Cochrane’s Vision Theatre is celebrating a very successful entry into the recent Alberta Drama Festival Association’s One Act Play Festival in Canmore.
Its production of I think you think I love you by Kelly Younger received a very favourable review from the adjudicator, well-known local actor Stephen Hair, who also awarded the prize for Best Actress to Cathy Cox for her portrayal of the somewhat scatter-brained Branwyn!
Cathy had to beat off very strong competition from actresses in 14 other productions put on by theatre groups from across the Foothills region.
“JoAnn (Ayotte), Jonathan (Bennett) and I made a great team! We worked together quickly and cohesively to bring this play to fruition and had a ball doing so,” Cox said.
”It was great fun playing opposite Jonathan and enjoying his comedic portrayal of the ever bewildered Mark. JoAnn is a great director who brought out the best in both of us! We were all delighted that it was so well received by the audience “
Stephen Hair was also full of praise for director JoAnne Ayotte’s decision to portray Branwyn in a way that ran entirely counter to the author’s suggestions saying Cathy’s interpretation of Branwyn was nothing like what he had expected but that it absolutely worked.
“I felt trying to get Cathy to react in a way that was exactly opposite to her natural behaviour would have come across as fake and gotten old really fast,” she said. “It obviously worked because her performance was so genuine and she had the audience in the palm of her hand'.
Cathy’s on-stage partner for the production, Jonathan Bennett, was delighted at Cathy’s success.
“This play was all about Cathy’s character Branwyn, she has 90 per cent of the dialogue and, both of us having replaced the original cast, we only had eight rehearsals (all in the director’s kitchen) before we hit the stage which was the first time we had ever performed it for ‘real’ but Cathy really nailed it and I couldn’t be happier for her, she really deserves the award.”
Vision Theatre hope to perform the play for a local audience in the near future, keep an eye on its website for more details www.cochranevisiontheatre.com.
