TheatreXTra presents ‘Patience’

Print
University of Lethbridge student run dramatic group TheatreXtra is looking forward to  a little ‘Patience’ this week.
The seven member cast will be  exploring Canadian playwright Jason Sherman’s  1998 play ‘Patience.’ Jan. 21-23 in the David Spinks Theatre at the University of Lethbridge each night at 8 p.m.
“Patience is essentially the story of a man who  seems to have everything but in the  Terry Ecklund and Corey Joyce rehearse a scene from Patience. Photo by Richard Amerycourse of a couple days, he loses it all — his first wife dies, he loses his job and his brother dies,” said director  Alan JohnKelly Malcolm rehearses a scene from Patience. Photo by Richard Ameryson who is in his last year of  his BFA. The seven  cast members ,   Terry Ecklund (who plays Reuben), Corey Joyce (Paul), Jennifer Le Blanc (Donna), Kelly Malcolm (Sara), Emma Sinclair ( Liz), James Wade and Greg Wilson (Phil) have been rehearsing  for the production  since December and following a three week Christmas break, since Jan. 5.
“Essentially he  tries to figure out what went wrong,” Johnson continued adding he has worked with most of the cast before in many capacities.
“It’s a pretty interesting play,” he continued adding he has wanted to put on  this production for a while so he  submitted it to TheatreXtra directors David Gabert and Lawrence Bollokoski.
“I chose Patience  after reading a lot of  plays I would be interested in directing,” he said. “He’s a Canadian playwright. And it really had a lot of interesting themes about a person’s need to fill their life with things,” Johnson said citing examples like a job, wife, kids and possessions.
“One of the characters in the play has a line ‘You have everything you need but do you need everything you have’ which sums it up,” he said.
“It’s really going to force the audience to think about their own life, because this character has the seemingly perfect life, wife, kids, dog, picket fence,” he said adding the play was a challenge to direct.
“The play itself is very surreal and there are a lot of flashbacks. It goes out of the realm,” he continued. “This play is really focused on the characters rather than flashing lights and back flips,” he said adding Patience has some strong language and a mature scenes.
 The play begins at 8 p.m. each night plus there is a 2 p.m.matinee, Jan. 23. Tickets cost $11 for adults, $7 for students.
— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat editor
Share