From the stands
Hockey Monologues promises laughs while raising funds for team
“It’s Not Just a Game” – the Hockey Monologues, is an uproarious production that shines the spotlight on the stands at the hockey rink, and looks at some of the characters lurking there.
Dawn Martin wants every hockey family to see “It’s Not Just a Game” – The Hockey Monologues.
“This play talks about all views of hockey, the players, refs, coaches, reminiscing of the good old days, parents, grandparents, financial, and hits home to why we all commit to this lifestyle for many years...,” said the Weeks Major Midgets hockey mom.
“I really want every hockey family I know to see it. I know they can all relate .... they will either say ‘oh that’s me’ or ‘that’s so-and-so’... it’s a really great night out, especially since hockey is winding down.”
The show – a fundraiser for the Weeks team – was first performed in January in New Glasgow and a second show was earlier this month.
Because of requests from parents of Weeks Major Midgets players who live in Colchester County, The Hockey Monologues will also hit the stage at the Dalhousie AC Alumni Theatre March 23.
Eight of the team’s players call Colchester County home: Cameron Allaby, G Blackmore, Jackson Haight, Gavin Hart, Carson
Lanceleve, Riley MacInnis, Hunter Martin and Rowan Sears.
The Hockey Monologues is a humorous look at various aspects of minor hockey such as selling 50/50 tickets, getting cut from a team and dealing with the smell of hockey gear.
It’s written and directed by Colleen Hawley, whose son Mason is a member of the Weeks team.
Because hockey can be nervewracking and emotional at times, finding a way to laugh at it is “a good coping mechanism in the rink when you’re surrounded by people yelling or when we’re losing really badly,” she said with a chuckle.
The characters in The Hockey Monologues aren’t based on any one particular person, but on “situations hockey parents tend to encounter on a regular basis. There are always people in the rink who are overbearing, or who lose their cool,” she said.
“They’re different things I’ve witnessed over the years or been a part of … just from being around rinks for 20 years with all of my boys,” she said, adding that she did plenty of research when writing the skits, and also got ideas from other hockey parents and players.
She said she thinks the show resonates with audiences because parents with children in hockey have experienced many of the situations she wrote about.
Many of the 17 actors, ranging in age from 11 to late 50s, are members of Curtain Call Players, an amateur theatre group based in Pictou County.