When the two couples behind New Westminster’s annual Shakespeare production in Queen’s Park decided to launch their own theatre company eight years ago, it was more to satisfy their own theatre cravings than to get their infants and as-yet unborn children onto the stage.
Yet every year those kids and others in the company have taken up more and more space on the stage, sometimes even stealing the show.
Husband and wife duo Stephen Elcheshen and Kerri Norris met Nigel Brooke and Patricia Johnson-Brooke while working on a production at what was then the Burr Theatre.
The couples hit it off and wanted to do more work together, but the chances of all being cast together by another company were slim, and even if they managed it, there would be the kids – the Brookes had a baby and Kerri was expecting.
“The babysitting would have bankrupted us,” Elcheshen said.
So the foursome launched the Shadows and Dreams Theatre Company, which has put on free, family-friendly Shakepeare plays at the Queen’s Park bandshell as part of the New Westminster parks and recreation summer entertainment series for the last seven summers.
“The proviso was, anyone who wanted to get involved may end up holding a baby at some point,” Elcheshen said.
Rehearsals haven’t always been the quietest, but even that has had its benefits for the actors.
“The park itself is a very distracting sort of place to perform anyways because we’re performing right next to birthday parties and church groups and everyone else who has a meeting in the park,” Elecheshen said, “so, the rehearsal process, because the kids are there, it kind of gets people used to the kind of noise and distraction that’s going to be there during the show.”
It also prepares them for the occasional audience kid who decides to hop on stage and join the cast during a performance.
For Elecheshen’s own kids, meanwhile, being a part of the productions has been a birthright of sorts.
“Both my daughters were on stage in the womb,” he said with a laugh, “and right from being infants they were being passed around backstage to whoever was handy when mommy and daddy had to go on stage.”
As they’ve grown, all the Shadows and Dreams youngsters have taken on roles ranging from sheep to fairies.
This summer they will take to the stage in Love’s Labour’s Lost as pages in the King of Navarre’s court and handmaidens in the Princess of France’s retinue.
Getting the kids involved has kept the summer Shakespeare shows family friendly on both sides of the fourth wall, and audiences can sense that, Elecheshen said.
But sometimes even that can come with its own challenges for adult cast members with a little more formal training under their belt.
Elcheshen recalls one time when the kids – dressed as sheep during a scene in As You Like It – were rewarded with a standing ovation for frolicking across the stage.
“One of our actors was backstage, just kind holding his head, going, ‘15 years of acting training and six months crafting a role. I work on my backstory, my characterization, and they walk across the stage in fuzzy ears and go baaa and they get a standing ovation.’”
Love’s Labour’s Lost has 1950s flavour
New West Shakespeare lovers are in for a little doo-wop treat this summer as the Shadows and Dreams Theatre Company presents a ‘50s flavoured version of Love’s Labour’s Lost.
In their eighth annual summer production at the Queen’s Park bandshell as part of the New Westminster parks and recreation summer entertainment series, the company tells the tale of the King of Navarre and his buddies who, after a night of partying, pledge to fast, study and see no women for three years.
No sooner has the ink dried on the deal, however, than the comely Princess of France and her equally fetching ladies in waiting arrive on the scene.
Rationalization ensues.
Featuring ’50s costuming and doo-wop lip-syncing, this free, family-friendly production hits the bandshell at 2 p.m. July 20, 26, 27 and Aug. 2 and 3.
