WORLD PREMIERE OF NEW NORM FOSTER COMEDY HILDA’S YARD
TNB welcomes back Canada’s most-produced playwright
Good fences make good families.
It’s 1956. When their grown children return home with far-out ideas, will the Fluck family be able to bridge the generation gap?
(Fredericton) Theatre New Brunswick’s Main Stage season opens on October 11 with a new world premiere comedy by beloved playwright Norm Foster. Hilda’s Yard follows the story of on ordinary family on one ordinary day in 1956 as empty-nesters Sam & Hilda Fluck discover their nest’s not so empty after all.
“In 1983 a Fredericton radio host premiered his first play on the TNB Main Stage. Today he’s Canada’s most-produced playwright,” says Artistic Producer Caleb Marshall who also directs the premiere. “We couldn’t be more proud of Norm and we’re thrilled to bring him home with the premiere of this tender family comedy.”
Norm Foster’s plays receive an average of one hundred and fifty productions annually. Of his nearly fifty scripts, Hilda’s Yard marks the eighth to premiere at Theatre New Brunswick, opening 16 years to the day since his last TNB world premiere.
“I was a child of the fifties. The fifties had an innocence. The sixties had The Beatles. And I became a teenager,” says Foster. “Writing Hilda’s Yard was a way for me to climb back into that fifties world that I loved so much. I enjoyed revisiting that time and I hope audiences will too.”
Marshall, who is also directing the production, says he thinks people of all ages can see themselves in Foster’s new work.
“Norm and his audience have grown up together and I love that in Hilda’s Yard the younger generations are able to see themselves through their parents’ or grandparents’ eyes. For children of the 1950s it offers a chance to revisit their youth but also to see the world through their parents’ eyes,” says TNB’s Artistic Producer. “For younger audiences, it’s the revelation that despite the arrival of rock and roll, free love, disco and the internet, the issues of parents and kids trying to understand one another aren’t that different today than they were then.”
New Brunswick native Patricia Vanstone in the title role along with TNB audience favourites Sam Rosenthal (Skin Flick) and Gordon Gammie (The 39 Steps). Hilda’s Yard marks the TNB debut for actors Jonathan Gould, Perrie Olthuis and Jane Spence.
Helping transport the audience to Hilda’s Yard on a September day in 1956 are sets by award-winning TNB Resident Set & Costume Designer Patrick Clark (The Musical of Musicals, The 39 Steps, Hockey Dreams, Treasure Island), costumes by TNB Wardrobe Mistress Sherry Kinnear (Oleanna, Wizard of Oz, A Doll’s House), lighting design by Chris Saad (The Dollar Woman, Feelgood, Doubt) and sound design by award-winning TNB Resident Composer and Sound Designer Michael Doherty (Oleanna, The 39 Steps, Hockey Dreams, Treasure Island).
Hilda’s Yard runs at The Fredericton Playhouse, Oct. 11-14, 2012
Adults $40 | McCain Student Ticket $10
HILDA’S YARD MEDIA CALL: There will be media availability with the cast and director on WEDNESDAY, October 10 at 12:30 p.m. at The Fredericton Playhouse. Interviews that day and in advance can be arranged through the Marketing Director.
Media Contact: Heather Allaby, Director of Marketing and Development, Theatre New Brunswick,(506) 460-1381 ext 105