Jeeves Intervenes Program

Est. 1991

Jee es Inter enes

SEASON PRESENTING SPONSOR:

Adapted by Margaret Raether based on the stories of P.G. Wodehouse

SPONSOR:

Jee es Inter enes

Adapted by Margaret Raether based on the stories of P.G. Wodehouse

MAY 19 & 20, 24–27, 2023 @ 7:30 PM

MATINEES: MAY 20 & 27 @ 2:00 PM

Time: Spring, 1928

Location: Bertie’s posh London flat

Running Time: 2 hours, including one, 20-minute intermission

FEATURING

Jeeves

Koenraad Beugelink

Eustace BassingtonBassington (Bassy)

Adriel Brandt

Director

Kerri Norris

Fight Choreographer

Steven Elcheshen

Stage Manager

Natalie Hoogstra

Agatha Spencer-Gregson

Beth Gasser-Ryckman

Gertrude

Winklesworth-Bode

Emily Hamel

Sir Rupert Watlington

Nigel Brooke

Bertie Wooster

Stephen Elcheshen

Set Designer

Andrew Potts

Costume Designer

Vicki Bolan

Hair & Make-Up Designer

Raelyn Schatz

Lighting Designer

Nigel Brooke

Sound Designer

Gabe Kirkley

Props Designers

Dianna Lewis & Charlene Crawford

Refreshments and snacks available in the lobby. Please finish your snacks and refreshments before returning to your seats. Only bottled water is allowed in the theatre. Thanks for your help in keeping the theatre venue clean and tidy!

PLEASE turn CELL PHONES and ELECTRONIC DEVICES off before showtime

• Please remain seated during the performance

• Please save the discussion and talking until intermission

• Videotaping or other video or audio recording of this production is strictly prohibited

• Children under 3 unfortunately cannot be admitted into the theatre.

• Out of respect for your fellow audience members, please refrain from wearing strong fragrances while at the theatre.

Produced by special arrangement with Playscripts, Inc. (www.playscripts.com)

Land Acknowledgement

Gallery 7 Theatre’s mandate is to share stories that explore the relational, social, and spiritual aspects of the human experience with a vision towards hope, reconciliation, and redemption. In that spirit, we’d like to acknowledge we carry on our artistic endeavors on the traditional and unceded territory of the Sto:Lo people, Sema:th First Nation and Mathxwi First Nation and we are thankful for this opportunity. May there be healing and peace as we seek to build a stronger, respectful, and more unified community together.

2022-2023

Gallery 7 Theatre gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Province of British Columbia.

Greetings from the Artistic Director

I’m not usually a fan of farce per se. I find farce to be tedious, with such over-the-top characters and incredibly outlandish situations that believability is stretched beyond what I can bare. About 15 minutes in, I lose interest in the characters, and I become ambivalent to their peril. So why do one here at G7? Well, to be honest, we’ve done farce before. Remember The Matchmaker? Technically, that show is a farce. Why did it get programed when I seem to have this snooty, highbrow attitude towards farce? Because I cared about the characters. I was enamoured by their charm. And I found the situations just believable enough that I could relate in some way.

Along comes Jeeves Intervenes. Another farce. And much to my tongue-in-cheek chagrin, I LIKED it. Sure, the characters are over-the-top and the situations the characters find themselves in are over-the-top too. But I get it. I can relate to the characters, and I can see that, while magnified times 100, their peril seems rather familiar. Not to mention, the play resists going overboard with bawdy humour, earning extra ‘clever’ marks with me. Speaking of ‘clever’ - who can deny that the dialogue is so witty and funny? I couldn’t resist. And so once again, we have a farce on our stage.

As a side note but not too much of an aside – to prove how much I believed in this show and to demonstrate I’m not THAT snooty, consider that this play was not available for licensing to us at first. Soon after selecting the play, we discovered that while the P.G. Wodehouse characters are public domain in the United States where the play originated, they are still under copyright in the rest of the world. It took some sleuthing to discover who handled licensing affairs on behalf of the Wodehouse estate. Following the exchange of several communications back and forth across

Acknowledgements

the pond with the Wodehouse literary agent, not to mention playwright, Margaret Raether, and the US-based publishing house that handles licensing for the play, we were finally able to secure the rights to produce the show. But that was BEFORE the pandemic when everything shut down and the aforementioned literary agent retired. Luckily, following the pandemic we were able to pick up the conversation where we left off with new literary and licensing agents and here we are. All that to say, it took some unusual effort to bring this show to G7, and it’s the only production in Canada this year, so take that anyone who thinks I’m TOO high brow.

