Over a year ago, a group of CFBX volunteers ventured into the streets of Kamloops for a single purpose: To interview residents from Kamloops’ most niche and underserved communities not often featured in mainstream media, and get them to tell their life stories.

These stories (which are currently being aired on CFBX every Wednesday at 9 a.m. and Thursday at 11 p.m.) have since been adapted into theatre performances, which are now in production at the TRU Actors Workshop.

Doing this project was no easy task, especially when a project of this kind has never been done in Kamloops before, or many other cities in Canada for that matter. But thanks to the talents of Christopher Weddell and Leo Barragan, who adapted these interviews into stage plays, as well as director Wesley Eccleston, the TRU acting students, and several actors and actresses from within the Kamloops community, this task has become a remarkable success.

The theatre performance lasts three hours long, which is believable considering that over 120 residents in Kamloops were interviewed for the project, covering over 30 hours of recorded material. The performance is taking place over six nights on the last two Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays of November, and each night the performance is repeated in its entirety.

For its opening night on Thursday November 21st, approximately 50 people were in attendance, some of whom were the storytellers themselves watching their own life stories unfold in front of their very own eyes. Some of the storytellers were even playing themselves – such as local actress Dylana Williams, and TRU students Prince Smith and Camille Pomerleau.

The theatre performance was broken up into little vignettes of five to ten minute scenes which pulled on all sorts of emotions ranging from humour, love and grief, to hope, inspiration, and the importance of community. Most of the scenes pointed out Kamloops’ many successes, such as the evolution of its LGBTQPIA+ community from decades ago, its abundance of nature, and its friendly university professors. But the authenticity of its poutine? Not so much.

Kamloops-based audience members may recognize some familiar names like local musician Daniel Cinel, David “Pup” Johnston (owner of the Blue Grotto), and Troylana Manson of Moms Stop The Harm. Some popular Kamloops activities were mentioned as well, such as suntanning in Pioneer Park, shopping for bras on Victoria Street, climbing to the tops of mountains near TRU, or local LGBTQPIA+ events like Pride Parade and Rebellious Unicorns.

The performance starts off with the actors and actresses crouching towards the painted confluence of the Thompson Rivers on the stage floor, and was the first off many scenes featuring a kaleidoscope of colours, movement and interactivity, so much so that the audience never knew which direction to look in as the scenes moved from one to the next. Each scene name was displayed on the two rectangular projection screens hanging above the stage, which at times showed videos and photos sent from the storytellers for their own scenes.

Although timid at first, the audience eventually started applauding after each scene, starting with the emotional story of a South Sudanese war refugee Madelene Kajusa (played by Chido Dube). They laughed out loud at scenes with stories of biker bar brawls, Ninjutsu trainings, Kamloops’ notoriously late buses, and how a newcomer to the city had to Google where Kamloops was on a map before arriving here. They also sat in stunned silence when hearing reflections of trauma from the 2023 Shuswap fires by actor Trystin Allent (originally told by Tim Conrad), and the drug epidemic by actress Jordan Jackson (originally told by Troylana Manson).

Although some scenes seemed to range in topic (discussing how gardening can help with depression, the importance of understanding nature in our community, and how Al Pacino inspired a local actor to get over his stammering), some scenes really hit the nail on the head in terms of the purpose of the project, which was to highlight Kamloops’ ever-evolving cultural diversity.

Local transgender woman Dylana Williams discussed how the LGBTQPIA+ community has evolved in Kamloops positively over the past few decades, but the city still has a lot of work to do in terms of transphobia (specifically on public transportation) and gender neutral bathrooms.

“Change is hard for people,” she said, “but sometimes, I just really need to pee.”

And truer words have never been spoken.

To purchase your tickets to the Storied Voices theatre performance, visit
https://www.tru.ca/arts/departments/literatures-languages-performing-arts/theatre/production.html