New Norm Foster Comedy Hilda’s Yard

Update: Valerie Stewart is the winner of free tickets!

Theatre New Brunswick’s Main Stage season opens on October 11 with a new world premiere comedy by beloved playwright Norm Foster. Hilda’s Yard follows the story of one ordinary family on one ordinary day in 1956 as empty-nesters Sam and Hilda Fluck discover their nest’s not so empty after all.

“In 1983 a Fredericton radio host premiered his first play on the TNB Main Stage. Today he’s Canada’s most-produced playwright,” says Artistic Producer Caleb Marshall who also directs the premiere. “We couldn’t be more proud of Norm and we’re thrilled to bring him home with the premiere of this tender family comedy.”

Norm Foster’s plays receive an average of 150 productions annually. Of his nearly 50 scripts, Hilda’s Yard marks the eighth to premiere at Theatre New Brunswick, opening 15 years to the day since his last TNB world premiere.

“I was a child of the fifties. The fifties had an innocence. The sixties had The Beatles. And I became a teenager,” says Foster. “Writing Hilda’s Yard was a way for me to climb back into that fifties world that I loved so much. I enjoyed revisiting that time and I hope audiences will too.”

Marshall, who is also directing the production, says he thinks people of all ages can see themselves in Foster’s new work.

“Norm and his audience have grown up together and I love that in Hilda’s Yard the younger generations are able to see themselves through their parents’ or grandparents’ eyes. For children of the 1950s it offers a chance to revisit their youth but also to see the world through their parents’ eyes,” says TNB’s Artistic Producer. “For younger audiences, it’s the revelation that despite the arrival of rock and roll, free love, disco and the internet, the issues of parents and kids trying to understand one another aren’t that different today than they were then.”

New Brunswick native Patricia Vanstone stars in the title role along with TNB audience favourites Sam Rosenthal (Skin Flick) and Gordon Gammie (The 39 Steps). Hilda’s Yard marks the TNB debut for actors Jonathan Gould, Perrie Olthuis and Jane Spence.

Helping transport the audience to Hilda’s Yard on a September day in 1956 are sets by award-winning TNB Resident Set & Costume Designer Patrick Clark (The Musical of Musicals, The 39 Steps, Hockey Dreams, Treasure Island), costumes by TNB Wardrobe Mistress Sherry Kinnear (Oleanna, Wizard of Oz, A Doll’s House), lighting design by Chris Saad (The Dollar Woman, Feelgood, Doubt) and sound design by award-winning TNB Resident Composer and Sound Designer Michael Doherty (Oleanna, The 39 Steps, Hockey Dreams, Treasure Island).

Hilda’s Yard runs at The Fredericton Playhouse, October 11-14, 2012
Adults $40 | McCain Student Ticket $10

Tickets at The Fredericton Playhouse Box Office 1 866 884-5800 or www.tnb.nb.ca

WIN TICKETS! We’ve got two free tickets to give away to the matinee performance of Hilda’s Yard on October 14th at 2pm. To enter leave a comment below telling us which TNB performance you’re most looking forward to seeing this 2012-2013 season. We’ll draw a winner on Wednesday October 10th. Good luck!