There’s another reason we are doing a farce: farces are quite difficult to pull off well, and they require expert timing with dialogue and precise staging, things we need to explore if we are to further develop our theatrical chops. You’ll never learn to do something by not doing it, and so a farce we shall do.

I’m delighted that we’ve been privileged to have such an expert and passionate team of performers and artists led by Kerris Norris to stage this show. I think their efforts will bring a smile to your face and joy to your heart as they bring to life these over-thetop characters and these outlandish situations. Plus, I think you’ll discover some little nuggets of truth about family, love, and friendship along the wayimportant ingredients that help this farce rise to the top of the great farces. Please enjoy this fun-loving conclusion to our Happy 30(+2) Birthday season and our salute to the arrival of summer. See you in the Fall.

Curtain up!

Ken Hildebrandt Executive/ Artistic Director

Gallery 7 Theatre extends a HUGE thank-you to all our volunteers for their hard work, dedication and support. Without them, this theatre would not succeed! We would also like to thank the following for their contribution to this production:

SAMC Theatre (TWU) / Nuggets Bookstore Chilliwack

If you would like to volunteer or contribute to our productions, please contact us at 604-504-5940 or email info@gallery7theatre.com. We’d love to hear from you!

Director’s Notes

I like a good farce. Crisp, clever, speedy, and surprising. All elements that make one want to laugh out loud and try to keep up as it moves along. The situations are not necessarily earth-shattering, and the peril to the heroes is not life-altering. However, it all matters to each character so intensely that they dance along the precipice of disaster until rescued at the last minute by fate, fortune or perhaps a clever valet.

A great farce tickles our funny bones and makes us think. P.G. Wodehouse is a master of language, combining the street slang of Edwardian England with the stylistic vocabulary of the upper crust. I had read some of the Jeeves & Wooster stories when I was younger, having the huge omnibus plunked onto the bedside table by my husband. I have also watched more than a fair share of Fry & Laurie’s’ interpretation of these two immutable characters. What I didn’t know was how much of a wordsmith P.G. Wodehouse was, he being compared to Shakespeare and having over 1750 quotes in the Oxford English Dictionary. He was a writer who wouldn’t put the story to the page without

having painstakingly pored over the plot until there were no holes. He sought perfection and would deconstruct words because, of course, if someone could be “disgruntled”, it obviously must mean they could also be “gruntled”. His love for puns, simile, mixed metaphor and wordplay are woven intricately into this funny little play.

It has been a joy to work on this tantalizing gem with this wonderful group of performers, designers, crew, and artistic staff. We’ve had fun playing together and bringing to life this story. We hope you have fun tonight too. So, sit back, engage your funny bone, and join Jeeves in rescuing Wooster once again from the vagaries of life.

Kerri Norris Director, May 2023

WHO’S WHO: CAST & CREW

Koenraad Beugelink (Jeeves) Koenraad enjoyed his first show with G7 (Baskerville) so much that he came back for more this season. His family claims he hasn’t stopped speaking in an English accent since last March. His wife thinks all this hullabaloo will be worth it if he can learn to make her a perfect cup of Oolong tea. Koenraad is no stranger to the Abbotsford stage having appeared in such First Light Theatre productions as The Matchmaker, The Diary of Anne Frank, Harvey and The Wizard of Oz

Vicki Bolan (Costume Designer) Edith Head said it best: "What a costume designer does is a cross between magic and camouflage. We create the illusion of changing the actors into what they are not. We ask the public to believe that every time they see a performer on the stage/screen, he's become a different person.”

Adriel Brandt (Eustace Bassington-Bassington "Bassy") Adriel was last seen on stage as Mr. Darcy in Pride & Prejudice (G7). Adriel is an audiobook narrator and tabletop game designer and is on stage in honour of two grandparents, Nuccia (1930-2023) and Grandpa Penner (1924-), both of whom spoke clearly and with purpose.

Nigel Brooke (Sir Rupert Watlington/Lighting Designer) Nigel has designed lights for dozens of productions around the Lower Mainland, including Screwball Comedy, Ghost of a Chance and The Snow Queen for the Royal Canadian Theatre Company (RCTC), where he is also the resident lighting designer, Holy Mo and Spew Boy and Murder on the Orient Express (G7), Henry V for Stone's Throw Productions / Pacific Theatre, and many more. As a performer, he recently appeared as Adam Lucas in Ghost of a Chance (RCTC) and Belarius in

Koenraad Beugelink

Vicki Bolan

Stephen Elcheshen

Charlene Crawford

Emily Hamel

Kerri Norris

Nigel Brooke

Dianna Lewis

Natalie Hoogstra

Adriel Brandt

Raelyn Schatz

Andrew Potts

Beth GasserRyckman

Gabe Kirkley

Cymbeline for Shadows and Dreams, which he is a founding member of.

