Click Play to see who won our Get Happy 2 Free Tickets Contest! And don’t worry if you didn’t win, you can still come by clicking HERE to get your own tickets for opening night (or any other night you please!) Get Happy opens July 6th at the Mae Wilson Theatre & closes July 14th!!!!
While hanging out with our very accomplished chum, Kelly Anne Riess, we realized she would be a great Get Happy TV guest. She is the author of the bestselling books I Love Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Book of Everything as well as the poetry collection To End a Conversation, which was featured on CBC and the Writers Almanac with Garrison Keillor. Find out more about Kelly at her website kellyanneriess.com
Moose Jaw’s own Rob Carnie – of 800 CHAB – invited me over to his backyard on a beautiful spring day to talk about the things that make him happy. If we can convince this hockey lover to come out and take in some musical theatre, we can convince you, too, right?!
In less than 2 months, we will open Get Happy.
And we have so much to accomplish between now and then, that it makes my little blond head swim.
But I wanted to take the time to also thank the universe for all the amazing stuff that has already unfolded. We’ve had angels come out of the woodwork already to help make Get Happy a success. An anonymous angel bought tickets for us to give away, even though she lives in SOUTH AMERICA. Two other gentlemen, who I did not know previous to this, have become the show’s biggest advocates…being both supportive on our less-than-confident days, and pro-active in promoting the poop out of our show. We’ve had fellow artists step up and film Get Happy TV episodes with us, local politicians retweet our posts & tell us they’ll be in attendance…Cornerstone School here in Moose Jaw has given us rehearsal space for free for a couple of days where our original space had conflicts. A friend of mine gave us her portable piano to use until opening so that we could rehearse where ever we wanted. The MJCC has allowed us to use pieces of set and costume free of charge, and Mandy in their marketing office has supported all our efforts ten fold. We’ve had big corporations like Mosaic Potash and Solvera Inc. buy big groups of tickets, awesome strangers from far away purchase tickets using our PayPal service (I wondered if anyone would use that method!), a community theatre group in Regina lend us 1930s phones & small businesses all over Moose Jaw take our posters and rack cards to put up in their storefronts.
We’ve even been invited to be the co-hosts for Canada Day, and sing Oh Canada at Millers baseball games, amongst other invites to community events in June. I am so grateful to all the people that help out, to the audience that is buying tickets early, to my husband for putting up with my incredibly Type A driven personality, and to all that has unfolded serendipitously since our official announcement on March 1st. I’m also very proud of myself, because I continue to pursue this project, even when, on so many days, I feel more afraid than I ever have before.
It’s almost enough to say that the show is ALREADY a success.
But there is still so much to accomplish. I even did a visioning session with myself while here on Pender Island, where I am staying the week for work on a different project. I wrote down 14 goals that I wanted to manifest with Get Happy. And I promise you I will do all that I can and know how to do to brings those goals to fruition.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. For everything.
All you have to do is go to our Facebook Page, leave your favourite song in the comments under the video post, and hope people vote for your submission. The most LIKES by May 31st wins 2 free tickets:-)
You can watch the video here if you want details, but you gotta go to the Facebook Page to leave your submission & enter to win!
Hailing all the way from backstage at the Chemainus Theatre Festival’s Noises Off, is Mr. Willey with his ever-funny cast mate Kirk Smith. Find out what Kirk does to Get Happy!
We love an amazing video response!! After Henrietta in Episode #9 showed us all about what she does to GET HAPPY, Jackie The Dog wanted to chime in, too.
One of our shortest – but funniest – webisodes to date! KJ visits the Moose Jaw Humane Society, and asks one of the shelter’s residents – Henrietta – what she does to Get Happy. We’re pretty sure getting adopted by a great family is on that list!
After a very successful run of Noises Off in February, Leon was able to come back home to Moose Jaw and do some work on Get Happy. But, as my husband is wont to do, he was off again a few weeks later. This time, to remount the same show with a different theatre company.
Leon, as Freddie, with the marvellous Anita Wittenberg, as Belinda in Western Canada Theatre's production of Noises Off
Tonight, Leon opens Noises Off with the theatre company responsible for us falling in love…the Chemainus Theatre Festival. And, on Sunday, after I close Don & Debby at Applause, I will drive out to the Island and join him for the month.
It is going to be hard being away from Moose Jaw in the midst of all the buzz and happenings unfolding with Get Happy, but this will be the first time since 2007, that Leon and I will be together in Chemainus. Last time we were there, we were playing the leading roles in Anything Goes, and fell in love. One year to the day we met in Chemainus, we married.
And, now, this summer, we are telling another 1930s love story – albeit a story that I wrote myself. But this time I will tell the love story with my husband. So, to spend time in Chemainus right before opening Get Happy feels…perfect. I look forward to seeing Noises Off (remember his great TV interview in February?), and to getting my Live Out Loud Theatre partner back.
Oh, and to kissing him. But that goes without saying:-)
The romantic leads of Anything Goes in 2007, "practicing" their love scenes backstage:-)
Peacock Collegiate alumnae – myself and my high school friend Leah Constable – hang out in her classroom (she has gone from being IN high school to TEACHING high school) and talk about Gettin’ Happy AND Lyric Theatre’s upcoming music revue Fly Me To The Moon: April 27-29th in Regina, SK:)