New dramas on both the stage and television will help the rest of Canada get to know the West again.
One of the Prairie’s most successful plays will be 25 years old next year, says Angus Ferguson, of Dancing Sky Theatre in Meachem, Sask.
But Paper Wheat, the story of the growth of co-operatives, needed an update, he added.
“There are lots of issues at the moment (in farming) …. We wanted to create a show about who we are and where we are going.”
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So Ferguson commissioned provincial playwright Mansel Robinson to do the job. The result is Street Wheat, which the theatre will produce April 28-May 13.
Ferguson said the writer is “good at taking political issues and turning it into people’s stories so it doesn’t become propaganda.”
Ferguson said he and Robinson are on the eighth draft of the play because every time they turn on the radio new events are happening in farming.
Sharon Bakker, who was in Paper Wheat’s original cast, will also appear in Street Wheat, along with five other actors and one musician. Rocky Lackner has written nine songs to go with the script.
Ferguson said Dancing Sky, as the only professional theatre company in rural Saskatchewan, felt the need to do a show about farming.
“Part is for the community here to see themselves and part to personalize it for urban areas.”
Ferguson said Street Wheat may tour Saskatchewan.
For information about the schedule, call 306-376-4445.
Meanwhile, the History channel is showing a series about the beginnings of several small towns in Canada, including some on the Prairies. The channel can be seen via satellite in rural areas.
The series, called A Scattering of Seeds, began its fourth season March 31 with 13 new stories about immigrants to Canada. Episodes this season include: Jeff Edwards, a black American who settled in Amber Valley, Alta., and established a black community in the early 1900s; Russian Doukhobors, who as pacifists came to settle the Blaine Lake, Sask., area with financial help from novelist Leo Tolstoy; a priest who helped create a francophone community in Prud’Homme, Sask.; and a Japanese Buddhist priest who established a Buddhist community in Raymond, Alta.
“Our aim from the beginning was to present immigrants as individuals, not a faceless group,” said series co-producer Lindalee Tracey.