Stephen Elcheshen (Berte Wooster/Fight Choreographer) Stephen is a Hydrostatic Recertification Technician by day and a theatre geek by night. As one of the founding producers of Shadows and Dreams Theatre Co, he can be found at Queen's Park every summer showing off his Shakespeare. Recent roles include Rev. Teller in Cariboo Magi (Far From The Tree), Arthur, Sir Bors, and other characters in Spamalot (White Rock), and Grampa in You Can't Take It With You (TWU). When not on stage, he is often called upon as a Fight Choreographer, recently having worked on Ghost of a Chance (RCTC), Magician's Nephew (G7), and We Are The Body (Pacific Theatre). As always, he'd like to thank his family for their love and support.

Beth Gasser-Ryckman (Agatha Spencer-Gregson)

Bethany has awoken from her eternal slumber to take part in her first theatre production in a decade simply because the plight of our main hero and protagonist - Aunt Agatha of course! - spoke to her deeply. #TeamAgathaForever. Thanks to her super cool friends for the support throughout this process of becoming, especially to Sharp Squad and the man called John living in her house, for encouraging her to get back on the stage in the first place. Enjoy the show! *explodes into a swarm of bees*

Emily Hamel (Gertrude Winklesworth-Bode)

Emily has been involved in theatre since she was 12 years old with The Chilliwack Academy of Music's Summer Theatre program. She's performed with the Chilliwack Players Guild, Rosebud School of the Arts, Pacific Theatre, Secondary Characters, and Offtopic Theatre Co. Her most memorable roles are The Drowsy Chaperone in The Drowsy Chaperone (CPG), Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd (Secondary Characters), Shelby in Steel Magnolias (CPG), and as Catherine in Proof (CPG). Emily grew up watching Jeeves and Wooster at her grandmother's house on weekends and is delighted to be in this charming farce.

Natalie Hoogstra (Stage Manager) Natalie is thrilled to be back at Gallery 7 Theatre with this delightful show! She has loved the opportunity to work with Kerri and such a talented group of fun people. Previous onstage and offstage credits include Mary’s Wedding (Stones Throw, Pacific

Theatre), The Ruby Sunrise, Comedy of Errors (SAMC Theatre, TWU), Enchanted April, and Halo (Gallery 7 Theatre). She would like to thank her family for their support, and hopes you enjoy all the craziness that ensues in Jeeves Intervenes!

Kerri Norris (Director) Kerri is an actor, director, costumer, producer and sometimes dramaturg, as well as being an instructor at SAMC Theatre. She has an MFA in Acting from CalArts in Los Angeles. Recent directing credits include You Can’t Take It With You (TWU), Blithe Spirit (RCTC) and Henry V (Pacific Theatre - Stones Throw). Up next, she’ll be appearing in As You Like It (Shadows & Dreams) and directing The Farnsdale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society Murder Mystery for RCTC.

Andrew Potts (Set Designer/Construction Manager) What ho, what ho! Andrew became an instant Jeeves/Bertie fan upon first reading this jolly script. He then proceeded to traverse all over the countryside, looking for set pieces of a certain vintage while managing to avoid pretentious aunts. Thanks to everyone on the production team for an entertaining time! Thanks also to all those who helped with designing and building the set!

Raelyn Schatz (Make-Up and Hair Designer)

Raelyn is a 21-year-old actress and self-taught makeup artist from Abbotsford. She has loved playing with makeup ever since she was five years old, and her love of makeup continues on over 15 years later. She has previously done makeup design for Beau Jest (Gallery 7 Theatre). On stage, she most recently portrayed Annas in Jesus Christ Superstar (Newbury Art Concepts). Enjoy the show!

