Hamish Headley is a professional actor studying in New York City. This summer he's back on Bowen, looking at the island where he grew up - his father is Jack Headley of Tir-na-nOg fame - with fresh eyes.
"The depth of artistry we have here in the performing arts is fantastic. It is amazing," says Headley.
"I didn't really realize it until I went away and came back."
From that talent pool, along with imported artists, Headley and his New York theatre company Straydog Theatre, have created the first annual Into The West Theatre Festival on Bowen Island. Headley is hoping the festival will catch fire.
"Next year, the idea is for this thing to grow and grow and grow, and we could have dancing and music in the festival as well."
The festival aims to support local theatre and more importantly, Tir-na-nog the local theatre school. The school has been dedicated to providing a space where young people may practise the art of using their imagination and the knowledge.
The theatre school has fallen on difficult times recently, not due to lack of enrollment but as a result of local and provincial cutbacks to the arts.
Headley and the folks of Straydog want to inspire audiences by placing them in the seats of the Tir-na-nOg theatre and seeing for themselves the value of live theatre and theatre education on Bowen Island.
The result of Hamish Headley's passion for theatre, his hometown and Tir-na-nOg theatre school, is a four-play, seven-week theatre festival, running from June 17 to July 31 at Tir-na-nOg.
It features local actors along with artists from New Orleans, Virginia Beach, Toronto and Georgia. The first play, running from June 16 to 19 and presented by the Tir-na-nOg Alumni Repertory Company is The Stage Door. The play depicts the life of a boarding house full of aspiring actresses and their ambitions, hopes, dreams and disappointments.
Kingbaby Productions of Bowen is up to the plate next with their popular play The View running from June 22 to 26 and again from June 29 to July 3. Kingbaby describes The View as a socio-environmental sex-farce set on an island somewhere in the Pacific Northwest.
Straydog Theatre Company presents the last two shows: Strange Snow by Stephen Metcalfe, running July 6, 7, 8 and 10 and again from July 13 to 17; and The Dreamer Examines His Pillow on July 20, 22, 23 and 24 and again from July 27 to 31. This play is "a philosophical dream comedy about love, marriage and maturity."
Tickets for all shows are $20 and are available at straydogtheatrecompany.com or at Phoenix. A package including dinner at Bowen's Blue Eyed Marys is also available for $60. This includes a set menu and a shuttle to the theatre.
The stage is set. On with the show. This is it.
