Ship’s sets sail with exciting summer shows
Queer love story and tribute to a tragic event highlight summer theatre
The newest artistic director for Ship’s Company Theatre has announced the latest summer offerings from Parrsboro’s top playhouse.
“I’ve been coming to Ship’s Company since I was a little kid and so I’ve watched the programming kind of evolve,” says Laura Vingoe-Cram, adding she’s aiming to match the programming with the everchanging landscape of Cumberland County.
“The landscape is always evolving in Parrsboro, the lighting is different one day or the tide is coming in and out and at any time of day, you look at that tide and you see something different,” continues Vingoe-Cram, who took on the role of artistic director in October.
“That is something that I really wanted to reflect in the way I program shows.”
An artistic hub of activity in Cumberland County since 1984, the latest summer season of the Ship’s Company Theatre will be offering audiences a wide array of creative productions, intimate presentations, concert series and more.
To get things started, Vingoe-Cram is mounting the critically acclaimed production of Crypthand in association with Gale Force Theatre. A play she directed last September at Halifax’s Bus Stop Theatre, Crypthand won the 2022 Playwrights Guild of Canada Emerging Playwright of the Year for its fiercely beautiful imagining of the early life of Anne Lister, a 19th century diarist, businesswoman and queer icon.
“It tells the story of discovery and discovering who you are and I think that’s a story we can all relate to,” says Vingoe-Cram about the play, which will run from July 5 to 16 on the Ship’s Company stage.
“But also, I think there are queer teenagers in Cumberland County and there are people in rural areas that probably experience a lot of what these characters experience (and) I think it’s really important that we keep telling queer stories, especially queer love stories.”
Another highlight of the summer season will be the world premiere of Downed Hearts. Inspired by the Swiss Air 111 disaster that took place off the coast of Peggy’s Cove in 1998, the Aug. 16 to 27 run will also mark the 25th anniversary of the tragic event when it premieres at Ship’s Company Theatre.
“It is a piece that is thoroughly gorgeous and beautiful and heart wrenching and all of those things,” explains Vingoe-Cram about the 16-year project buy Sambro-based playwright, Catherine Banks.
“She has a real connection with that community and obviously Peggy’s Cove is not very far, so she knows those fishermen who went out and looked for bodies after that event so she has a really deep connection to that story.”
In addition to those plays, Ship’s Company has several other offerings for families and kids - including drama camps and their Picnic Plays! series
- as well as a music series that kicks off the weekend of July 21 featuring popular traditional act, Fiddles & Feet.
As well, the free online Shipwright Series returns in which people get a behind-the-scenes look at the local playwright’s process.
“It starts out with the playwrights reading a passage of what they are working on or a script of what they have already done and then I do a little mini interview with them about their process,” notes Vingoe-Cram of the free series on Facebook. “It’s kind of really cool because every playwright works completely differently.”
For more information on Ship’s Company Theatre, visit www.shipscompanytheatre.com