{"id":21222,"date":"2021-06-30T09:00:05","date_gmt":"2021-06-30T16:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=21222"},"modified":"2021-06-30T08:18:46","modified_gmt":"2021-06-30T15:18:46","slug":"blue-bridge-kicks-off-an-in-person-summer-with-salt-water-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2021\/06\/30\/blue-bridge-kicks-off-an-in-person-summer-with-salt-water-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Bridge kicks off an in-person summer with Salt-Water Moon<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the pandemic put a wrench in live theatre, it threw local director Fran Gebhard for a loop. Through her master\u2019s degree, teaching theatre at UVic, and directing, she has devoted her entire life to the theatre. Now, after 15 months off from live shows, Salt-Water Moon<\/em>\u2014a love story set in Newfoundland in the 1920s\u2014is the first show Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre will have in person since COVID-19 struck.<\/p>\n

Gebhard, who is directing the show, says it didn\u2019t take long to find her theatre legs again.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re ecstatic; we\u2019re ecstatic,\u201d she says. \u201cThis is our life\u2019s work and we haven\u2019t been able to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Gebhard directed online shows through the pandemic, she says they\u2019re not the same. She says she could sit in a dark theatre for well over eight hours a day, as that\u2019s where her heart is.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Dawson Rutledge (left, playing Jacob Mercer) and Shea O’Connor (right, playing Mary Snow) in rehearsals for Salt-Water Moon<\/em> (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI started acting in plays when I was six. I never wanted to do anything else,\u201d she says. \u201cI went back to university to get my post-graduate degree just because I wanted to learn how to be a better director, not because I was going to teach university, and then I just fell into the job. They needed somebody. I was getting my master\u2019s; I said, \u2018Okay, I\u2019ll teach that course.\u2019 I didn\u2019t know how to do it. I learned on my feet, I decided I loved it, and one thing lead to another.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon after Gebhard walked into the theatre to direct Salt-Water Moon<\/em>, the last 15 months disappeared.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a novelty for a bit,\u201d she says. \u201cMaybe a day, but it doesn\u2019t take long. I\u2019ve been doing this for 40 years… It was like riding a horse\u2014just got right back on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also live music in the show\u2014traditional fiddle player Pierre Schryer will be playing on stage. The original script doesn\u2019t call for this; it was Gebhard\u2019s idea. In the play, the actors can\u2019t see the musician even though he\u2019s on stage. She calls him \u201cThe Spirit of Newfoundland.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted music in the play,\u201d she says. \u201cI thought it would be wonderful to have a live musician supporting us, and as I began to think of it\u2014instead of having him backstage, or somewhere else, or using recorded music, I thought, \u2018Why not incorporate him a little bit into the action?\u2019 And that\u2019s what I came up with: The Spirit of Newfoundland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gebhard provides guidance and suggestions to the actors, and questions them about their motives when she has to, but she says it\u2019s her job to stay invisible, especially for the duration of the show\u2019s run.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings change; more of the actors become even more comfortable,\u201d she says. \u201cThey own their roles now. I\u2019m not there guiding them, and so they may start working on a deeper level\u2026 It changes because it\u2019s a live entity and I want it to morph and grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

What intrigued Gebhard most about the show was the writing, she says. Written by David French, it\u2019s smooth and full of seamless transitions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe writing is very strong. Sometimes when you\u2019re working on newer work, you find that there\u2019s a bit of lumpy dialogue, or places where you really have to work hard to find out what\u2019s going on,\u201d she says. \u201cNot with Mr. French\u2019s work. Not at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salt-Water Moon
\n<\/em>Tuesday, July 6 to Sunday, July 18
\n$25-$42, Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre (in-person and live-streaming tickets available)
\nbluebridgetheatre.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the pandemic put a wrench in live theatre, it threw local director Fran Gebhard for a loop. Through her master\u2019s degree, teaching theatre at UVic, and directing, she has devoted her entire life to the theatre. Now, after 15 months off from live shows, Salt-Water Moon\u2014a love story set in Newfoundland in the 1920s\u2014is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21222"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21230,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21222\/revisions\/21230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}