Skip to content

Cloverdale DebuTheatre play heading to Vancouver Fringe Festival

Legoland will run through September at the Cultch as part of Dramatic Works Series
18221671_web1_190822-CLR-M-52622861_Legoland_Ragamuffin-Productions
Ashley Chodat and Ezra Lamb star in Legoland, a one-act play that debuted at the inaugural DebuTheatre at Cloverdale’s Surrey Little Theatre this summer and is now heading to Vancouver Fringe Festival 2019. (Ragamuffin Productions/Submitted)

After a summer run at Cloverdale’s Surrey Little Theatre (SLT), Legoland is heading to the Vancouver Fringe Festival.

The one-act play by Jacob Richmond, presented by Ragamuffin Productions, was part of the summer lineup for the inaugural DebuTheatre, a program that helps young adults pursue theatre.

The play stars high school-aged brother-and-sister siblings Penny (Ashley Chodat) and Ezra Lamb (Christian Krushel), who have just returned from a cross-continent journey to see the lead singer of a boy band idolized by Chodat’s character.

Prior to the journey, the siblings have been home-schooled on a hippie colony all their life and have been dying to visit the outside world, described to them only as “Legoland.”

“Once the colony is busted for being the largest marijuana grow-op in Saskatchewan, the opportunity finally arrives,” a Ragamuffin release says. “However, it is not as joyful and loving as expected.”

Chodat said the format of the play is like a presentation, with a projector and slides about the stops along their journey.

In addition to having more space on stage at The Cultch, which Chodat said allows her and Lamb “the frantic energy to live more freely in the play,” director Sargil Tongol has added a few more slides to their presentation.

Chodat said the new slides are a surprise, but an example of a slide that appeared in the plays at SLT is an image representing the siblings’ first visit to Walmart.

READ MORE: ‘DebuTheatre’ debuts at Surrey Little Theatre

The biggest difference about the play, Chodat added, is that they have access to a mentor as part of the festival Dramatic Works Series.

She said their mentor, Raes Calvert, has been providing “an outside eye” and helping them improve the play, for example, by making the transitions smoother.

Calvert is a Vancouver-based Métis theatre artist who has toured nationally and internationally since graduating Studio 58 at Langara College in 2010.

“To get mentored by him for our show is really, really exciting,” Chodat said.

For show times and tickets, which cost $15 plus membership, visit vancouverfringe.com.



karissa.gall@blackpress.ca

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.