Lost & Found Theatre announces new season
KITCHENER — Lost & Found Theatre is starting its new season off with a Halloween fright, followed by a lot of moaning from Christmas past, present and future, then wrapping up with a fictional origin story.
It’s an eclectic lineup, appearing in different venues around the city from libraries to concert halls, but Lost & Found and has always striven to be different.
On Monday, Oct. 30, the theatre company presents “Dracula,” a stage reading at the Kitchener library’s main branch. Admission is pay-what-you-can.
“We did Dracula early in 2000 and in 1992 and ?’94,” said Kathleen Sheehy, one of the six theatre professional who founded the theatre company in 2004. “This season we had an opportunity to do a stage reading … this is a pretty faithful adaptation.”
A production she calls “classy,” as opposed to horror-themed, tells Dracula’s story in this bone-chilling drama, with interesting sound effects, no costuming, audience participation and a cast of seven. It’s about the story here, delivered by professional actors including Stratford veteran Andrew Lakin, one of the founding members of Lost & Found. He recently returned to Kitchener.
“He’s been away for seven years,” said Sheehy.
The next show, “Charles Dickens Writes a Christmas Carol,” runs Dec. 13 to 23 at the Conrad Centre for the Performing Arts. This highly entertaining and imaginative play was written by local playwright Richard Quesnel and debuted in 2015.
The production received critical acclaim for its unique interpretation of the story behind how Charles Dickens came to write his most famous novel.
The story centres on Dickens and his family as the writer struggles to come up with an idea for a new novel following his past successes. Everything going through his wild imagination is played out on stage in front of him, making this a play within a play.
“It’s the same returning actors,” said Sheehy, noting Jacob Marley and the ghost of Christmas past had been played by Ted Follows in 2015. It was the veteran actor’s final performance as he died at age 89 the following November.
“The Diaries of Adam and Eve” on Nov. 13 at the Kitchener Central Library is their next production, featuring Kathleen Sheehy and Terry Barna in this adaptation of a story by Mark Twain.
The theatre company will also feature a number of fun events for the public including “A Dickens of a Time” on Saturday, Nov. 25, from 1 to 2 p.m. at Themuseum where actors from the Christmas show will encourage audience members to join in on a reading of “The Goblins Who Stole a Sexton.”
On Monday, Dec. 4, from 7 to 8 p.m. they will host a Christmas carol singalong with the costumed cast at the Kitchener Central Library Lounge.