A local actor and radio host is excited to have one of the lead roles for a sitcom that will be filmed in the new year.
Kenton Dyck first heard about the upcoming series, Maria and the Mennos, during the summer and reported on the latest project of producer Paul Peters.
After writing the article, Dyck gave it some thought and became excited at the possibility of testing his acting skills in a new way.
“It's the sort of thing that I've always kind of dreamed about, but never really had on the radar,” he says. “Because usually to do this sort of thing, you got to move to LA, New York, maybe Chicago if you're lucky, possibly Toronto, but you can't really do this from Manitoba. So, it was never really a realistic dream. But then to hear about this, it was just like, ‘oh, this is cool, this is happening right here, I don't have to move.’”
Maria and the Mennos is a comedy series about a young Filipino Canadian woman who moves in with her Mennonite in-laws.
Dyck will play the role of Maria’s new husband, Nate.
“I am that Mennonite boy,” he says with a laugh. Dyck has a lot of experience portraying many aspects of Mennonite life and language.
Rehearsals are underway and Dyck says there is a lot of humour in the script, which includes phrases in Tagalog as well as Low German.
During the past few years, Dyck has shared his talents with us as part of the sketch comedy group Sidetrack Bandits. They have performed locally and at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival. This past spring, one of his sketches made it to the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival.
Dyck says filming a television series is quite different in many ways. They will shoot the scenes in order of location rather than going through the script from start to finish. There will also be changes to the scripts as they go along.
One of the producers is Paul Plett, originally from Landmark and now based out of Winnipeg. He is creating and producing Maria and the Mennos alongside Tina Fehr Kehler from Winkler and Hazel Wallace from Winnipeg.
The filming will take place in Winkler, starting in January and wrap up in the middle of March. During this time, the actor will dedicate all his time to this new adventure, taking a break from hosting the afternoon show on Mix 96.7 FM. Dyck is also a regular host on the Eagle 93.5 FM.
We can expect to see him on the screen later in the year, when the show is released. That is planned for August.
Maria and the Mennos will air on both Yes TV, a subscription TV station, and a streaming service called Castle.
-With files from Corny Rempel and Michelle Sawatzky