Production Team

Assistant Stage Manager // Pat Davis

Lighting Operator // Ryan Campbell

Livestream Technician // Aaron Dawson

Head of Construction // Andrew Potts

Construction Assistants // Amanda Hildebrandt, Linda, Chris Potts

Scenic Painters // Linda, Julia Martens, Karen Street

House Managers // Linda Funk, Louise Reimer, Pete VanMulen

Discussion Guide Editor // Angelika Dawson

Program Layout & Design // Justin Keitch, Ignite Creative

Gallery 7 Theatre Staff

Executive & Artistic Director // Ken Hildebrandt

Theatre Administrator // Amaris Henry

Theatre Administrator (on maternity leave) // Mikayla Froese

Production Manager // Charlene Crawford

Marketing Associate & Webmaster // Gabe Kirkley

Bookkeeper // Marion Witoszkin

Front of House Coordinator // Amaris Henry

Front of House Coordinator // Jenn Suess (on sabbatical)

Head of Properties & Company Photographer // Dianna Lewis

Graphic Designer // Justin Keitch, Ignite Creative

Gallery 7 Theatre Board of Directors

Matt Forster // President

Rudy Ouwehand // Vice President & Treasurer

Alison Chisholm // Secretary

Russel Reitsema, Raymond Robyn, Fran Vanderpol // Directors at Large

SUPPORTER’S GALLERY

The individuals listed below are heroes of Gallery 7 Theatre. They have contributed some of their hard-earned cash to help us create entertaining theatre that stirs the heart, challenges the mind and elevates the soul. Thank you! Every effort has been made to make this list as accurate as possible but if you see an error or omission, please let us know at 604.504.5940 or at info@gallery7theatre.com so we can correct things. Our donors are very important to us!

Family Gallery ($1 - $99)

David Allan

Talitha Barbour

Judy Becker

Marguerite Bouchard

Peggy Bradshaw

James Braun

Sandra Britten

Shawn Brynelson

Heidi Calzavara

Sarah Cherry

Kendra Craig

Nancy Croteau

Patti Dahl

Stephanie Darvasi

Cornwin and Christine

DeRuiter

Shannon Doolan

Judith Doyharcabal

Tami Ewert

Sandra Fehr

Donna Flynn

Caroline Forsyth

Teresa Funk

Shirley Funnell

Lisa Gordon

Jacquelin Goudal

Mario Hewlett

Ron Hoock

Natalie Hoogstra

Julia Hoogstra

L Hutchison

Evan Jones

Matthew Kwantes & Tjesje

Kampman

Angela Kim

Don Knicely

Julie Koop

Caleb LeClair

Matina Lees

Dennis Lynne

Neelam Mann

Krystina Manning

Lorna Marchuk

Calvin McCarthy

Jill McGrath

Allan Mol

Suzy Moldau

Sean Moore

Cheryl Mulder

Faye Naples

Carla Pattison

Sandy Petrica

Jocelyn Phillipps

David Popowich

Terry Pue

Stephen Rhodes

Corinne Richardson

Joy Rousay

Scott Sampson

Penny Shaver

David Smith

Sarah Sorensen

Kelsey Stanger

Scott T

Jason Thomassen

Diane Van Paridon

Wyn Vanderhorst

Emily Viglas

Kathy Wiebe

Jennifer Wittrup

Patron’s Gallery ($100 - $249)

Anonymous

Nora and Lloyd Arnet

Gordon and Frances Bates

Gareth and Cynthia Brandt

Helen Braun

Cindy Brown

Tamara Charman

Cindy Coles

Virginia Cooke

John Crawford

Susan Cuthbert

Patricia Davis

Ian Fenwick

Sheila Flavelle

Leone Hopwood

Ardis Janzen

Nev Kalgaric

Dorothea McCallum

Linda McRae

PayPal Giving Fun Canada

Ron Reed

Heather Robertson

Ryan Scramstad

Donald Strangway

Janette Thiessen

United Way Ontario

Jenny Vanderheide

Elizabeth Winn

Actor’s Gallery

($250 - $499)

Anonymous x2

Maria Denholme

Gabe Kirkley

Harold and Carolyn Krahn

Charlene Mason

Louise Oppel

James and Margaret Reith

Kate Woo

Director’s Gallery

($500 - $999)

Bob and Ruth Boughen

Lem and Elizabeth Doerksen

Ken Hildebrandt

Laura Kehler

Bruce McLaughlin

Rudy and MaryAnna Ouwehand

Louise Reimer

Charlotte Siemens

Stephen and Sylvia Stewart

Selwyn and Helen Uittenbosch

Producer’s Gallery ($1,000 - $4,999)

John and Angelika Dawson

Lando Klassen

Artistic Director’s Gallery ($5000 +)

Doris Darvasi

You too can be a hero of Gallery 7 Theatre. Consider making a one-time donation or setting up a recurring monthly donation. All donations, big or small, are a HUGE help. All donations above $10 receive a tax deductible receipt. Give us a call at 604.504.5940 or go to www.gallery7theatre.com to make a contribution today!

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OPENING NIGHT SPONSORS:

DIRECTOR’S GALLERY:

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