Mercury Players made history with their first win at the BC Theatre Mainstage Festival held in Fort St. John earlier this month.
When it comes to putting on great community theatre the Mercury Players has always risen to the occasion but this past season was a little more special than most with their productions of Constellations and µþ°ù´Ç²Ô³Ùë: The World Without being contenders in the South Island Zone Festival, which was held in Ladysmith this past May. Both productions received their share of accolades, which included µþ°ù´Ç²Ô³Ùë being awarded the honour of most 'Outstanding Production', sending them to the BC Theatre Mainstage Festival, where they were crowned with the honour of 'Best Production' a second time.
"My favourite part of the experience was after the performance, when the cast and crew sat in the audience and the adjudicator Raugi Yu said it was beautiful and delightful," said director Sylvia Swift. "I had chosen this play to direct because I could see and feel the beauty in these women and the landscape that inspired them. I delighted in the quick witted sibling rivalry, there’s nothing better than rivalry to push your creativity."
Sharing the stage with five other productions Mercury brought the beauty and brilliance of µþ°ù´Ç²Ô³Ùë: The World Without to the stage on July 8. Swift said with a much larger stage, it was a quite different experience from performing in Ladysmith and back home. They only had four hours to load in, and set cues with just one hour to strike immediately after the show.
"The projections were so much more vivid because the cyc was so far back and there was no light spill on it," said Swift. "It was a very large audience who were extremely receptive and they inspired the actors to levels I hadn’t seen before."
Other than a few small hiccups, which included the set trailer breaking down, and two of the actors having long flight delays, it was all smooth sailing once they arrived at the festival. Swift was in attendance for the entire week which allowed her to see the five other performances, attend a directing workshop, and the coffee critiques as well as learn from and share with other creative colleagues.
And the winner is...
While the cast and crew were sadly unable to attend the award ceremony they all live-streamed it separately. Swift said winning 'Best Production' was a bit of shock since it was announced early on in the evening that they had won in the category of 'Props and Set Decoration', then didn't get a second award for some time, leaving the cast and crew feeling a feeling a little deflated just before they were honoured with the award for best production. WOW's and OMG's flew on the text tree. The µþ°ù´Ç²Ô³Ùë bunch will soon be receiving their trophy known as the 'Thespian Award'.
"I was in Williams Lake at a wedding with theatre friends when the cast and crew were texting each other that we had won," said Swift. "Having our work acknowledged like this is deeply moving for me as my background was as a professional stage manager and having professional colleagues respect and honour the work is heartfelt. The actors so appreciated the audience, and had so much fun performing for them."
