For Whitehorse-based theatre artist Brian Fidler, the desire to perform dates way back.
“I can trace it to third grade,” he says. “Our teacher would get us to read stories we’d written in front of the class and I loved getting a reaction.”
Shortly thereafter he knew he had to make it in the theatre industry or die trying.
“I made a vow to myself that this is what I would do with my life,” says Fidler.
And that’s exactly what he’s done.
Since moving to Whitehorse in 1998, Fidler has been involved in a string of successful theatre projects including the puppet show Cam and Legs, the burlesque cabaret Varietease, and his highly personal Broken, about Alzheimer’s disease. He also directed the (cough, cough) critically acclaimed play Syphilis: A Love Story.
Then there’s Sci-fi Double Feature, which Fidler and co-creator Edward Westerhuis of Surrey, B.C. will be taking to Ottawa this spring as part of Northern Scene.
Sci-fi includes “Attack of the Slime-a-Trons,” about an intergalactic alien invasion and “Last Day on Earth,” a time-travel epic about the search for a three-headed dinosaur. Itwas first mounted in December 2011, and then again earlier this month.
“It’s a cardboard puppet show,” says Fidler.
But it’s more than that.
Fidler allows the audience to watch the puppeteers create the piece, but the final product is also simultaneously filmed and projected for viewers.
It is a “making of” documentary and a feature presentation in unison.
“I was watching a ton of these old sci-fi films,” he says. “But then I started to wonder what it would be like to peek behind the scenes at how they are made,” Fidler says.”It’s been fun to put together and its appeal has been very broad.”
