Romance, lust, intrigue, money, power and melodrama are staples of the classic soap opera formula. But a local theater group added a few of their own: comedy and improvisation on a series that caught Shaw TV’s attention.
New Vintage Theater began staging a monthly series of soap-style improvisational shows with 10 episodes last July. You have the femme fatales required, mysterious foreigners, crooked politician, aspiring musician, and a spoiled, lazy, rich girl.
According to the rules of long-form improvisation, the actors meet once before a performance to work out points of action, but do not follow a script or memorized lines. The story develops through the collaboration between the players with the help of suggestions from the audience.
“Improvising develops a different skill,” said Bonnie Gratz, New Vintage Artistic Director. “Actors can get stuck when they memorize lines and do things in a certain way. Improv is a good skill development challenge. There is a new immediacy. “
Gratz started improvising soap as a fun thing to do in the summer months. She’d been on a similar series a few years ago, had seen other successful soap improvisations in big cities, and liked the fact that it was different from New Vintage’s usual line-up of traditionally staged productions.
She also liked that the soap format would allow for a wider age range by mixing teenagers with older, more experienced actors.
Now that the series has completed eight of the ten planned performances, it has a certain following and meets monthly at the Blackbox Theater behind the Kelowna Community Theater.
Just before Christmas, there was a dramatic act in reality (thrilling organ music) when a new Shaw TV intern named Joel Tutte reached out to Gratz, knowing she had written some of her own stuff for New Vintage, in the hope to have an idea for a project that they could work on together.
Due to lack of time, Gratz couldn’t start from scratch, so she told Tutte about the improvisational soap As The Sun Burns.
Tutte loved the idea and blamed Shaw for it. They offered to provide lights, cameras, studio and two producers – Chris Clark and Tammie Williams. Gratz will write and direct the production and continue to appear in front of the camera as her character.
“It was a really pleasant, funny surprise that this came out of it,” said Gratz. “While the improvised art form is definitely not a unique innovation for Kelowna – there is an improvised soap in most major cities in North America – Kelowna will be one of the first cities, if not the first, to move the show to small screen and have its own web series. “
The on-screen version of the soap isn’t actually improvised, but follows the same plot. Gratz went back to the beginning and put together the best bits – the characters, the tangents, the storylines, and the crazy antics – so the actors could re-enact them for the camera.
The story takes place in Kelowna and takes place in three main locations, mostly fictional (the titles give their inspirations a playful nod) – a spa / brothel, a winery, a hotel and disco, and a hospital.
The cast consists of roughly 20 local actors, although not all of them appear in every episode. Some of the featured artists are: Joe Welton, Ashley Plomp, Cory Armor, Geoff Millar, Vicki Den Ouden, Joe Otoo, Gloria Helfrick, Brock Gratz, Sheila Campbell, Dana Murphy, Joelle Neufeld, Roberto Molano, James Szabo, Kaitlyn Anutooshkin and Reid Gratz.
The lively atmosphere of the original production is weakened and greatly shortened. Without the additional song and dance, the raffle for the door prizes and the participation of the audience, Gratz cut the time from a few hours to just 30 minutes.
And she insists that those who tune in shouldn’t expect a local version of General Hospital or Days of Our Lives.
“It’s a parody. It’s supposed to be fun and cheesy. We’re not trying to be a real soap, ”she said.
Since the Sun Burns will be broadcast from Monday next Monday afternoon. It will also be featured on Shaw’s YouTube channel ShawTVOkanagan.
Meanwhile, New Vintage has two more live soap shows in the Blackbox – Saturday January 31st 7:30 pm and Sunday March 1st.
Tickets are available at selectyourtickets.com or at the door.
