The Life Game with the Mayors, Presentation House Theatre, Wednesday, April 29, 7:30 p.m. Tickets $75 (PHT fundraiser includes food and drink plus the show and silent auction). For more information visit phtheatre.org.
Have you ever wondered about Richard Walton's first kiss? Or maybe you want details about the first time Darrell Mussatto was betrayed?
Well, here's your chance to see both North Vancouver mayors' awkward coming-of-age experiences acted out live in the intimate Presentation House Theatre setting. The mayors will be front and centre in an improv challenge called The Life Game - an entertaining exposé of one's personal life - on April 29, as a fundraiser for PHT.
Some of Canada's top improv performers will re-enact key personal moments from the mayors' lives, in a 90-minute event that promises to be entertaining and full of surprises.
"Secrets revealed" and "intimate details" is what the audience can expect, says the show's co-artistic director Veena Sood, who's excited for what the evening holds.
Picture a talk show setting, and Walton and Mussatto are the guests being interviewed. The highly personal questions range wildly: memories of schoolroom humiliation, when was your first kiss and who was it with, a boss they hated, when were they betrayed, and what superhero would you be. "We ask much more penetrating questions," promises Sood. "We don't want outrage as much as we want the truth. We never say how did that make you feel. We want, tell us what happened." As each intimate story from the mayors' lives is extracted, an actor will do their best to recreate the experience. Props are involved, which may or may not include a bed.
But don't expect the actors to take any creative licence with the mayors' memories. "We don't fictionalize it," says Sood. "With this, in the middle of the scene, we might stall the scene for a second and ask, 'Is it right?' And then rewind and do it correctly."
Mussatto and Walton will use a bell and a horn to signal to the actor if they are off-base or on-point with their account. There was no pleading to have the mayors participate, according to PHT theatre's artistic director, Kim Selody, "Simple, I asked them and they said yes," says Selody. "No, really. They are great sports and have always been strong supporters of this theatre." The Life Game is very surprising, describes Selody, who says he is always amazed by the insight that can come from it, along with a few good laughs.
Money raised from the event will mainly support children's programming at PHT. "In particular, our young audience programming needs subsidy," says Selody. "This fundraiser will enable many small children on the North Shore to see high quality professional theatre."
Sood is no stranger to the improv scene. She's now a North Van resident, by way of Calgary where she met Keith Johnstone who is credited with creating improv theatre in Canada.
In the '80s Sood visited Vancouver for Expo and wound up falling in love with the city. She later became part of a team of thespians that co-founded the famed Vancouver TheatreSports League.
"Only in Vancouver does this happen that people refer to improv as theatre sports," laughs Sood.
She explains how theatre sports is a misnomer, because it's a small genre under the larger umbrella of improv.
Sood has since become the co-artistic director, along with Jeff Gladstone, of Truth Be Told Theatre, which is presenting The Life Game at PHT.
Celebrated Canadian athletes Wayne Gretzky and Bob Lenarduzzi have been past willing participants for The Life Game, which was created by Johnstone in 2009.
While Sood enjoyed seeing those staged biographies, she rather appreciates when everyday people are interviewed.
"The Life Game is a show that reminds that all of us, however ordinary, that we all have quite an extraordinary life story to tell," says Sood.
