The comedy and tragedy of the local theatre

See More | October 01 2013

By Cathie Hamm

Everybody knows the symbol of the two masks associated with theatre: the smiling and the frowning faces. They are the symbols of the ancient Greek muses, Melpomene, the muse of tragedy, and Thalia, the muse of comedy. They represent the the two types of drama that are the basis for all modern theatre.
These classic Greek forms are mirrors of each other; tragedy depicts the downfall of the central character of the story, while comedy shows the rise in fortune of the protagonist. In modern times, we could say that there are essentially two types of plays, those with sad endings, and those with happy endings, and we would be holding true to the ancient ideals of drama.
The Williams Lake Studio Theatre is our local drama club, an amateur theatre group made up of a wide variety of people with just one thing in common: they all love to put on plays. What does this have to do with the Greek muses? Just the
love of theatre. According to Mary Carol Herwood on Yahoo Contributor Network, “Thalia’s goals are to breathe life into
Theatre and to inspire and encourage others to express and develop the creative and dramatic sides of their personalities
in order to enhance their experience there. “She seeks always to bring out the humor and drama in life’s situations. Often this is expressed with clowning and role play.”
The Studio Theatre is always encouraging its members and everyone in the community to develop their creative side. Putting on a play involves a large team of people with many different skills, including marketing and graphic design, accounting and balancing budgets, construction and set design, painting, sewing and creating costumes, to lighting, sound and other mysterious technical things that get done. We welcome anyone who wishes to help put on a play, with any level of participation, from construction to makeup, lights, and, yes, being on stage.
Regardless of what you do, expression and clowning around are encouraged. All you have to do to join is to let us know, either by email (wlstheatre@ gmail.com), on our web site (www.wlstudiotheatre. com), or like us on Facebook.
If you are even mildly curious about how the society operates, everybody is invited to our Annual General Meeting
on October 21 at 7:00pm at the Theatre at the former Glendale School. And yes, the latest chapter of WLST’s offstagedrama is a comedy with a very happy ending! We are staying, at least for now, in our present location.

For those who don’t know, we were at risk of being homeless when the decision was made to close the school, but thanks to School District 27, we have signed a one year lease.

Our space has expanded to include the whole wing of the school, includingthe office and basement. We have made it ours, complete with a fresh new look. Again, the AGM is the ideal time to come and see. Of course, the most important people in the Theatre are the audience. If all you want to do is sit back and enjoy
a play, please come and do so. There is a great line-up this season, starting with The Big 5-O, a very funny comedy (in both the most modern and the ancient sense), from November 6 to 9 and 13 to 16 at 8:00 p.m. at the Theatre.
The current season will also include Glengarry Glenn Ross (January 29 to February 1 and February 5 to February
8, Urinetown (March 26 to March 29 and April 2 toApril April 5) and Sense and Sensibility (April 30 to May 3, May
7 to 10, and May 14 to 17). Come and help us play!