Great performances highlight Playgoers anniversary festival

By Lethbridge Herald on April 25, 2023.

HERALD PHOTO BY STEFFANIE COSTIGAN Ryland Moranz, during the Geomatic Attic Hour, does the last performance of the night on Saturday as Playgoers celebrated its 100th anniversary festival the Yates Memorial Theatre.

Steffanie Costigan
LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER
Lethbridge Herald

Performances throughout a two-day event celebrating Playgoers of Lethbridge’s 100th anniversary filled the Yates and Sterndale Bennett theatres with an exhilarated audience cheering for more. 

Playgoer’s 100th anniversary celebration was a hit as members of the community appreciated its Taste of the Arts festival.

Kids who attended the Saturday morning events were met with Rufus the Mime, who taught them just how fun improv is. 

Ainsley Latta, a spectator enjoying the festivities, said they enjoyed seeing a mime and explained why she thinks keeping the arts alive in the community is needed.

“It has been really cool. My stepdaughter has never seen a mime before, so this is a new experience for all of us. I think first of all celebrating a hundred years of Playgoers is very impressive and very important. 

“And that keeping the dramatic arts and musical arts performative and visual arts alive in our community is very important, and I think it is important to get our kids out to experience it,” said Latta.

One of the organizers of the event, Nancy Purkis, shared the outcome of the public attending the festival and the new plaque of Playgoers. 

“The event has been terrific. We have had a lot of great audiences; there were many members of the public that came to our plaque unveiling which is now on the wall of the Sterndale Bennett Theatre, and it looks fabulous,” she said.

The performance on Saturday that left the audience howling in laughter, booing, and hissing at the villain was the local classic “Priscilla Pringle’s Predicament” written by Edward E. Bayly, a long-time Playgoer, in 1974. 

Mardi Reynolds, a former actor in “Priscilla,” talked about where it used to be performed and the type of play it is.

“It was performed at the Lethbridge Exhibition a couple of times a day. It only runs about 20 minutes or something.  .  .It’s way over the top, but that is what melodramas are supposed to be. It’s just a standard fun thing that Playgoers like to do once in a while. Haul it out and dust it off and run it again,” said Reynolds. 

The hoop dancing performed by Sandra Lamouche and Lowell Yellowhorn on Saturday night captivated viewers. 

Tresor Selego, a new resident of Lethbridge who was watching hoop dancing for the first time, expressed how amazing the performance was for him. 

“It was very amazing. I liked it. This was my first time to come here, I am living in Lethbridge now for two years. I have never seen something like this before, so it was very amazing,” shared Selego.

The last show had the audience rising to give a standing ovation as Geomatic Attic Hour with Ryland Moranz, Kurt Ceisla, and Mickey Hayward finished the night off strong. 

Moranz had never before performed at the Yates and was thrilled about it. 

“It was fantastic. It was a great evening. I have never played at the Yates before. So I was not sure what to expect, and I was blown away by the audience and the people who attended the crew and the theatre. It was just a class act the whole way,” he said.