Western Canada Theatre has one production left before it wraps up another season in the Tournament Capital.
Motown Get Down is running until Sunday at the Pavilion Theatre.
WCT Spokesperson Kirk Smith says it is a familiar face who is back again in 2025. “Motown Get Down is Krystle Dos Santos, who is a performer from Vancouver. She’s been here the last two seasons in a row. She did a show called Hey Viola, which was about Viola Desmond, and it sort of took us through the history of the civil rights movement in Canada and wove that through story and song of that era. And then last year she she did Black Canadian women in history.”
“This one, of course, is, you know, she talks a lot about Motown and and Detroit, Motor City and, and this one’s, I’d say, a little bit more loose. As far as the history aspect of things, she really gets into some of her, her original songs, and she does some Tina Turner that wasn’t Motown, but it’s just, you know, it’s a it’s a party, it’s a concert, and you get some, some great little snippets of stories as well.”
Smith says this show was actually sold out a couple of months ago, but there is still an opportunity to go. “If people are looking to go and see Motown Get Down, we have our pay what you choose matinees on Saturdays. So we release tickets on our website. So we release a handful of online tickets at midnight, and then we have tickets that are released just a couple of hours before the show at the door. And then people get to sort of select how much they’re able to pay for that.”
After Motown Get Down wraps up its performance schedule on Sunday May 4th, Smith says attention will instantly turn to next year when WCT celebrates its Golden Anniversary in Kamloops. “We’re really excited about this 50th anniversary season is going to be, you know, we’ve, we spent a lot of time putting together an all Canadian lineup of shows, which I know a lot of people are really excited about we’ve been sort of teasing that in our pre show speeches at the shows for the last couple months.”
“We always try to include new works and something with a local flair. But to be able to say all of our shows next season are our Canadian is really exciting. That’s a fun teaser. So on the 29th of May, we’re going to sort of be talking to media and sponsors and donors and things like that, and we’re going to be giving a sort of sneak peek at that season. And then on the 30th everything will be live on social media and on our website, and people will be able to start renewing their sponsors or their subscriptions, or buying subscriptions.”
In terms of how season 49 has gone, Smith called it an amazing year. “It’s it’s just so great to see how engaged the community is and and how excited people get about the shows. We get excited to do them, and, you know, we’ve had record numbers of subscribers. We’ve had tons of people buying tickets to the shows, and it’s just great to see. And we hope people continue to support, and we’re looking forward to the next season to come.”
