The Motley Troupe performed Lagooned! for an enthusiastic audience at the Kitscoty hall. Proceeds from the performance go to local school breakfast programs, the Lori Craven Memorial Tournament, and the Lloydminster Legion. Photos submitted
It was an exciting weekend for The Motley Troupe, formerly know as House of Paws, as they presented a unique dinner theatre experience featuring Lagooned!, a play about a group of eccentric castaways stranded on an island in the South Pacific.
The group performed at the Kitscoty hall three times in three nights and were thrilled with the reaction from the audience.
“We were able to unveil and sing for everyone our new theme song, which was an AC/DC song that we re-wrote. It was all just an incredible experience. We’re never quite sure who we’re going to get each night, in terms of crowds and the crowd vibes,” said director Christa Mullaly.
“We got a standing ovation from the entire audience on Friday night, and what an incredible feeling! I know that we’ve got cast members that are still feeling the warmth and the love from the audience that night.”
Although it was a year of firsts, Mullaly said things ran smoothly—thanks to a lot of behind the scenes effort.
“I think the process that we had and the structure that we had on the backend with our cast and crew really supported all the work and the heavy lifting that needed to occur. It was really supported differently this year,” said Mullaly.
“I also look forward to next year because … we had to do our name change and we had to do some other, more administrative, type things this year that we won’t need to do next year, so that will lighten the load for sure.”
She’s definitely not the only one looking forward to next year’s performance though. The way she measures the success of the production is whether those who are new to the group want to come back again.
“Across the boards, both the new crew members that we had, as well as new cast members—everybody has said ‘Oh my goodness. I need to be involved with this next year!” Mullaly exclaimed.
The performance got a lot of laughs, and good feedback.
“At intermission I always go out and mix and mingle with the crowd and our guests that are in attendance, and I had a lot of people say ‘this is the funniest play yet Christa!’
“So that is always a good endorsement as well, because honestly picking the play is really difficult. That’s something I’m already thinking about for next year.”
Another change to the event was the food served. This year’s dinner was catered by Lloydminster restaurant Flavours and Rolls by chef Melvin.
“He was outstanding to work with. From night to night to night … I think he really knocked it out of the park in terms of being able to feed all of our people, including backstage. And everybody really enjoyed what he had to offer on his menu,” said Mullaly.
The grand total raised has not been tallied quite yet, but Mullaly said as soon as it is and they figure out how much is going to each cause it will be posted on their social media pages.
The organizations that they raised funds for this year are as follows: Lori Craven Memorial Fund, the breakfast programs for Lloydminster public and catholic school divisions, Hillmond Community School, and Kitscoty School, and the Lloydminster Legion.
