Be careful if you’re in and around the Richmond Night Market over the next four Saturdays — you might find yourself spontaneously bursting into dance or getting dragged on stage.
That’s if Richmond performer/director Susan Skemp has anything to do with it, when the curtains open on her Richmond Canada 150 show on July 8.
Skemp successfully bid to the City of Richmond to put on a series of performances worthy of the city’s Canada 150 celebrations, with the help of the Richmond Arts Coalition
Come Saturday, she will launch the first of four shows, which will see a local community group take to the stage to entertain the Richmond Night Market crowd for the first half hour.
The remaining hour of the show will see Skemp and her cast perform a set of Canadian-born and bred songs, with some history, laughter and audience participation thrown in for good measure.
“It’s a celebration of Canada, with only singing and music by Canadian artists that pretty much stayed in Canada,” Skemp told the Richmond News.
“I picked music that people will want to dance to and there’s a tiny bit of history in there, as well as some clean humour.
“I guarantee we won’t offend anyone, hopefully there will be lots of groans and chuckles.”
Dragging people on stage and heading out into the audience is also on the menu, said Skemp, who held auditions in Steveston, which attracted a fair amount of local talent, some amateur, some professional.
“I had to come up with a script, costumes and auditions,” added Skemp, who has been performing for 52 years, since she was three-years-old.”
“I’m used to performing alone and having other people arranging all of that stuff. This is my first time doing something on this scale.”
“And, I tell you, it’s been a lot of work, but it’s also been a ton of fun.”
Performance dates are: July 8; July 15, July 22 and July 29; show times are 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., all at the Richmond Night Market’s main stage, 8351 River Road.
