Moose Jaw’s history is notoriously interesting, from the Spanish Flu to the River Park Flood to a multi-plane crash — and a theatre group plans to highlight many of them.
The Moose Jaw Community Players is presenting “Notoriously Moose Jaw,” a fictionalized version of Moose Jaw’s very real history crafted by two notoriously unknown writers. The performances occur at the Moose Jaw Cultural Centre on Friday, April 21 and Saturday, April 22, at 7 p.m. each night.
Tickets are $35 each and can be purchased through SaskTix or at the box office.
There are 14 stories the organization will tell, with each scene looking at some aspect of Moose Jaw’s past, explained Debbie Burgher, who co-wrote the script with Joan Stumborg and directs the play.
Burgher pointed to all the banners that city hall has flying downtown with phrases such as “Notoriously Clever,” “Notoriously Creative,” and “Notoriously Helpful,” noting that “notoriously” is a great adverb since it accurately describes the community’s history.
The play’s co-writer gave some examples of what residents will see during the performance, including the pioneers’ arrival, the 1918 Spanish Flu, Al Capone’s alleged presence here, a mid-air airplane crash in 1954, Queen Elizabeth II’s tour in 1959, the River Park Flood in 1974 and the recent Mooseorandum of Understanding with Norway.
“It was notoriously beautiful how the community rallied together (during the 1918 pandemic) … ,” Burgher said.
Residents decided — in agreement with parents — that they would remove from homes children whose parents were sick and place them with non-ill families. Furthermore, people donated linens to the hospital and erected field hospitals in schools.
“It was just crazy. And it came to be two months of hell. I don’t know how many people died,” Burgher continued.
Meanwhile, the flood wiped out River Park Bridge and a small house where a feisty Ukrainian baba lived. In the air disaster, a passenger jet smashed into a Harvard trainer, and they fell 10,000 feet before crashing 600 metres from Ross School.
“Just little moments within the (stories) that are fact, that’s just wrapped in the bow of a fictional story theatre,” added Burgher.
Stumborg approached Burgher in 2019 when the COVID-19 pandemic struck about writing a play. They conducted research using archives, books and the internet, shared ideas and began turning them into scenes and lines.
They also approached Theatre Saskatchewan for assistance, which connected them to dramaturge Gordon Portman, a former University of Brandon professor now in Regina. He reviewed their play three times and made plenty of cuts, edits, re-writes and shifts in scenes.
“Joan Stumborg … is really genius. I’m more of an ideas gal,” said Burgher. “I was really good about coming up with ideas and coming up with dialogue, but Joan … finessed it beautifully. And she’s also the one building the set.”
Creating the play helped the club grow its membership since it had dwindled, she continued. The club held an open house last December, attracting many people, while 40 auditioned for this play in January. Now 28 cast members and 10 crew members are working on the performance.
“And they’re such beautiful people. So dedicated, and they really, really want to put on a good show for the community,” Burgher said. “It’s beautiful.”
The director added that residents should attend for a good laugh and to appreciate Moose Jaw’s “notoriously interesting” history.
