The Camping Guy about to make a comeback

“The Camping Guy” is back.

Regina Little Theatre, a non-profit community theatre company, has requested the performing rights to the one-act comedy “The Camping Guy” written by Shaunavon author Dianne Greenlay.

‘It was quite a thrill when they contacted me,” said Greenlay. “It certainly wasn’t anything I was expecting – it’s just something that came out of the blue.”

Regina Little Theatre plans to perform the play during its one-act cabaret over two nights (Oct. 24-25) at the Regina Performing Arts Centre.

The Regina theatre company has also approached Greenlay about performing the play at TheatreOne, a three-day provincial drama competition of one-act plays.  This year’s TheatreOne festival will be held in Strasbourg Nov. 13-15.

“It will be a whole lot of fun to see the play come to life again,” said Greenlay.

“As a playwright, you always love to see your plays produced on stage,” she added. “Hopefully, it will get a little added recognition and other community groups will be interested in doing it.”

Regina Little Theatre is a non-profit community theatre company dedicated to providing creative opportunities for amateur performers and backstage personnel.  RLT is operated by and for volunteers and has the proud distinction of being the oldest continuously-producing, English-speaking theatre company in Western Canada. In Canada, only Ottawa Little Theatre has a longer history, although OLT operates with a mix of volunteers and paid personnel.

Greenlay says “The Camping Guy” is perfectly suited for competition because of its easy changes and small set requirements. She also says the play can be easily adapted into a two-act presentation.

Greenlay wrote “The Camping Guy” during the Christmas holidays of 2003.

The original play starred local actors Norm Lavoy and Mike Greenlay as two mismatched campers on a weekend retreat. Reminiscent of television’s and theater’s The Odd Couple, “The Camping Guy” follows the misadventures of Earl, an experienced woodsman, and Johnson, his inept city slicker client, as they spend a camping weekend in the wilds of the Rockies. What was intended to be a de-stressing weekend soon turns into a distressing one, as these two mismatched campers find themselves engaged in unintended and hilarious situations.

More than 250 people poured into the Plaza Theatre when the comedy had its first public performance in July of 2004. The lineup to buy tickets – which were only available at the door for the play’s debut – extended down Centre Street and around the block.

The play was later performed in front of a sold out crowd at Eastend’s T.rex Centre. The performers also enjoyed a successful run at the Swift Current Fringe Festival.

Last year, Greenlay published “The Camping Guy” in both a short story form and as a one-act play.

Greenlay also recently learned that her second novel, “Deadly Misfortune,” was awarded the silver medal in Book of the Year (Adult Mystery Category) by Foreword Reviews. Foreword is a huge online site for authors, booksellers and librarians from across the United States.

The award winners were announced at the American Library Association’s Annual Conference in Las Vegas in June.

Representing hundreds of independent and university presses of all sizes, award winners were selected after months of editorial deliberation over more than 1,500 entries in 60 categories.

This year’s list of winners includes Garrison Keillor, Barry Lopez, Harvard Business Review, Georgia Museum of Art, B&H Publishing, Rizzoli Publishing, SUNY Press, Loyola University Press, Chicago Review Press, Valentine D’Arcy Sheldon, and Wayne State University Press, among others. The winners exemplify the best work coming from today’s indie authors and publishers.

Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Honorable Mention awards, as well as Editor’s Choice Prizes for Fiction and Nonfiction, were determined by a panel of librarians and booksellers in conjunction with Foreword’s editorial staff.

Greenlay published her debut novel, “Quintspinner:  A Pirate’s Quest”, in 2011. The book, a high-seas adventure set in the 1770s, also garnered multiple international awards in Best Young Adult, Best Commercial, and Best Historical categories.

“Deadly Misfortune,” the second in the series, started where Quintspinner ended.

Here’s a small sample of what readers will find in the book:

“Tess Willoughby and William Taylor have lived through worse times: they didn’t drown in the shipwreck that brought them to this island, and they survived a harrowing escape from the hands of a vicious pirate crew. So far they have prevented anything from separating them.

But when torn apart by a tragic accident, Tess is forced to rely on the powers of three strange rings. In her quest to be reunited with William, Tess stands to lose everything – love, family, trust, happiness, and even her life – as the remaining rings, now awoken, toss both Tess and William into the path of a psychotic killer.”

All of Greenlay’s books are available online in e-book and print book form and print copies can be purchased at the Shaunavon Physio Therapy Clinic.

Get More The Shaunavon Standard →