JULIE BERTRAND/Independent reporter
As spectators walked out of the Stettler Community Hall on April 2 after watching the last performance of Desperate Ambrose, cast and crew members started part two of their work.
“We had to take everything down, clear everything away and it took a lot of hard work,” said Jane Shepherd, director of the play.
However, due to the success of Desperate Ambrose, the cleaning up was part work and part celebration in spirit.
“We’ve been sold out for almost every night. Performances have been going fairly well,” said Dorothy Herbert, H.A.T.S. member.
“People enjoyed the play.”
Jean Bishke, who was in charge of publicity, concurred.
“It was absolutely wonderful,” said Bishke.
“We were totally sold out on Saturday, but people that were traveling from Calgary couldn’t get out because of the weather.”
Malcolm Fischer, who played the role of the evil sheriff, believes that Desperate Ambrose was one of the greatest plays he has ever had the pleasure of being in.
“Every practice was fun. The show was fun. The play never felt like it became a second job,” said Fischer.
“Jane Shepherd did a great job of directing the play. She’s got a great sense of humour. We all had fun together.”
According to Fischer, the plot of the play, being just on the boundary between silly and funny, was sometimes tough to be up against, but he thinks it came up well.
Meanwhile, Shepherd was happy but and very thankful for the volunteers’ help.
“The play couldn’t have been done without them,” said Shepherd.
Shepherd has decided that it would be her last play direction, but as she has said that before and Desperate Ambrose was her fourth play, H.A.T.S. members are confident they’ll be able to convince her otherwise in the future.
H.A.T.S. has already planned their next production
“We’ll do a fall production in the first week of November. It will be Oklahoma! and it’s going to be great,” said Bishke.
“We don’t have too many details yet, but we did mention it in our program.”