There are four characters in the frame in a living room set. From left to right: Alvaro Sanchez as Elias, Lucas Lochrie as Sander, Julia Mckibbon as Callie, and Megan Mckinlay as Martha. Snow and Sanchez and standing to the left, and Mckibbon is sitting on a lazy boy chair.  All characters are facing Mckinlay who has her arms out towards the other characters, leaning.

By Mandee Mitchell

Thompson Rivers University’s Actor’s Workshop Theatre (TRU AWT) is welcoming back in-person audiences with its first show for its 2022-23 season.

The program’s first show, called Amigo’s Blue Guitar, is directed by TRU instructor, actor and director Wesley Eccleston, and will run from Oct. 27-29 and from Nov. 3-5, with shows starting at 7:30 p.m. The student actors in the show range from 1st year to 5th year, demonstrating the skills being taught and encouraged in the TRU performing arts program.

There are three characters in a living room set. Alvaro Sanchez (Elias) is standing to the left facing Julia Mckibbon (Callie) who has a shocked look on her face, and Lucas Lochrie (Sander) who is on the ground with a hurt look on their face.

The play, written by Joan Macleod, is set on the Gulf Islands in which, “a university student brings home a Salvadoran refugee on a whim of compassion. The unexpected visit forces the family to grapple with long-simmering tensions and confront the harsh realities of a refugee’s life.” To Eccleston, “It deals with immigration and how refugees are treated or how they find their way.”

When deciding what show he wanted to put on for this year’s season, Eccleston was inspired by the diversity of students coming onto the TRU campus and was reminded of the play after interacting with one of his students from El Salvador. Wanting to start the season with a drama that would both entertain and make people think about the current events in the world, he decided on Amigo’s Blue Guitar.

With stories continuing to come out of the war in Ukraine, and Canada continuing to receive refugees from there and in many other countries, Eccleston believes this play has stayed relevant in our current age, stating that the playwright, “tried to do justice to the atrocities that were happening in El Salvador and continue to ravage the country. There is a lot of problems there and I think it’s important for us to not only count our “blessings”, you know that we’re not wartorn at this particular moment but also to develop empathy towards people that come to this nation from other nations that are just looking to be safe and happy, and you know; explore reasons that people are displaced”

Eccleston seeks to remind their audiences of the very real current state that the world is in, “This should be something we are thinking about in the back of our heads as we’re watching this, there are refugees from many different war-torn places that need safe haven at this present time.”

The story also examines how a family deals with the realities and viewpoints of welcoming a refugee. It emphasizes how a family’s generations feel and respond to an outsider with tragic life experiences

As a whole, Amigo’s Blue Guitar is a story about family dynamics, and Eccleston sees the ones present in the story them staying true to today, even if 3 decades have passed since its inception, “This play is from 1990, so it’s 32 years old. I think it’s aged fairly well. I think the conflicts between the characters are still really relevant. It still deals with a family dynamic that, likely in time, is a thing we have always been dealing with. Getting communications between generations, expectations of generations, I think those are universal themes.”

Alvaro Sanchez (as Elias) is sitting on a cot bed holding a cigarette in his hand.

With only 3 shows this year (different from their previous 4 show schedule), the TRU AWT is looking to excite and inspire students to see and be a part of, future productions. With “an all-Canadian season”, Eccleston says that although on accident, audiences can look forward to this year’s shows being closer to home.

“This season is a little different because we’re going through the COVID dip. We had a depression in our enrolment so, basically, we don’t have a directing festival this year because we don’t have a directing class. So, instead of a four-show season, 2 each semester, we’re going to 3, the second of which bridges between the end of the fall semester and into the winter semester, and then the winter semester show that wraps up the term.”

Coming from a steep decline in on-campus students, the show is taking advantage of needing a small cast, leaving the larger productions for after current students are aware of the program and more want to audition. Being the smallest production of the season, the TRU AWT hopes to show the community what it has to offer, going with the less-is-more approach. The TRU AWT has open invitations for TRU students at auditions for future shows, the next being in late October (to be announced).

Amigo’s Blue Guitar opens up on Thursday, October 27, 2022, and will run from the 27-29 and November 3-5. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased ahead of time at https://app.ticketowl.io/YgGvArJM1Y4RAX3G, the TRU AWT website https://www.tru.ca/arts/departments/literatures-languages-performing-arts/performing-arts/production.html, or the box office in Old Main, right beside Starbucks.

Stay tuned to their Instagram, @truawt, for updates and more information.