion came about shortly after that.  No one is sure who actually coined the phrase, but it seemed so appropriate and was adopted immediately.

Al introduced us to such games as What Are You Doing, Freeze, Mundane Olympics, Murder Mystery, Fairy Tales, Honk, Lines from the Audience and many others.  It soon became apparent that improv was much funnier if the players emptied their minds of preconceived notions and just reacted to what was given by another player.  Because our minds are constantly working, that was the toughest thing to do.  Once you found the way though, the spontaneous reactions in response to what you were given were hilarious.  

The improv group has evolved dramatically since then, and while keeping the weekly drop ins going under the leadership of the incredibly talented Dallas Ashdown, Zac Scott and Chalene Scott, Spontaneous Combustion has become a major asset to Stage North's theatre endeavours while encouraging a youth element and expanding the horizon of improv in this community.  

Spontaneous Combustion has appeared at company parties, various community events, local pub venues and are front and center at Stage North's annual fundraising Dinner Theatre.  This year's event, titled “Dinner Palooza” will include musicians as well and is happening on November 18th at the Quality Inn Northern Grand with cocktails at 6:00 PM, dinner at 7:00 PM and the show at 8:00 PM. Ticket info for this event is available at the North Peace Cultural Centre box office or by contacting Sue Popesku at 250-785-6214 or e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

While putting this article together, I was expecting it to be full of humour, but have found that writing about improv is not nearly as funny as experiencing it, either as an audience or participating in it, which the audience can do as part of any show. We are grateful to this community for the ongoing support that has been shown over the years.
Spontaneous Combustion is a fundraising entity of Stage North and would love to entertain at your next event.  Please contact Sue for details.   

Stage North will be hosting Dinner Palooza on November 18th at 6pm. Suggestions from the audiences propel the the improv actors in to comical and even absurd situations.

Anything can happen, and it usually does!

Tickets are $50.00 each and are available from the North Peace Cultural Centre box office at 250-785-1992. The improv dinner will be held at the Quality Inn Northern Grand.