The Bill Johnstone Memorial Park bandstand will be transformed into an outdoor stage this Thursday afternoon for a production of “A Banishment of Poets,” presented by the Performers Theatre Company.
The play was conceptualized during a sort-of real life banishment of thespians, during a conversation between director Vallie Stearns and writer Sue Rose. During the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic, all theatres have been collecting dust for the sake of social distancing, so the pair wondered how they might put on a production that would be pandemic-friendly.
Stearns and Rose are proud to present this play outdoors alongside the waterpark and busy Main Street.
“This play really is a child of COVID,” says Stearns. “Last year, just after COVID struck, it looked like there was going to be no theater ever again. I went to my good friend, a local playwright, Sue Rose, and I said to her, ‘You wouldn’t happen to have a play where everybody’s in masks, do you?’ We were out walking in the Waterfowl Park, and she looked at me and she said, ‘No, but I’m going to write one.’ So she went home and wrote A Banishment of Poets.”
Rose wrote a play originally intended for adults, which was later adapted to be an all-ages comedy. A Banishment of Poets tells the story of a street performers troupe that is cast out of their city by the mayor after being suspected of stealing one of his most prized possessions.
Eventually it became clear that the masks could not stay on throughout the performance, but the actors all wore one during rehearsals. Sometimes rehearsals would be postponed altogether due to a surge of COVID-19 cases or a shift to the red phase. After multiple changes to the production schedule, Stearns made the decision to change the venue.
“We went from yellow to orange to red, so the whole thing had to be canceled,” says Stearns. “So this year, I [thought] ‘I don’t want to go through that again, wouldn’t it be great to do it outside in the park?’ And so Stephen [Puddle], our artistic director, talked to Sue and said, ‘Can you turn it into a children’s play?’ It’s a play for the whole family because it was for adults, and it still is for adults, but we’ve added things like clowns, and music and bubbles.”
Since the play is now outdoors in the heart of Sackville, the actors will have to expect interruptions. During their first full dress rehearsal, multiple tractors, sirens, and squealing tires would roar by on Main Street. Stearns says the actors are prepared for the noise, and have been instructed to pause and wait for the sound to subside, almost as if they are waiting for an audience to finish laughing after a joke.
“I’ve told the actors that whenever the audience laughs, you do a natural little pause until the laughter subsides. Do the same thing when a motorcycle or an ambulance goes by, just hold until the sound goes by.”
Actor Morgan Grant says the noise is “a unique challenge,” but is glad for the outdoor venue since he will no longer be reciting his lines with a mask on.
“It’s been quite difficult because… with the director sitting there and trying to take notes, it’s very hard to give anything visually, when most of the faces covered up. And projection is very hindered when you have something right over your mouth…For the most part, while we were wearing masks, we sort of tried to keep those notes to a minimum, since there’s nothing we could do about it.”
The play uses minimal sets and props, given the venue, and all costuming and make-up prep is done on the grass in a small pop-up tent.
The impermanent set ties in with the themes of the play, says director Vallie Stearns.
“The theme of the play is not having a permanent venue, a permanent theater space, and so they’re forced to travel from town to town instead. It’s kind of interesting because the Performers Theatre Company, one of our biggest ongoing challenges is finding space to perform to rehearse and to store props and costumes and so on. So we’ve been kind of squatting at different locations and we have a studio presently, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if Sackville had an actual theater for the performing arts?”
This afternoon (August 12) is “opening night” for A Banishment of Poets, and it will run every day at 3PM until this Sunday (August 15). The production is one hour and fifteen minutes long from start to finish.
Since there is no seating in the park beyond a few picnic tables, audience members should bring their own seating, sunscreen, and water. Sitting on the grass is welcome, but bring a blanket or tarp if the ground is damp.
