2021-22 SEASON

Special thanks to Greg Finnegan, Dave Ehrismann and Bruce Ormond who made Another 4 Radio Plays possible.

Greg Finnegan

PLAYWRIGHT

Greg Finnegan studied Creative Writing at UBC, with further writing studies at Ryerson University.

His plays have been performed in Toronto, Edmonton, Vancouver, Victoria, Ottawa, and Houston, Texas. Highlights of some of Greg’s writings include his popular Three B’s series of plays written as a tribute to Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. He also collaborated with his late husband, Canadian composer David E. Walden, on a series of small cast musicals and revues.

Greg plays were first performed by long-time Cowichan Valley group the January Players. More recently the Mercury Players and the Shawnigan Players have performed Greg’s backstage farce The Original Cast (a festival entry), and his Celtic themed play The Ballymore Reel.

His recent writings have been his successful ‘seniors-centric’ comedies performed by 55+ theatre groups on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland. He was awarded a Gold Medal for his original script “In The Mood” at the BC Seniors Games.

Greg Finnegan and his spouse – retired forester Richard Dominy – make their home in Ladysmith.

Dave Ehrismann

PRODUCER

When Ladysmith Little Theatre had to close the curtains on it’s productions due to COVID, an enormous void was left for lovers of the performing arts. Bruce Ormond and I decided that LLT could help fill this void in the form of Radio Plays. Bruce sought-out local BC author and script writer, Brian D’eon who selected 4 Radio plays from his collection of works. Working under the BC Health guidelines and restrictions, all cast and crew worked from the safety and comfort of their own home. We are very proud of them and the results. We truly hope you enjoy these Radio Plays and that you share www.ladysmittheatre.com link with your family and friends.

Bruce Ormond

CO-PRODUCER

This is Bruce’s 1st foray into producing. He is eternally grateful for the guidance and assistance from his fellow board members in this latest theatrical adventure. In producing these radio plays it is our hope to keep theatre alive in the hearts and minds of our patrons (and ourselves) until we can once again tread the boards of Ladysmith Little Theatre.

Catered Crime

A Comedy

By Greg Finnegan

“A backstage ‘whodunit’ featuring a sophisticated husband and wife detective duo”

Fillipelli Fortune Sherry once again invites listeners to a ‘catered crime’ with those two sublime private detectives – Morty Morton and his lovely wife Merle.

Tonight’s episode is entitled “Murder in the First Act”. Our story begins in the lobby of a theatre.

It is opening night and the first act has ended with a bang! The playwright known as Capulet Montague seeks out the Mortons after a former leading man is found dead on stage. When the blustering Irish flatfoot-on-the-beat known to all as Sergeant O’Hennessy arrives then the fun begins.

If you are going to commit a crime it should be ‘catered’!

Happy as the Larks

A Comedy

By Greg Finnegan

“A vintage-style family comedy set in the early 1950s!”

Once again Biltmore Laundry Bluing invites us to pay a visit to the town of Robin’s Nest!

This amusing family situation comedy featuring hapless Larry Lark, his warm-hearted wife May, their all-knowing daughter June, and of course maiden Aunt Fran who in this episode is needing to find an escort to the spring cotillion!

‘Happy as the Larks’ is written in the style of such classic radio shows as ‘Life Of Reilly’ and ‘Fibber McGee & Molly.’

Visitor from Planet Z

Sci-Fi

By Greg Finnegan

“A classic sci-fi radio thriller that asks… Will Planet Zoltar conquer Planet Earth?”

The story is set in a small Midwestern town where an eccentric physicist has been trying to communicate beyond our solar system. His dutiful daughter has been helping him with his experiments.

There are reports of strange lights in the prairie sky so Agent Bill Carter from the Aerospace Defense Department is summoned. A cylindrical object is found in the field near the professor’s laboratory.

Has Professor Farley succeeded in communicating beyond our solar system and with who – or what – and from where…

‘Visitor From Planet Z’ will have you on the edge of your seat!

Special Thanks to Playwright Brian D’Eon

Over the years, Brian has worn many hats (and not just because he’s balding): actor, director and writer to name a few. Besides writing dramas, Brian has put his pen to poetry, short stories, novels and even screenplays. But to this day, radio drama remains his favourite format.

Triple, Triple.

A Comedy

By Brian D’Eon

“A witty and vicious no-holds-barred game of Scrabble.”

Ladysmith Little Theatre, with Grant-in-Aid funding from The Town of Ladysmith, is proud to present the first installment of our 4 Radio Play performances, Triple Triple. No…. it’s not a Timmies coffee, rather it’s two couples playing their weekly scrabble game and sharing their unfulfilled fantasies as they approach the BIG 50.

