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Maritime wit and wisdom manifest in upcoming Shuswap Theatre production

Production of playwright Norm Foster's latest, Halfway There, begins this month
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Bridgid Hall, Alaura Bibby, Amanda Maygard and Chelsea Vetter rehearse for Shuswap Theatre's upcoming production of the Norm Foster play Halfway There.

Friends are the family we choose for ourselves.

This quote by American journalist and author Edna Buchanan plays to the theme of Canadian playwright Norm Foster’s Halfway There, which opens at Shuswap Theatre on Feb. 22.

Join Dr. Sean Merrit when he wanders into the small town of Stewiacke, Nova Scotia, exactly halfway between the equator and the North Pole.

 Recently dumped by his fiancée, he’s looking for a new start and soon meets four local women, each with their own colourful life stories. 

Laughter, tears and the power of true friendship teach them much about themselves and each other. This is a feel-good theatre experience filled with incomparable Maritime wit and wisdom.

“Halfway There has become one of my most favourite plays because of the theme of the four women,” Foster said in a telephone interview, agreeing that over the past several years women have become more supportive of each other. “It has changed and that’s good; it’s why I like writing women’s stories. It’s a challenge, but when I do it right, I am pleased.” 

Foster is aware and also pleased that Shuswap Theatre has performed many of his plays but, noting that Halfway There is number 12. He is working on a new play and says he spends about four hours per day at his computer. If he is stuck, there is no stopping. He simply keeps writing until he works his way through the block.

“I used to map out of everything, each scene, but as I have became more confident, I just start at the beginning,” he said. “I let the characters write themselves, and sometimes I’m surprised about where they take me. They turn out not the way I planned them.” 

Admittedly a bit shy, Foster doesn’t directly answer a question about whether the sense of humour he writes in his plays is representative of his own life.

“I have four children and they are all pretty funny; I enjoy listening to them,” he said with a warm laugh. “When  I am writing, I laugh at my own work, it’s a very enjoyable process.”

Foster, began a broadcasting career in Kingston, Ont. but moved to Fredericton, NB to take over the morning show at a local radio station. Accepting the station’s sports announcer's invitation to attend an audition at the local theatre changed the trajectory of his life.

Obliging his friend, whose mother was the leader of the local amateur theatre, Foster won the role of the Invisible Rabbit in Harvey, a 1944 play by the American playwright Mary Chase. To his surprise, he loved the experience and turned his thoughts to writing his own plays, inspiration for which comes from watching the “good work” he sees on stage or screen.

Shuswap Theatre cast and crew are relishing the experience of bringing Halfway There to the stage. 

“We have a great cast and it’s really been fun going to rehearsal with these women,” said Frank Manning of working with Bridgid Hall, Alaura Bibby, Amanda Maygard, Chelsea Vetter and, the lone male Uther Radcliffe as Sean Merrit. “They are a riot and we’re all enjoying it.”

Manning, a retired Shuswap teacher, has been involved with local theatre since 1981, acting in some 20 productions, including Much Ado About NothingTwelfth NightLeaving Home and two or three revues. 

“It’s lots of work but once you find a play that really excites you, that’s when I want to direct,” he said, noting Halfway There is his fifth directorial role with the theatre.

One Manning's favourite quotes about Foster: “It has been said that Norm Foster is Canada’s Neil Simon, but it is far more accurate to say Neil Simon is the American Norm Foster.”

Shows take place Fridays to Sundays at 7:30 p.m. From Feb. 22 to March 9. Sunday matinees are at 1:30 p.m. and Pay What You Can Thursday is March 6. Tickets are available at Choose Refill at #304 – 251 Trans Canada Hwy NW (in Lakeshore Village between Wendy’s and Lakeshore Road). Tickets are also available online at shuswaptheatre.com.

Shuswap Theatre recommends parental guidance as the play contains sexual innuendo.