Operation Cherry Blossom seeds new Osoyoos theatre group

By Don Urquhart

Leveraging the success of last January’s Double “D” Diner theatre production, local playwright Jim Dinwoodie has written a sequel with many of the original characters and actors alongside some newbies, returning for a “part deux”. 

While the first installment revolved around the antics of the staff and clientele of the local diner, this reprise – Double “D” Diner: Operation Cherry Blossom (directed by Angie Stuart) – will see the eclectic gang embark on an adventure of sorts.

Dinwoodie explains the teaser was dropped at the end of January’s show when a voice-over announced, “Good afternoon gentleman, Operation Cherry Blossom is a go,” at which point one of the characters Phil – suspected by his diner compatriots as being a spy – bolted from the diner as the curtains fell.

It was both “a bit of cliffhanger ending”, Dinwoodie explains, “and if people liked the first show, then the door would be open for doing the second show.”

As it turns out the three shows that were put on with support from Oliver’s South Okanagan Amateur Players Society (SOAP), were a smashing success and, hold on to your seats, actually made money – something that is quite far from normal in the amateur theatre world. After all the expenses were deducted the profit amounted to $4,300 – not quite in the realm of Come From Away, but certainly a very respectable net profit for three shows by an amateur troop.

This year Dinwoodie, a Rotarian, gained the support of the Osoyoos Rotary Club to sponsor the show, important for covering the mundane costs of renting rehearsal and performance space, props and a whole myriad of items that all add up quickly.

But the flip side is that all the profits of the show will go back to Rotary as a fundraising event who will then donate the money to the Oncology Clinic at the Penticton Regional Hospital.

Fundraising efforts are in full force on many fronts to help expedite the $22 million capital investment needed to modernize and double the capacity of the oncology department that serves the South Okanagan region.

He acknowledges that this is relatively new territory for Rotary, best known for its labour-intensive fundraising efforts like Lobsters on the Beach, pancake breakfasts, and beer gardens. “I thought this was an opportunity to do something a little out of the box and get our little theatre company up and running,” Dinwoodie says.

This is the other interesting angle to the story, as the latest Double “D” Diner installment marks the chrysalis of a new Osoyoos-based theatre company. Dinwoodie has officially formed a non-profit theatre company called “Oasis” which stands for Osoyoos Actors Studio Inclusive Society.

“We’ve created our own little theatre company that will be able to bring theatre back to Osoyoos,” he enthuses.

Although SOAP has a long and respected heritage producing theatrical productions out of Oliver’s Venables Theatre, they don’t have a substantial interest in coming to Osoyoos, Dinwoodie says. Without getting into details he says it involves some theatrical trauma from a production in Osoyoos a decade ago that left a distinctly sour taste in SOAP’s mouth. This is not fair to the theatre-loving residents of Osoyoos, he feels.

While holding their talent and productions in high esteem, the bottom line is that their theatre productions just won’t ever come to Osoyoos, “so we created Oasis,” he adds.

As far as Dinwoodie understands, there has not been a theatre company in Osoyoos for a very long time, “certainly not in recent memory”. He has himself been in two SOAP productions and he was involved in theatre in Edmonton, “back in the day”.

This upcoming production features many of the original cast members along with some new additions, who are cutting their theatrical teeth on this production.

This time around the nascent theatre company will do five shows, all at the Osoyoos Secondary School (OSS) Community Theatre with the hope of selling at least 100 tickets for each show. “That would be great,” Dinwoodie expresses.

Without slipping too far into spoiler alert territory Dinwoodie says there will be a drunken bridal party at a vineyard (unlike the first show, a substantial part of this one takes place beyond the confines of the diner), a return of the ski bum, evil henchmen, criminal mastermind, money laundering and gun running.

And just to highlight the fact the cast doesn’t take itself too seriously, there’s even a self-referential “who writes this stuff, anyway?” thrown in for good measure.

Dinwoodie says the second installment didn’t take nearly as long as the first, all told about a month of on-again, off-again writing, all depending on the creative mood of course.

This one is also shorter than the first, “the other one, sometimes it was too much dialogue. I tried to make this one a little livelier, more action and stuff like that. So, we’re still playing shamelessly on slapstick comedy at times, there is still a fight scene in the show and there are guns involved,” he laughs.

And like the first installment, this one leaves the door open for a possible trilogy.

I like comedies and when you bring theatre to the community I think people want to see comedy.” Shakespeare’s Hamlet just wouldn’t pull the crowds he says, “and to be honest we’re not that good, we’d never pull off Hamlet!”

With a pool of only 5,000 people to draw from he notes it’s a challenge to cast the characters. “It’s really hard to find people who are willing to put in the time and the effort to actually commit to coming up and rehearsing this week after week. There are a lot of lines, this play is like 65 pages long, so there are a lot of words, so it’s quite a commitment.

“Those people that come out, once you found them it’s nice to try and keep them as much as you can, keep them engaged as much as possible.” This is partly why he did the second instalment because he could keep many of the cast members from the first one.

“And pull in some new people to supplement them. So we’re taking that core and kind of building on it. We will not always do something that I wrote – they’re nice plays but you know, I’m never gonna win a Pulitzer . . . I think,” he laughs.

“They’re cute, they’re charming plays they’re not supposed to be Shakespeare, they’re meant to be a fun night out for the community and a chance to enjoy some light entertainment. It’s live theatre and you rarely see that here unless we do it.”

And part of Oasis’ commitment is an openness to producing plays written by locals. “We’re quite willing if you have an idea for a play let us know. When we’re done with this, we will have time to sit down and get organized. If you have an idea for a play bring it to us if you wrote it,” he says.

“We’re just trying to provide a nice evening’s entertainment for local people, and we’re doing it for a good cause and it’s only $20. You’ve spent $20 on worse things,” he adds with a laugh.

Double “D” Diner: Operation Cherry Blossom will be held at the Osoyoos Secondary School (OSS) Community Theatre, 5800 115 St, Osoyoos.

Five shows will be performed as follows:

• Friday, Nov. 24 at 7:30 p.m.
• Saturday, Nov 25 at 7:30 p.m.
• Sunday, Nov 26 at 2:30 p.m.
• Friday, Dec 1 at 7:30 p.m.
• Saturday, Dec. 2 at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are available at the Happy Paper Parlor, Jojo’s, Home Hardware, Solterra Spa, Tumbleweed’s Distillery, Studio 23, Young & Wyse, or by emailing [email protected].