Family dynamics and their funny differences take centre stage in Klaglahachie Fine Arts Society (KFAS) spring play.
Katherine DiSavino’s Things My Mother Taught Me is ready to hit the stage as actors fine-tune their characters for KFAS’ production.
Smart and witty dialogue is just one key element to this production, explained director Anna Maria Junus in an interview. A young couple in their mid-twenties move into their first apartment together and surprise, surprise, not everyone is aware that the parents are coming to help out.
“What’s really important is the relationships between the people,” explained Junus, adding that actors are able to dig their teeth into their character.
With a smaller cast comes greater room for dialogue between characters. There is no villain in this play, but there is an “edginess” within the comedy.
“What I love about it is that it is just seven characters,” said Junus.
Each character has a relationship with the other that develops over the course of the production.
“The interesting thing is that everybody does love everybody. Nobody is a bad guy.”
“This one everyone has really key roles to play and they all have very definite characters,” Junus explained.
The play takes place in one day, within one set and has a simple lighting setup.
Junus says the simplicity of the set allows the characters and dialogue to shine within the production. One challenge was in being able to make the scene visually interesting. Junus said to combat that characters are busy on stage while they go back and forth with dialogue.
The 90-minute production is even going on the road with three weekends of shows starting in Ponoka at the Ponoka United Church March 4 and 5. The next weekend features shows at the Rimbey United Church on March 9 and 10 and then into Edmonton for one show on March 12.
The show closes in Ponoka on the March 18 and 19 weekend. To buy tickets or for more information check out kfatheatre.com.