New West ready to help audiences get ‘Wonderstruck’
By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on August 4, 2023.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com New West Theatre is kicking off its new season with a show that promises to transport audiences to a world of wonder.During a media call Thursday, New West Theatre artistic director and director of the show, Kelly Reay said their new show “Wonderstruck” is bringing back the troupe’s famous mixture of music and comedy.
“With this one we’re really taking the notion of wonder and dreaming and the infinite possibilities of the stars, of the vastness of space,” said Reay.
 He said New West has a space and stars theme set and a lot of the songs in the show explore dreams and possibility.
 “We spent so much time over the last few years, over the pandemic, focusing on immediate needs and what we need immediately, that we didn’t have a lot of time to dream and wonder. So in this show we’re really trying to focus on possibilities rather than immediate need.”
Reay said this is the first show of the New West season and over the next nine to 10 months they have a variety of shows to offer to the public.
“After this show we’re offering a Canadian Indigenous play called “Honour Beat,” which is a kind of a boutique theatre piece, and then at Christmas time we’re doing something exciting and new. We’re doing a co-production with the Enmax Centre of “Elf – The musical,” which is based on the very well-known Will Ferrell movie,” said Reay.
 He said after that, in February New West is staging another rock’n’roll show called “Legends of Rock and Country.”
Reay say they are sticking to their music and comedy combination since it is something that has worked for them for the last 35 years.
“There’s something about this formula – this is actually our 35th year of producing theatre in the region, which is remarkable on its own, and we built an audience over those 35 years who’ve come to love the variety show that we do,” said Reay.
 Reay believes the reason why the formula works is because of the talented performers New West is able to showcase on stage.
 “I can’t speak highly enough about how talented these guys are, and how lucky we are here in Lethbridge to have these artists make their home here and perform here,” said Reay.
 One of those performers, who has been with New West Theatre for over 30 years is Scott Carpenter. He said Thursday that he always has a blast during rehearsals because the cast is very fun to work with.
 “These are very funny people, very fun to work with, but at this point we’re just chomping at the bit to get in front of an actual audience, so we’re excited,” said Carpenter.
 He said “Wonderstruck” has a lot of great music that he absolutely loves, which includes 1970s tunes from Stevie Wonder as well as some goofy comedy that he is looking forward to.
 “We hear from the community all the time, people stop me on the street all the time, and it’s amazing the stories people tell me how much they love coming to the shows, how it can take them away from what they might be having a hard time in their life with and they can come here for two hours and just laugh, and smile, and enjoy themselves,” said Carpenter. Follow @APulidoHerald on Twitter 4
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