Everyone is laughing, a lot.
Assembled in the St. Timothy Anglican Church basement on Oct. 2 is a large cast of 100 Mile House Performing Arts Society members, less than a month into rehearsals, running through the community theatre group's upcoming production, a rowdy and funny pantomime version of Cinderella.
The actors are going without scripts for the first time; they're messing up lines and stepping on lines and cracking up, and it's all the while hilarious.
Men are pretending to be women and women are pretending to be men and there's twirling and singing and sound effects and an old ferry and two ugly step sisters named after food-borne bacteria: Salmonella and Listeria. And there's Cinderella, of course, and a handsome prince with a ton of cash, and gold-diggers after it.
Not wanting to spoil any laughs for the audience, director Donalda Speers wants to keep a few surprises about the cast under wraps before opening night. But she does want people to know and she emphasizes that a “pantomime” is not a “mime.”
“There's singing and dancing and talking and laughing and jokes,” she says, adding the cast is doing really well having only started rehearsals on Sept. 14.
“It's a lot of fun and they're having a good time.”
The cast includes 19 local performers of all ages with past and new Performing Arts Society members.
“It's exciting to have new people come out. We've had newcomers for the last three shows.”
Opening night is Dec. 4 with six shows in all – matinees Dec. 5-6; evening performances on Dec. 10-11; and a closing matinee on Dec. 12.
Leading cast in alphabetical order: Chris Adams, Shelly Carrera, Hilary Gosnell, Don Kinasewich, Shawn Nelson, Karen Smith, Kate Spencer, Eric Storteboom, and Lacey Venner.
There is a chorus of three adults and six young ladies.
Kate Spencer, as Cinderella, and a couple of the children on the chorus are welcome new additions to the 100 Mile House Performing Arts Society.