Ski Bum Returns to Golden City – By Adrian BarnesLast winter Ski Bum: The Musical took the Mountain Kingdom (and other mountains and their kingdoms) by (snow) storm, leaving those unlucky enough to have missed the show the first time around gnashing their teeth in impotent fury. Well, if your molars are just about ground down to nubs, here’s some good news: Ski Bum is back!
Described by Iron Mountain Theatre’s Jane G as a “fast-paced, shredding good time for the whole family”. the show will run during Winter Carnival weekend, January 27th and 28th, at Rossland Secondary School at 7:30pm.
Here’s the plot, courtesy of IMT: “’Ski Bum: The Musical’ tells the story of one ski bum nearly cresting over the hill, with all of his youthful energy intact…and that’s the problem. Jeff Snowden needs to grow up a little, and act more responsibly if he wants things to go his way in adulthood. When an old flame at Big Snow Peak sparks a renewed interest in Jeff’s heart, he starts to consider the benefits of gaining a level of maturity. With the help of cultural anthropologist , played by new cast member Grant Waters, studying the culture and practices of ski-bummery, and a sometimes-not-so-nice head of ski patrol, he begins to see that he doesn’t have to give up skiing and having fun in order to evolve.”
There are some changes from last year–including a new cast member.. According to Gaudet, “This year we are stoked to welcome to the cast another graduate of the Canadian College of Performing Arts: Grant Waters. We have worked with Grant in the past, so he was a natural choice. What made last year so exciting was the workshop process, literally some scenes and songs were still be written and staged even in the last days of rehearsal. So while we are still working with the same script and have brought back Shane Snow to direct, we are really getting a chance to build on what has been already created.”
In other news, the cast have recently completed recording the show’s original soundtrack, which will be available for purchase at this weekend’s performances.
This winter’s return to town caps a very exciting year for both IMT and Ski Bum. “Ski Bum’s first tour was very successful. We had a great first stop in Revelstoke that came complete with a 30cm day. We had stops in Fernie, Cranbrook, Nelson, Grand Forks, finally the tour ended with a bang in Whistler at The Telus Festival. This year tour is twice as long with more shows and we are trying hit as many ski towns as possible.
“In terms of IMT’s other shows, we had a a great experience touring through Northern BC in November with Company Jump and a seven piece swing band and will also be touring White Star Lady in April to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of The Titanic. Many thanks go out again to everyone who came out to our 2nd Annual Fundraiser, we were overwhelmed at the amount of support we received.”
In terms of the future, the troupe will be performing around BC again. “There is no doubt that we love performing this show and we are hoping for a great reception in each of the ski communities that we are travelling to this year. We’ve had discussions about trying to take the show out of BC and into Alberta and the U.S. The reality is that do to that sort of a tour we ready need to have an agent’s support and funding. We are are very thankful for all audiences that come out to support, without them the shows would not be possible- but theatre is very difficult to financially sustain without major grant funding and sponsorship. We really enjoyed the creative process of creating a new musical, and have plans to produce and workshop our new show this summer, Harms’ Way: The Untold Story of the Mennonite Mafia written by IMT co-founders R.J. Peters, Mark Pollard and Nadine Tremblay. And, yes, it will be a musical”
Who should come out to the show? Well, Gaudet is pretty specific: “So come on out you ski bums, snow bums, skinny bums, and large bums!”
Tickets are available at Rossland Pro Hardware for $15.
