The formerly known Cochrane Visions Theatre has an entirely new look after the group rebranded itself as the Take a Bow Community Theatre Society and will present its spring play of The Mousetrap May 3 through until the 12.
"We decided to a a rebrand just to show the community that we decided to do more than we've been doing in the past. We've kind of been in a little bit of a rut doing the pantomime every year, which was great but we wanted to expand beyond that so we thought we'd take a fresh look at things," said Take a Bow President Anita McDonald.
"We did a strategic planning session last April to get an idea of where we want to take theatre in Cochrane and at that point we decided lets just do a whole refresh, rebrand and take things from scratch. We've been working on that since last April and we've been dedicated to get more things going in town. We had a few people on the board who threw out a couple (name) ideas and Take a Bow we thought was really general, interesting and it was a play off the Bow River ... it really suited what we were looking for."
The group has an acting workshop on April 13 in collaboration with Theatre Alberta for people ages 16 years and older. It's $30 per person and there's only 30 spots available. McDonald said they were hoping the workshop would attract outside interest to join the group.
"This is the first workshop that we've organized and it's in partnership with Theatre Alberta so we're actually getting an instructor from Theatre Alberta to come and do the day-long work shop ... This being our first go, we're just opening it up to see who is interested in theatre and who maybe will participate," McDonald said.
"Little experience, no experience, we just want to provide this as an opportunity for people to do something they've never tried before or gives someone the chance to get back into acting."
The group is also looking for directors, production crew and volunteers to help run a newly added youth theatre program.
"We're kind of into a groove where we do three shows a year, our annual pantomime that we do in the fall, a spring show in April and May and then we also have a spot in the Foothills One Act Festival Society so we can take part in that festival every year," McDonald said.
"We're just looking for people who would be interested in performing and directing. So we have the means to produce the show, we're just looking for someone to get involved and maybe direct for the first time or they've directed in the past and want to do it through the community level. There's a contact form on the web page (www.cochranevisionstheatre.ca) that they can fill out or ask us questions if they aren't 100 per cent sure it's something they want to do. I would be happy to get in contact with them."
"With the youth theatre program, we have realized through the things we already do that there's a huge call for having programming for younger kids. We have some programs in Cochrane but not enough for everyone to be involved. We want to start something up ourselves and we on the board and through our volunteers don't have any expertise in youth programming nor any idea of what that would look like ... it's just something we're interested in getting into. That's why were looking for someone from the community to step forward and help give some time and energy to develop a program. We have the support, we just need someone to help us get it off the ground."
The group will be doing The Moustrap as its spring show. The Mousetrap is a murder mystery play by Agatha Christie. The Mousetrap opened in London's West End in 1952, and has been running continuously since then. The play has a twist ending, which the audience are traditionally asked not to reveal after leaving the theatre.
"The production is coming along very well so far. We have some new faces who came out and auditioned and got roles so we're very excited to present them on stage ... we also have two of our previous actors (Bart Farkas and Su Haukey) who were in our past pantomime performances who are using this play as their first directing experience so they're diving into that," McDonald said.
"They said it's been a really fun experience and are enjoying a different role other than being on stage. The Moustrap was chosen because it's a very well-known play, it was one of the director's favourite shows and with it being a recognizable name, we thought it would bring people in to see we're trying to rebrand and do more with the community theatre here in town."
Tickets for the show are priced at $20 per person and are available at www.cochranevisiontheatre.ca.
