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Terrace Little Theatre bound for a big competition

Cast and crew will be taking their award-winning production of Criminal Hearts to provincials in July
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Lead Actresses Amy and Cheryl Spencer in a Terrace Little Theatre production of Criminal Hearts which is now headed for the provincial theatre competition next month.

Local cast and crew from Terrace Little Theatre will be vying to be named the best in B.C. next month after winning a recent regional competition.

Their production of the dark comedy Criminal Hearts came out on top at the Skeena Zone Drama Festival held at McColl Playhouse in Terrace May 27-29.

The 13-member drama team will now be heading for the mainstage 2016 competition in Chilliwack to go up against winning plays from nine other regions across the province.

“Terrace Little Theatre, we have a history of landing at the top, but not always being able to pull together a festival and get down there so we are pretty excited,” said the play’s director Marianne Brorup Weston.

Sarah Rodgers, the adjudicator of the Terrace competition, praised the group’s production as “very well oiled” over other plays by Kitimat’s On Cue Players and Prince Rupert’s Harbour Theatre.

The play’s company are now regrouping to rehearse the adjudicator’s notes and raise funds so they can trek off to Chilliwack for a performance on July 7.

“We have a famous history for showing up there and coming in second,” laughed Brorup Weston.

However, in the past eight years, any group from the Skeena zone has only had the chance to attend the provincial festival twice, and both times it was Terrace.

“Normally someone goes, but we had a bit of a lull. So right now it’s three years since anyone has gone down and three years ago it was us,” Brorup Weston explained, as they have not been able to pull together a regional competition in years.

The group needs to raise $10,000 to afford taking their cast, crew and extensive set with them and will be holding shows this month in order to reach their goal.

“We have to rent a full sized truck, a 24-foot truck, because we’ve got a whole set. We’ve got to bring the contents and the walls and the floor including the carpet for a big room in a house, so it takes up a lot of space,” she remarked.

The scene is set in the house of an agoraphobic young woman whose estranged husband has stolen all her furniture. Upon the residence being broken into by a female burglar, the woman and the thief join forces to get revenge.

Cast and crew only have four hours to set up for their show when they arrive at the Chilliwack venue, followed by an hour to take down, Brorup Weston says, meaning they are already practicing loading set pieces.

“You have to think about all of that ahead of time,” she said. “Then you get into the professional theatre and it’s huge, I mean, we have a tiny little theatre here . . . so even that is like, woah.”

The theatre also has to pay for accommodation for the cast and crew over the duration for the festival, resulting in the non-profit group being unable to afford the trip without the extra fundraising.

Criminal Heart will be showing at the McColl Playhouse in Terrace Thurs. June 23 and Sat. June 25, curtain at 8p.m. Tickets available at Uniglobe Courtesy Travel.