The tradition continues

BY MARC LALONDE

marc.lalonde@transcontinental.ca

If it’s springtime, it’s got to be Becket Players time.

And 2007 is no exception. The venerable Becket Players Way off Broadway and Cabaret production, which runs a month out of the year — as it has for more than three decades — will once more take to

the stage this spring at the Dollard Ci-

vic Centre to raise money for children’s

charities.

It’s a year’s worth of backbreaking work, and a month of lost weekends, sweating, lifting, waiting tables, changing scenery and costumes, tending bar and performing - all for charity.

And those involved wouldn’t have it any other way.

Thirty-two years of shows. Thirty-two years of blood, sweat and tears on the stage and off. Thirty-two years of raising money for Montreal-area children’s charities.

“What always gets me is there are literally hundreds of volunteers doing anything they can to put on the show,” said board of directors member in charge of publicity Richard Malo. In fact, the number is somewhere between 350 and 600 volunteers on any given night.

“It’s just such an incredible feeling to put this (show) on,” he said.

The production starts April 21 and runs every Friday and Saturday night for three weeks. Tickets are $25 and $10.

Many of the Way off Broadway and Cabaret volunteers can boast decades of devotion to the Becket Players mission, Malo added.

“I’ve been around since the late ‘80s. I started out backstage and they haven’t been able to get rid of me,” he joked. “I’m a relative newcomer, too.”

The challenge, he said, is to come up with fresh, high-energy show that is always fun but different enough to get the audience back year after year.

“We try to keep it fresh every year and change the stage layout for the Cabaret — we try to do that every year to give people something different,” he said.

Pointe Claire resident Angie Branston is choreographing the Cabaret. In her 10th year with Becket Players, she won’t be dancing in the show as usual because she’s pregnant.

“For me, it’s the people that are the big reason I keep coming back. It’s almost like a second family for me. In the end, we meet a lot of people. It ends up being a great way to raise money for children who need it,” she said.

The Becket Players have raised more than $3.1 million for charity over the years.

These days, while her compatriots work on selling tickets, Branston is finalizing costumes for the Cabaret dancers — and loving every minute of it.

“It’s a dedicated group. People here really know what it’s all about,” she said.

To purchase tickets for the Becket Players Way off Broadway and Cabaret 2007 production, call 514-979-3029.쇓