Medalta on Strike showing twice Thursday

By Mo Cranker on July 23, 2018.

mcranker@medicinehatnews.com @MHNmocranker

Less than one year ago James Johnson and some colleagues ran through the very first reading of his play “Medalta on Strike.”

The play will have two full showings Thursday at the Historic Clay District.

“It’s very exciting for me, and for all of us to see this come to life,” said Johnson. “What’s even better is that we’re able to put the show on at Medalta, where all of this was taking place.

“It’s going to be the two shows in one day, and we hope people can come out and learn a bit of history about Medalta.”

The play chronicles the 1947 strike at Medalta, that saw employees leave work for 72 days. Johnson put together the script using archives and old newspaper articles, and says it is very historically accurate.

“It’s more of a documentary than a play,” he said. “I went back and looked at a lot of old documents and old articles from the Medicine Hat News.

“I took all of this information and molded it in dramatic fashion — I added characters as a through line, but everything that is said in public in the play is very historically accurate.”

Randy Follett has been with the play since last year and says it is great to see it get some time in the spotlight.

“I was looking for a project based on Medalta, so when I heard about this, it was perfect,” he said. “This is an exciting play because it is a local story and it is still very relevant.

“A lot of the issues that are looked at in this play, that were important back then, are still very important to this day.”

The show will take place in different parts of Medalta with the audience following along as the play goes on. Johnson says there is a max capacity for each audience of 40-50 people for each show.

For more information go to http://www.medalta.org/onstrike/

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