New West Theatre is “all fired up” by an injection of new talent for their latest show  which opens  at the Yates Theatre, Aug. 5.
“All Fired Up is a mixture of pop and rock hits which spans a few generations. It’s really a high energy  family friendly way to celebrate summer,” said director Nicholas Hanson promising more “razzle dazzle” in the form of new lighting and laser effects.

“It’s been really invigorating to add four new dancers. We have four people in the band and eight people as vocalists. It’s the most  bodies we’ve had on stage  for a while. Then there’s the comedy, so as a result  there’s quite an explosion of energy,” he added, noting he is especially excited about the new dancers.

“With TV shows like ‘So, You Think You Can Dance,’  there is a lot more interest in dancing. So we think audiences will really appreciate the high energy and intensity  the dancers bring to this show,” he added.

“There’s a lot of variety and a lot of upbeat numbers which let everyone show off their vocals,” described Jessica Ens, enjoying her tenth summer performing with New West Theatre. She is enjoying working with Mark Nivet again for this production. It has been a challenge  for the cast to be performing  the country show (Rockin’ The Rodeo) at night while rehearsing for this one during the day.

“It’s been a lot of work, but it’s been  nice to have these different genres. The  last one was  a lot of country music, this one is a completely rock and roll,” she said adding ‘Rockin’ The Rodeo’ was well received by the audiences. This time, the cast explore  a variety of rock pop, R and B and disco hits hits from ‘Africa’ to ‘ I Feel the Earth Move.’”

 They even  perform Kiss’ ‘Shout It Out Loud.’ and some other ’80s hits like ‘Jessie’s Girl’ and ’I Want to Know What Love Is.’

If you hear gunshots  and cannon fire echoing over the coulees,  every Friday and Saturday beginning this Friday, don’t worry, it’s just Fort Whoop -Up under attack by Fred Kanouse and his whiskey trading band of scoundrels.

Don’t call the police though, because Northwest Mounted Police officer Cst.  Arthur C Tabor, Fort Whoop Up manager David Akers and his friends already  have things under control. Because in the world of theatre, the good guys almost always win.

Siege at Fort Whoop-Up is a production of local improv group Drama Nutz in conjunction with  Fort Whoop -Up which runs every Friday and Saturday from July 24 to Aug. 28.

 It features some familiar faces and several newcomers.
“I’ll say it again and again, never let history get in the way of a good story,” said Drama Nutz director David Gabert , who also plays Dave Akers in the production, adding all of the characters are based on real historical characters, though the events transpiring are fictional.

 The play takes place in 1877 at the wedding of  Marcella Sheran (played by Bev Stadelman) , older sister of Fort Whoop Up coal mining mogul  David Sheran (played by David Adie), and Fort Macleod area rancher Joseph MacFarland (played  by Richard Amery). The wedding is unfortunately timed as Cpl. Tabor ( Terry  Edwards) has just apprehended murderer Fred Kanouse (Jon MacBurnie) and Kamouse’s men are planning a jailbreak.

 The actors are using real rifles and pistols, filled with real black powder ammunition (firing blanks of course). All of the actors completed and passed a government  gun safety training course.
 Calgary’s Guns of the Golden West add extra firepower.
 To make each show unique, all of the dialogue is completely improvised.

“Rather than writing a script, we wrote detailed character descriptions. Fortunately I’ve  had the honour of working with four or five members of the cast before. We found when you add extra elements, like guns, you don’t know what is going to happen, guns jam and safety becomes paramount ,” Gabert said adding a written script can quickly go by the wayside.

“We’re interested in  portraying interesting events rather than  the characters, which we admittedly don’t know a lot about. We’re bringing the Fort to life , so to speak, and using theatre is a great way to do that,” he said adding the Siege evolved from previous activities at Fort Whoop -Up including  the ‘Wild West Weekend.”

New West Theatre has a trimmed down cast and energy to spare as they rock the rodeo this month at the Yates Theatre.

The nine member cast performs one of their typically entertaining  variety show ranging from spine tinglingly beautiful to campy upbeat dance numbers, superb vocal harmonies and a lot of quirky comedy.
 The show  opens with an upbeat dance version of Alabama’s “Mountain Music,”  which gives the whole cast a chance to shine.

There are many highlights of the show, not the least of which is Ife Abiola — a new face to New West, though not new to Lethbridge’s drama and music community. He adds a lot of soul to traditional country music.

He was not only a highlight as the straight man in a couple of sketches but added a lot of soul to Conway Twitty as well as  did a credible job of Paul Brandt’s “Alberta Bound.”

He also sings  a pretty mean Toby Keith, singing a superb version of “How Do You Like Me Now.”
Abiola has been seen in the University of Lethbridge’s production of ‘Hair,’ among other things.
Jessica Ens and Jocelyn Haub  sang a beautifully sassy version of Terri Clark’s ‘Girls Lie Too.’ Haub’s solo performance of Taylor Swift’s ‘White Horse,’ was a highlight as well. She was backed only by guitarists Kelly Roberts and Scott Mezei.

 Haub also played well off of Grahame Renyk, who was an affable and personable host  during the farm themed news portion of the show.

 In honour of the Eagles,  a highlight of the first half of the show is a  superb medley of Eagles’ more country hits including ‘Peaceful Easy Feeling,’ and ‘Take It Easy,’ which is spearheaded by  New West veteran Scott Carpenter, who changes  the lyrics to reflect the four women in the cast, dancing and singing backup vocals. Carpenter was hilariously as always, he was having some fun laughing maniacally while rigging the 50 50 draw much to the crowd’s amusement.