All you have to do is click on the link below and be transported to the living room of James and Samantha who are challenging Bradley and Jessica to a scrabble and fantasy supremacy.

We would like to acknowledge Brian D’Eon, award winning playwright from Nelson, B.C., who wrote the four Radio Plays and allowed us the priviledge of presenting them.

The Chat

Sci-Fi

By Brian D’Eon

“Two Australian radio-astronomers make contact with an angel.”

Two radio astronomers point their dish to a familiar target in the constellation Sagittarius. Same old, same old. . . . but is it? Ignoring their instructions, the dish starts to move on its own, and a their monitors display a strange signal that gradually resolves itself into the shape of a human face, a beautiful face, and then . . . it starts to speak to them.

It is FREE to listen to as often as you like, whenever you want. Just click on the link below.

We hope you enjoy The Chat. Production was 100% completed through digital media (ZOOM), with all cast and crew comfortably situated in their own home. All BC Health regulations and guidelines were followed for everyone’s health and safety.

Please consider becoming a Member or helping us by making a Donation to the theatre.

Sirens

Thriller

By Brian D’Eon

“A drive over a mountain pass during a snowstorm and a strange encounter.”

An exploration into our fears about the wilderness, the dark, the cold, places where cell-phones and radios are of no use, and where human speech is superfluous.

There is an undefined “force” resident on the mountain pass which three unlucky travellers must drive over. With an irresistible sweetness, it beckons them. But what is it that calls exactly? What is the mind behind this tantalizing and destructive allure? Ghosts of lost lovers? Mountain Caribou? The snow itself?

In the tradition of Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone, Sirens explores inner fears and how we deal with them, and entertains the tantalizing suggestion that some phenomena are just beyond our understanding.

Black Out

Comedy

By Brian D’Eon

“The trials and tribulations of putting on an amateur theatrical production of Julius Caesar (from the viewpoint of the Stage Manager and Sound Techie).”

Sit back, dear listener, and follow the perils and tribulations of the actors and crew of a Shakespearean play that goes horribly, horribly, wrong. It is, in fact, a debacle,

. . . a nightmare,

. . . a piece of—no . . . can’t say that. . .

Warning: Stage managers, when under stress, are prone to using strong language. The dialogue which follows may not be suitable for all audiences.

The Ladies of the Camellias

by Lillian Groag

Directed by Charles Harman

Dates To Be Announced

“A juicy Tour de Farce on theatre, theatrical people and the conflicts between art and politics.”

In 1897, two different actresses, Sarah Bernhardt and Eleonora Duse, were both to perform The Lady of the Camellia in Paris in the same week and at the same theater. Alexandre Dumas, fils, the French author who wrote the play, has particular complaints about both of their performances. Their respective co-stars, Gustave-Hippolite Worms and Flavio Ando, are caught in the actresses’ melodrama and competition. However, a Russian anarchist named Ivan decides to take the two actresses hostage and threatens to blow up the theater if two of his comrades are not released from prison.

WARNING: Coarse language

Produced by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.

Playwrights Horizons first produced THE LADIES OF THE CAMELLIAS Off-Broadway in 1982.

The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband

By Debbie Isitt

Directed by Barbra French

Dates To Be Announced

A witty and dark comedy from the pen of Debbie Isitt. – “I left the theatre feeling I had dined rather well!”

Kenneth has been married to Hilary for nearly twenty years. Hilary is the perfect cook. But Kenneth is bored of their sex life, so starts an affair with the young, attractive Laura. There’s just one problem: Laura can’t cook. As time passes, Kenneth mourns the loss of Sunday roasts and haute cuisine, and the comforts of the settled life he once knew. So Kenneth finds excuses to sneak back to Hilary’s house to indulge himself in the pleasures of gluttony. To his delight, Hilary invites Kenneth and Laura round for dinner, but Hilary has very different plans in mind.

The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband is a highly entertaining and absurd tale of a man who tries to balance his appetite for food with his appetite for sex proving the old adage, “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”!

Play On!

By Rick Abbot

Directed by Charles Harman

Dates To Be Announced

“A hilarious and wild romp through the perils of community theatre!”

This is the story of a theatre group trying desperately to put on a play in spite of maddening interference from a haughty author who keeps revising the script. Act I is a rehearsal of the dreadful show, Act II is the near disastrous dress rehearsal, and the final act is the actual performance, in which anything that can go wrong, does. When the author decides to give a speech on the state of the modern theatre during the curtain calls, the audience is treated to a madcap climax and a thoroughly hilarious romp. Even the sound effects reap their share of laughter.

Just like real theatre, if anything goes wrong, the cast will just have to deal with it. The audience might not know if it’s a genuine mistake, or just part of the show.