Courtesy of The Erratic Players
A local theatre troupe is headed to the biggest fringe theatre festival in North America.
This Play Has Zombies, an original production from Foothills-based collective The Erratic Players, is among 223 productions featured at the 44th Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival, running from August 14-24.
"Basically, a troupe of theatre people are creating a show of Henry V, and, how unfortunate, during rehearsal one day, the zombie apocalypse starts," explained director Katie Fournell. "Luckily, because of the show that they are in, these actors have some stage combat training, they have musical theatre training from the past, they have the big emotions that the theatre is known for, and thus chaos ensues as they are locked in the rehearsal hall together."
This Play Has Zombies features a small cast of three: Erratic Players co-founder Logan Coutts, local theatre regular Anne-Marie Cotton, and Taylor Krake, a recent graduate from Foothills Composite High School/Alberta High School of Fine Arts.
"She did the musical theatre thing, and we're really excited to have some young energy come to the stage," said Coutts. "We're able to grab this young actor and bring her to one of the best theatre festivals in the world."
Rounding out the crew is special effects artist Laura Fournier.
The play was submitted under the Comedy/Drama category and is rated 14A.
Those involved in the world of theatre may get a few extra kicks out of it.
"If you are in any way involved in theatre, you will get some extra fun," said Coutts. "It's a little meta. It's a play within a play, almost."
The script was written by first-time playwright Todd Trimble, who drew inspiration from his own experiences in local theatre.
"The first time he touched theatre was doing Henry V in modern English with the Dewdney Players, right around the same time that we were doing Murder at Twin Cities," said Fournell. "I was working on that Henry V show and Todd said, 'There's some really interesting people in the theater world,' and he wrote this show."
Being included in the Edmonton Fringe is a thrilling first for the group.
"We're really excited to go and be among all these other fringe artists and try and make our play stand out. At the same time, we'll have a really excited theatre audience. There are people who go for all 10 days of the festival and just take in like 160 shows and see most of them. It's wild. So we're excited to spend 10 days amongst other theatre artists and living, breathing that."
She sees the Erratic Players' undead spectacle as a perfect fit for the festival.
"The great thing about the Edmonton Fringe is that every single show there is a touring show that needs to be able to pack down into a small area and expand out when they actually go on to the stage and adapt to different theatre configurations and everything like that. So we're really excited to be able to have this show that's able to travel in this way."
The troupe will perform one show closer to home, with a preview set for August 9th at 7 p.m. at The Venue in High River. Tickets are by donation.
Their Edmonton Fringe run takes place from Aug. 15-24 (excluding Aug. 17) at La Cité Francophone's Café Bicyclette Stage. There'll be one show per day, with varying showtimes.