Performers’ is back with quirky and fun Stanton’s Garage
Sackville’s community theatre company is at it again. The Performers’ Theatre Company is just about ready to open its latest production, Stanton’s Garage, this Friday evening at the Performers’ Space on Fairfield Road in Sackville. Written by Joan Ackerman and directed by Sackville’s Chris Farella, Stanton’s Garage is part reflection on life, and part comedy of errors.
“It has this sort of personal, introspective, reflective side to it,” says actor Ben Hébert, “and then it has this more sort of goofy, silly side, which Performers’ [Theatre Company] is really known for.”
The play is set in the quintessential rural garage, says Hébert, complete with a quirky cast of characters. “When people see this garage, we want them to be like, ‘Oh, I’ve been in this garage. I’ve talked to these people before.’”
Actor Faith Higgins says the set design has recreated the atmosphere of a small town garage, made easier with the cooperation and generosity of a local garage owner. “We were able to pull a bunch of junk that he just had lying around for like 10, 20 years in order to make our set look just identical to his,” says Higgins, complete with decades of grease and oil residue.
This is Higgins second production with Performers’, having served as assistant stage manager for Hound of the Baskervilles.… Continue
Play commemorates people who struggled with homophobia, disease at the beginning of HIV/AIDS crisis
The director of a new community theatre production hopes the play will help commemorate the people who struggled with disease and homophobia at the outset of the HIV/AIDS crisis.
“It’s very easy at times to forget that behind it all are individuals… loving human beings with families,” said Stephen Puddle, founder of the Performers’ Theatre Company.
He’s the director of a new production of The Normal Heart, which opens on Saturday. The play, written by Larry Kramer, is set in early 1980s New York City, at the beginning of the HIV/AIDS crisis.
“I think a play like this helps bring that [humanity] out and show the reality of those individuals, and it’s also a tribute to those who fought hard and long,” Puddle said.
The World Health Organization estimates that HIV has claimed the lives of about 40 million people since the first known outbreak, in 1981, of what would eventually become known as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
The main character of the play is a writer and activist named Ned Weeks, a gay man who is the founder of an HIV advocacy group. The play was first produced in 1985.
Puddle also sees parallels between the HIV/AIDS crisis and COVID-19, notably a sense of extreme negativity against people trying to implement public health measures.… Continue