Sarasvàti Productions is gearing up for its third annual So You Think You Can Act (SYTYCA) fundraiser, an event which allows the local theatre company to make FemFest and other productions a reality each year.

“We were really looking to something that could be a fun fundraiser because our mandate surrounds promoting social change and a lot of the work we do deals with heavy topics,” says Sarasvàti artistic director Hope McIntyre, 40.

“We just wanted to put together a night where our supporters could come out and have a great time… We came up with the idea of parodying reality TV shows that have been popular over the years. We do ask our judges to be kind of silly with their commentary and we talk about who’s the Simon and who’s the Paula [former American Idol judges] to try and have more fun with it.”

The topic of this year’s SYTYCA is revolution, a theme that connects with Sarasvàti’s season.

“What we do is we brainstorm in the office based on the theme, which was hard with revolution this year, it’s hard to find humorous scenes, but we came up with a bunch and then we sent each celebrity three scenes that they ended up choosing from,” McIntyre says.

The year’s seven celebrity participants, who will be paired with local actors, are stand-up comedian Big Daddy Tazz, Alison Gillmor from the Winnipeg Free Press, radio and television producer/host Jim Ingebrigsten, Eva Kovacs from Global Morning News, Kris Laudien from CTV Morning Live and former Winnipeg Blue Bombers Troy Westwood and Obby Khan.

At the end of the night the audience will pick one winner alongside the three judges, which include local actor/playwright Sharon Bajer, Theatre Projects Manitoba artistic director Ardith Boxall and Kevin Klassen from Shakespeare in the Ruins.

Kerri Salki from 102.3 Clear FM won SYTYCA last year while Ace Burpee from 103.1 Virgin Radio was the winner in 2012. He will be returning as the emcee for this year’s event.

Big Daddy Tazz will be playing the role of Simon in Kiss the Moon, Kiss the Sun by Canadian playwright Norm Foster. Tazz will be joined by University of Winnipeg honours theatre student Elizabeth Whitbread, who plays Holly during a scene in the play where she discovers she’s pregnant.

“Acting terrifies me a little bit, but it’s no different than getting up and making them laugh I suppose,” Tazz, who also MC’d the event’s first instalment, says.

“I think it’s mostly because I’m not good at following scripts. Most of the stuff I do onstage is improv or stuff I’ve already thought about in my head. To follow someone else’s words is different from what I normally do, but I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

Published in Volume 68, Number 20 of The Uniter (February 13, 2014)